Ald. Deb Mell, the first lesbian on Chicago’s City Council, announced Thursday over Twitter that she is ending her marriage to Christin Baker.
“Dear Friends, It is with great sadness I tell you my marriage with Christin has ended. As you know divorce is painful, therefore we ask for privacy as we go through this process. Thank you for your continued support and understanding,” Mell wrote on Twitter. Someone close to Mell confirmed to the Chicago Sun-Times that the news was true.
Mell married her partner Christin Baker, a national director for the YMCA, in a ceremony in Iowa in 2011. With the widely publicized move, Mell became the first high-profile elected official in Illinois to publicly enter into a same-sex marriage.
