Up until yesterday, Gov. Pat Quinn has been hedging on whether he’d support a gay marriage bill. From the AP…
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn says he doesn’t know if he would support legislation that would give same sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples.
The Democrat supported same sex civil unions, which became legal in Illinois last summer. However, he said [Tuesday] he wants to study issues surrounding same-sex marriage before he makes a decision.
The governor said Tuesday that he hadn’t yet looked at a proposal for gay marriage, but said he would. He talked about how he helped pass and then signed the civil unions bill into law. Quinn said it was “important to monitor that, and study” the new law’s impact and said he wanted to let the legislative process work.
Before the 2010 election, Quinn said he wasn’t opposed to a gay marriage bill…
Quinn said wasn’t opposed to legalizing gay marriage in Illinois. He said he wouldn’t “stand in the way, if “the voters of Illinois want to have it come to pass.
The governor has since been on the receiving end of tons of criticism by his Catholic Church for using his religion to justify his position on civil unions. So, it was easy to see why he was hedging.
But, yesterday Quinn was finally pinned down by WBEZ’s Steve Edwards. After mentioning that Mayor Rahm Emanuel supports same sex marriage and would “push for it,” Quinn started rambling about how he’d helped pass the civil unions bill and how the legislative process had to work, but Edwards kept gently pressing and Quinn finally said this…
“I look forward to working with the advocates on this issue to build a majority.”
Edwards followed up by saying that it sounded like Quinn would help pass a same sex marriage bill. Quinn’s response…
“I think I just said that without me the last bill, civil unions, wouldn’t have passed. You gotta work with members from all parts of Illinois, every part of our state, some parts are more liberal than others, and ultimately we’ll get to Heaven.”
…Adding… Quinn uses the “get to Heaven” phrase all the time on a myriad of things. He wasn’t equating gay marriage with Heaven. It’s just one of his quirks.
The Brandt Standard 
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