In a 31-20 vote, the Hawaii state house passed a civil unions bill last night, just hours before the legislative session ended for the year.  The bill would provide unmarried same-sex and straight couples with the same rights and benefits as married couples.

Since the bill was already approved by the state senate in January, the decision to approve or veto the bill now lies in the hands of Gov. Linda Lingle.

The Honolulu Advertiser reports:

Gov. Linda Lingle had urged lawmakers against taking up civil unions this session and to instead focus on the state’s budget deficit. She has not said whether she would sign or veto the bill.

Lingle has 45 days to decide. If she vetoes the bill, the House and Senate can come back in a one-day override session in July.

The vote in the Senate was enough to override a veto, but the vote in the House was not. The House would need 34 votes to override.

The bill’s passage was considered a major leap toward expanding the rights of gay couples in Hawai’i. It was here that national debate on the issue erupted in 1993 in the wake of a historic Hawai’i Supreme Court ruling.

Illinois state representative Deborah Mell, who announced her engagement to her fiancée Christin Baker on Chicago public television Tuesday evening, said she plans to use her personal story on the state house floor.  Mell said she hopes to use her position in Springfield to explain the importance of marriage equality to her colleagues in the state house.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Mell plans to announce her engagement to Christin Baker on the House floor today.

“I want to spend the rest of my life with her, and I want to get married in Illinois,” Mell, D-Chicago, said Tuesday during an interview on WTTW’s ” Chicago Tonight” news program. “I mean, we could go to Iowa, and Iowa’s great … I went to school in Iowa. But you know what? It’s not the state where I represent, and it’s not the state where I grew up in.”

Mell, 41, said she hopes her announcement will spark public discussion about gay marriage in Illinois. Mell is Patti Blagojevich’s sister.

Mell and Baker said that despite their desire to marry in Illinois, they plan to wed in Iowa, one of a handful of states where gay marriage is legal.

Here’s a video of of Rep. Mell’s announcement on WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight.”

Listed in the Providence Journal’s “10 People to Watch in 2010,” out state representative and current majority leader Gordon D. Fox could become the next house speaker, making him one of Rhode Island’s most powerful politicians.

Garnering support from the current speaker, William J. Murphy, Fox, a fierce advocate of marriage equality, must gain enough support from his more moderate colleagues to beat out conservative competition.

In a state that’s home to a governor who opposes even domestic partnerships, Fox’s leadership could prove critical in Rhode Island’s effort to provide equality for its LGBT residents.

The Providence Journal reports:

First elected in November 1992, Fox represents District 4 in the city’s Mount Hope, Summit and Blackstone neighborhoods. He takes particular pride in the passage of a bill he sponsored to ban smoking in nearly all public places in Rhode Island.

Fox recently resigned his seat on the Providence Board of Licenses, but still teaches a human resources class in Johnson & Wales University’s graduate program one night a week. This year could be a good one for another reason: Rhode Island College has chosen him to deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary doctorate from his alma mater at the same ceremony.

It remains unclear when Murphy will step aside, triggering the vote for a new House speaker. But whichever title he holds, Fox says: “Balancing the budget and long-term education reform will be the biggest challenges of 2010.”

His solutions for the state’s unrelenting budget crisis: “Improving our economic development efforts and creating more jobs. We must spend within our means, while also providing for those in need.”

Democrats controlling the Iowa state legislature have confirmed that they will not be putting the April 3, 2009 Iowa Supreme Court ruling up for debate in 2010, despite demands from anti-gay forces in the state.  This means that the ruling, which effectively brought equal marriage to Iowa, can not be overturned any earlier that 2014, reports Bilerico.

Citing a budget deficit and continuing recovery from devastating floods in 2008, Democrats said there simply isn’t time to meddle with the constitution in a tough economy.

Iowa’s state constitution requires that amendments garner approval by two consecutive legislative sessions before going to a public vote.  This difficult amendment process has allowed equal marriage in Iowa to be protected while public support is given time to grow in the state.  A recent poll sites that Iowans are split nearly 50/50 when asked how they would vote on the amendment.

Despite the momentum being in the favor of marriage equality advocates, One Iowa, the states largest LGBT organization, has been working tirelessly to build broad coalitions of support in preparation for 2014.

The Empire State Pride Agenda has released a video regrouping support for marriage equality advocates in New York.  The video features several compelling speakers for marriage equality, including openly lesbian New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who tells a crowd: “The only way we’ve really lost is if we decide the fight is over.  And the fight isn’t over.”

The New York Senate defeated an equal marriage bill earlier this month, despite the bill’s approval in the state house and the support of a governor who vowed to sign it into law.

Here’s the clip, as seen on the Advocate.com: