A Marriage Equality Valentine for Illinois?

State Senate president John Cullerton says he'd like to see his chamber approve the marriage equality bill on Valentine's Day.

BY Trudy Ring

February 01 2013 9:09 PM ET

Illinois Senate president John Cullerton

The president of the Illinois state Senate want to send same-sex couples a valentine in the form of a vote for marriage equality February 14.

“I’d like to pass it out of committee next week and pass it on Valentine’s Day,” Senate president John Cullerton said of the pending marriage equality bill during a meeting with the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board Thursday.

Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat, said he believes there’s sufficient support in the Senate for the bill to pass and move on to the House. If both chambers approve it and Gov. Pat Quinn signs it as promised, Illinois would become the 10th state in the nation with equal marriage rights for same-sex couples. It would be the second in the Midwest and the first in that region to approve same-sex marriage legislatively; in neighboring Iowa, marriage equality came through a state Supreme Court ruling.