In many of the states that have waged marriage equality fights recently, opponents have often coalesced around a coalition consisting of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the state’s Catholic conference, and the state’s “family policy council” affiliate of the Family Research Council. In Illinois, however, these typical players have not united in the same way, seemingly in part because the state social conservative group is the Illinois Family Institute (IFI), a hate group in its own right associated with the American Family Association.

IFI’s rhetoric is quite a bit more brazen than what anti-gay groups have used in other states, which may have scared away its would-be allies. As a telling example, NOM posted pictures from an IFI rally last week, but didn’t mention the organization by name nor link to its own post about the rally. Otherwise, NOM’s rhetoric has mostly been limited to threats of retribution against Republicans who might support marriage equality. The Illinois Catholic Conference has issued its own materials opposing marriage equality, and Springfield Bishop Thomas John Paprocki has made his share of negative comments, but there seems to be no coordination with IFI.

Today marks three months since the Illinois Senate passed the marriage equality bill, and with only three weeks left for the House to pass it, here’s a look at some of IFI’s rhetoric that is dominating the opposition:

• Today, IFI posted numerous photos from its rally this weekend, including a sign that reads, “The crime against nature will never be equal.”
• Speakers at the rally included ex-gay advocate Linda Jernigan and another hate group leader, Peter LaBarbera, who told the crowd that homosexuality is “unnatural and wrong,” citing HIV rates among men who have sex with men as evidence of “the dangers of homosexuality.”
• In February, IFI’s Laurie Higgins wrote that gay people shouldn’t even be allowed to teach because they’ll put pictures of their partners on their desk that students will see.
• In fact, IFI believes that parents should pull their children from any classroom that attempts to create a safe environment for LGBT students.
• IFI has claimed gays and lesbians already have equality because they can marry the opposite sex like everyone else; same-sex marriage is thus a demand “to be treated specially.”
• IFI recommends language that demonizes the gay community, encouraging opponents of equality to frame their resistance as compassion.

This extreme rhetoric extends beyond the talking points conservatives have traditionally used in these fights, which tend to focus on supposed protections for children, gender norms, and the institution of marriage. By openly condemning homosexuality as unnatural and curable through therapy — as well as enabling the bullying of LGBT youth — IFI sets itself apart. It remains unclear how many votes short the Illinois House is from passage or what is motivating those opponents, but with IFI’s strong presence in the fight, opponents’ will struggle to deliver a cohesive or approachable argument as the vote approaches.

With Minnesota looking poised to enact marriage equality early next week, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D) is getting restless. In remarks Thursday, he called for the Illinois House of Representatives to follow the state Senate’s lead and enact marriage equality.

Quinn, who endorsed same-sex marriage last May, has been personally lobbying undecided legislators and says supporters are close to the required 60 votes.

After months of delays, Quinn says it is now “time to vote.” He told reporters “it’s important that Illinois and the House of Representatives get moving… I believe a majority exists to get this bill passed through the House onto my desk so I can sign it into law.”

The bill’s chief sponsor, Rep. Greg Harris (D) told the Chicago Tribune that while the House was first focused on a pension reform bill, he believed they were getting closer to the needed majority for his measure. “In the last couple months we have seen the voters of three different states vote for marriage equality at the ballot bot and in the last week we saw two other states, and probably a third today, where the legislature said that treating people equally is the right American thing to do,” he said. “Now the eyes of the country are on Illinois to see if we are going to do the right thing.”

Recent polling showed 50 percent of Illinois voters in support of marriage equality, compared with just 29 percent in opposition. In addition to Quinn, both of the state’s U.S. Senators — Democrat Dick Durbin and Republican Mark Kirk — have endorsed equal marriage.

A source told the Chicago Phoenix that the bill currently has 58 of the necessary 60 votes for passage. The legislative session ends on May 31.

In January, Illinois Republican Chairman Pat Brady began calling lawmakers urging them to support marriage equality. Despite threats from the National Organization for Marriage and fellow Republicans, he stood by his position. Brady then survived three different attempts to oust him from his position, but now he has announced he is stepping down voluntarily for various personal and professional reasons, including his wife’s ongoing battle with ovarian cancer.

The divisions in the party over Brady’s position on same-sex marriage have been considered by some to be a microcosm of the Republican Party’s struggles nationally, particularly its attempt to sugarcoat its anti-gay positions while still embracing them wholeheartedly.

The Illinois House has stalled voting on marriage equality legislation, but Gov. Pat Quinn (D) believes the bill is within “striking distance.” The state’s Senate passed the bill 34-21 back in February.

