Pride, Prejudice In Responses As Gov Helps Gays Get Hitched

CHICAGO — Photos of Gov. Bruce Rauner officiating the marriage of two men last month has provoked outrage from some Illinois social conservatives. An image of the Republican governor presiding over the wedding of Mark Cozzi and James Goeke at their June 30 wedding at the Saddle Cycle Club in Chicago was posted to social media and this week became the subject of an article in the conservative website Illinois Review.

Rauner and his wife Diana are friends of the newlyweds, who are political supporters of the governor. Rauner's office has not commented publicly on the wedding.

"It's clear that the governor has learned nothing from his near-loss in the Republican primary this year," David E. Smith, the director of the Illinois Family Institute, told the Review. "He's not interested in attracting social conservatives to get out and vote Republican this fall."

Cozzi is both a Rauner appointee to two boards and a former board member of the LGBT rights group Equality Illinois. The governor appointed him to the State Universities Retirement System Board of Trustees last year. He has also spent six years as a commissioner with the Chicago Housing Authority, 17 months on the Illinois State Board of Investment and is the senior managing director of the private investment firm The Electrum Group, according to the Review.

The couple provided a statement to the Chicago Tribune saying they were "elated" that the Rauners were able to officiate the ceremony, describing Bruce and Diana as "great friends of ours and wonderful people."

“Our core values embody what they seem to advocate,” Cozzi and Goeke told the paper. “We got married, are starting a family and are actively involved in the community as well as philanthropy. We are bewildered why certain groups take offense at two people who love each other and want to spend the rest of their lives together. We look forward to the fast-approaching day that this is not an issue.”

The Illinois Review suggested Rauner may have been the first Republican governor in the country to have formed a same-sex wedding ceremony, noting he has increased his outreach to the LGBT community in recent months. (In 2015, Republicans Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito has officiated a same-sex wedding, according to the Boston Globe, and Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts – a strong opponent of LGBT rights and same-sex marriage – attended his sisters's wedding to another woman.)

"The governor has chosen to snub the Illinois Republican Party social conservative base despite being faced with near-mutiny when he almost lost the 2018 Republican Primary to conservative State Rep. Jeanne Ives in March," wrote the Review.

Rauner defeated Ives' insurgent challenge from the right by just 3 percent in the primary. She called him a "disgrace" and alleged he was "in cahoots" with eventual Democratic nominee JB Pritzker. The Wheaton state representative's unexpectedly successful primary campaign received support from social conservatives who were deeply unsatisfied that Rauner, who campaigned on the idea he would not pursue a "social agenda", signed a bill providing taxpayer money for some abortions after allegedly promising Cardinal Blase Cupich he would not.

While conservatives characterized it as betrayal, civil libertarians and advocates for LGBT rights praised the governor's appearance.

“As chief executive of our state, it is appropriate for Gov. Rauner to administer government-sanctioned functions, including marriage,” said Equality Illinois spokesman Mike Ziri told the Chicago Sun-Times. “There is no license to discriminate in Illinois, as the Illinois Family Institute seems to falsely believe.”

Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, also supported the move.

“I don’t really know all the politics of it. I’m going to guess some of it. But the truth is, it’s just a public official respecting and honoring the fact that love is just love,” he told the paper.

Illinois Gov. @BruceRauner, a Republican, officiates same-sex marriage https://t.co/qPzVFBq5fN #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtrights #ssm #marriageequality #lgbtchicago #gaychicago #gay #gaymarriage pic.twitter.com/sMDIb7kDP1
— GoPride Network (@GoPride) July 12, 2018

During his campaign for governor, Rauner said he would have vetoed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in Illinois. The issue, he said four years ago, should be decided by voters in a referendum.

"I’ve said from day one, I have not supported gay marriage and I have not advocated for it," he said in December 2013. Earlier that year, he told the Sun-Times his personal video on same-sex marriage as "irrelevant."

Friday afternoon, Rauner introduced Vice President Mike Pence in Rosemont at an event sponsored by the group America First Policies.

Pence has faced widespread criticism from LGBT advocates as Indiana governor for his support for laws allowing businesses to deny service to homosexuals, cuts to HIV prevention as well as his record in Congress, where he voted to ban same-sex marriage at military facilities and to prohibit any military chaplain from performing gay marriage ceremonies.

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