Jeff Tweedy has had a letter printed in his hometown newspaper, The Belleville News-Democrat, asking that Illinois lawmakers pass pending legislation legalizing gay marriage.
“Over the last few decades,” Tweedy writes, “I’ve had the good fortune as a member of the band Wilco to play music in every state in the union and in countless other countries. In my travels, I’ve witnessed firsthand that gay and lesbian couples want to marry for the same reasons all of us do — to share a lifetime of commitment.”
The Illinois House of Representatives is yet to ratify the bill, SB10, which would extend equal marriage right to same sex couples. If it passes the House, it is expected to become law – it passed the State Senate on Valentines Day and Illinois Governor Pat Quinn has vowed to sign the bill into law. The bill is currently short of the 60 votes it would need to pass, with some estimates placing it as much as 12 votes short.
Tweedy, still a resident of Illinois, now lives in Chicago. He joined Ian MacKaye and Bob Mould last year in a unsuccessful effort to prevent an amendment to the North Carolina state constitution banning same sex marriage.