Today, a second Republican in the Illinois House, Rep. Ed Sullivan Jr., said that he would vote in favor of same-sex marriage:

SULLIVAN: This issue for me … goes to the core of fairness — marriage equality for all people. I think it is in line with … what I believe, and I personally believe it is in line with what our party believes, and that’s trying to treat people with fairness.

I try to err on the side of being a public servant and serving my district as opposed to potentially being a politician and just serving that subset (opposed based on religion) and those within my party who don’t necessarily want this to pass. I look at this as a freedom, as a conservative view of treating people equally.

Sullivan also indicated he believes there are more Republicans who are willing to vote for it. Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady also supports marriage equality and an attempt by the state committee to remove him because of that position failed. U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R) also endorsed same-sex marriage last week.

But the National Organization for Marriage countered Sullivan’s endorsement by doubling down on their threat to bully any Republican who supports marriage equality by campaigning against their re-election. NOM’s president Brian Brown boasted its “successful” retaliation campaign in New York:

BROWN: Any Republican in Illinois who betrays the cause of marriage will be casting a career-ending vote and will be held accountable to their constituents. We will spend whatever it takes — hundreds of thousands of dollars if necessary — to remove them from office, just as we did three of the four turncoat Republican state Senators in New York who were responsible for gay “marriage” passing there. We will not hesitate to support pro-family Democrats to replace them, as our record in New York proves.

But Brown’s depiction of what NOM accomplished in New York is not accurate. NOM challenged four New York Republican senators who supported marriage equality, but after the election, three of those seats were still occupied by supporters of same-sex marriage. What NOM accomplished was helping turn two of those seats over to Democrats. If Republicans in Illinois are concerned about the impact of same-sex marriage on their re-election, they should be less worried about their votes and more worried about NOM’s vindictive retaliation.

The Illinois House of Representatives could vote on same-sex marriage any day now, but it’s unclear if the bill has the votes to pass yet. Marriage equality sponsor Rep. Greg Harris (D) describes the rhetoric as “getting very heated,” and one lawmaker proved that on a radio interview with the Catholic Conference of Illinois. Rep. Jeanne Ives (R) expressed her disappointment that she had to deal with same-sex marriage because “it’s a disordered relationship” and she described gays as trying to “weasel their way into acceptability” and their children as “objects of desire”:

IVES: I didn’t go down there to talk about same-sex marriage… They’re trying to redefine marriage. It’s a completely disordered relationship and when you have a disordered relationship, you don’t ever get order out of that. So I’m more than happy to take a “No” vote on the issue of homosexual marriage. [...]

What they’re trying to do is not just redefine marriage, they’re trying to redefine society. They’re trying to weasel their way into acceptability so that they can then start to push their agenda down into the schools, because this gives them some sort of legitimacy. And we can’t allow that to happen… It’s the natural right of the child to be with both parents, either in an adoptive nature or in a biological nature. To not have a mother and a father is really a disordered state for a child to grow up in and it really makes that child an object of desire rather than the result of a matrimony.

Listen to it (via Jeremy Hooper):

It seems unlikely given her vitriolic comments that Ives has ever met a single same-sex family, which at least gives her the excuse of ignorance about how little she knows about gay people. If she has met such families and seen how loving and supportive they can be, then her comments are nothing short of bigoted.

In early January, Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady spoke out in favor of marriage equality. Despite push-back from conservatives, as well as the National Organization for Marriage, Brady stood by his position. Last week, the state Republican Party’s central committee organized a meeting to consider ousting Brady over his controversial endorsement, but that meeting ended up not happening.

According to the State Journal-Register, the committee canceled that Saturday meeting late on Friday for two reasons: concern that firing Brady would limit the party’s appeal to moderate voters and more importantly, because it became clear that there weren’t enough votes. Apparently there were some members who had concerns about Brady that weren’t related to his position on marriage, but they didn’t want to be associated with the people opposed to him for that.

A recent study found that supporting marriage equality does not endanger Republicans’ chances of re-election, except when other conservatives wage campaigns of vengeance.

A new report from the Williams Institute shows that legalizing same-sex marriage in Illinois could bring as much as $103 million in new spending to the state’s economy within the first three years, including $66 million in just the first year. This estimate is based on how many same-sex couples will marry and the tourism from their visiting friends and family. It does not include out-of-state couples who may also come to the state to wed. State and local coffers could expect to bring in an additional $8.5 million in tax revenue over the first three years.