'Illegitimate children' of Illinois OK after all

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-illegit16.html

SPRINGFIELD -- The word "illegitimate" means illegal or wrong, and those words just aren't fair to describe babies born to unmarried parents, as far as Adrienne Kahn of Wilmette sees it.

So she has persuaded Illinois' powers-that-be to stop calling them that.

A measure awaiting Gov. Blagojevich's signature would strike all references to "illegitimate children" in Illinois' laws concerning adoptions, divorces and inheritance, replacing the words with "child born out of wedlock."

"Children being born today have enough to deal with. Why label them?" said Kahn, who admitted she "went a little nuts" when she first realized last summer the term is still used and started calling legislators asking for the change.

[rodeodance]

1. "replacing the words with "child born out of wedlock."--yee Gawds!!

which is worse!! this plays up to the Religious right. my god!!

[trotsky]

5. No kidding.

How about just "children", folks? Eh?

[rodeodance]

6. 35%-IL state stats--are this children. Yes, just call them kids--what is

the purpose of putting them in a separate category??
The end effect is an exclusionary practice of label--as these are now 'kids at-risk"--just because they have a single mom (? dad). I do not know if these are includeded in the stats (single dads).

.....In 2003, the last year with available statistics, state records show that roughly 35 percent of Illinois newborns were born to single mothers, a figure that's risen steadily over the last five decades.

Past discrimination illegal

Laws in most states allowed for legal discrimination against children with unmarried parents as recently as the mid-1970s, but a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions have rejected most of those laws on constitutional grounds.

The terminology remained though, and this latest effort is simply catching up, said Sen. John Cullerton (D-Chicago), the bill's lead legislative proponent.

"That's a reflection of sensitivities that have evolved over the years," he said.

[Nickster]

2. Don't we have more important problems to focus on right now?

I'm just saying......

[rodeodance]

3. "There's no good term for an awful situation."--this is why it is importan

--the awful situation is 'single moms"


The terminology remained though, and this latest effort is simply catching up, said Sen. John Cullerton (D-Chicago), the bill's lead legislative proponent.

"That's a reflection of sensitivities that have evolved over the years," he said.

Rep. Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet) initially opposed the measure before finally voting "yes," and dismissed it again Monday as mere political correctness run amok. He also disputed that out-of-wedlock births are "no big deal."

"Call it whatever you want to call it," he said. "There's no good term for an awful situation."
......

[tjdee]

4. My kid is "illegitimate", and it really makes me angry.

I don't know why we have to label these kids at all--why can't we just call them....I don't know....children??

[enlightenment]

7. 25 years ago, Colorado statute referred to kids

born to unmarried women as "bastards." The law then wouldn't allow the mother to put the father's name on the birth certificate, unless she had a notarized statement from the father that it was okay by him.

Illegitimate would have been a step up . . .

Don't know if the state has bothered to change the wording -- I think they now allow women to name the father (not sure).

[Sgent]

8. In Mississippi

which has reformed the law mostly, a pregnant woman cannot get a divorce, and the husband is legally the father.