Illinois Governor Pat Quinn on
Wednesday said he will help build a majority for a proposed gay
marriage bill.
Last week, openly gay Representatives
Greg Harris, Deb Mell and Kelly Cassidy introduced a measure that
seeks to make Illinois the eighth state to legalize gay marriage.
Quinn, who last year strongly backed
efforts to approve a civil unions bill, was sounding less confident
in his support for marriage equality when he told the AP earlier this
week that he wanted to study the issues surrounding the bill before
he makes a decision.
But during an interview with WBEZ
Radio's Steve Edwards, Quinn made it clear that he backs the
measure.
“Well, I was the one who got civil
unions passed. Because the sponsor of the bill in the House – this
was about a year or so ago – came to me, had 57 votes. And there
were 4 people, he had to get 3 of the 4 to vote yes in the House. …
I talked to all 4 of those members, they all voted yes and the bill
passed.”
“You know in a Democracy, you got to
build a majority. So any development off of civil unions – we have
3,700 civil unions that have been performed so far in Illinois in 90
of our 102 counties. You know, it's a democracy and you have to
build majorities.”
When pressed by Edwards, Quinn said
that he looks “forward to working with the advocates on this issue
to build a majority.”
“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.”
(Related: Rahm
Emanuel backs effort to legalize gay marriage in Illinois.)