Illinois Pro-Gay GOP Leader To Resign

Jim Burroway

May 6th, 2013

Top Illinois Republican leaders are telling reporters that the state’s party chairmain, Pat Brady, will resign tomorrow, effective immediately. The rumored resignation comes two months after Brady survived an attempt to force him out of the state GOP chairmanship over his vocal support for a marriage equality bill that was passed by the state Senate. No reason has been given yet for his resignation, but his wife has reportedly been battling ovarian cancer for the past two years. Brady is also in the process of starting a new public affairs firm. According to The Daily Herald, Brady’s tenure is a microcosm of both state and national Republican politics:

While some leaders say the party needs to be a “big tent” organization that can better attract independent voting women, gay and minority voters unhappy with current Democratic leadership, they find themselves at odds with the more conservative factions of the party, which often dominate primary elections.

Brady, in January, began making public statements in support of same-sex marriage, which runs contrary to the party’s platform defining marriage as between one man and one woman. In doing so, he has had the backing of major party donors, including former Exelon Corp. Chairman John Rowe.

Committeemen in favor of Brady’s removal fault him for not only violating the platform but making the statements without notifying them first. Brady said the party was on the “wrong side of history.”

TampaZeke

May 7th, 2013

It sucks but homophobia is still a bedrock position of the Republican Party. If the GOP would simply take no position on the issue approval would skyrocket to 70-80% overnight. There are tons of people who are ONLY against marriage equality because they see it as
THE Republican position as much as being for low/no taxes and pro fetus life.

Timothy Kincaid

May 8th, 2013

Zeke,

Good point. It’s small consolation to know that eventually they will. I want to yell, “come on, already!!”

Désirée

May 14th, 2013

Tim, they only will *if* in the meantime they don’t make themselves obsolete by holding on to anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-women, anti-choice positions.

More likely than the Repubs eventually not opposing marriage equality is the Repubs sliding into obscurity, becoming the 20th century version of the Whigs, unable to adapt to the current state of the world around them.

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