Illinois lawmakers could consider a bill legalizing gay marriage as early as this month, one of its sponsors said Thursday.

Illinois State Representative Greg Harris told Chicago gay weekly Windy City Times that the bill, introduced in February, could come up for a vote during the General Assembly's upcoming lame duck session and advised proponents to start calling their lawmakers to voice their support.

“We have some opportunities to move legislation in the veto session and we just need to be prepared,” Harris told the paper.

Harris introduced the marriage equality bill along with two other openly gay representatives, Deb Mell and Kelly Cassidy.

Harris is also the primary sponsor of legislation last year which created civil unions for gay couples.

He said in June that civil unions are not good enough.

“[T]here are numerous instances where families are being denied their basic rights under civil unions,” he said in an interview with Gay Chicago TV's Critical Thinking. “So what we are seeing is that separate is not equal. And that we need to move to full marriage equality so that people are treated equally under the eyes of the law. But more importantly, so that their community, their neighbors, their fellow congregants at church, or temple, also look at their relationships in the same way they would look at the relationship of another married couple.”