HRC's Chad Griffin: Rulings Will Bring Gay Marriage To All States Within 5 Years

Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest LGBT advocate, on Thursday pledged to “bring marriage equality to all 50 states” within five years.

Speaking at the Utah Pride Center in Salt Lake City the day after the Supreme Court released two historic rulings related to gay marriage, Griffin said that the cases created the foundation to remove dozens of state marriage bans.

The high court decisions mean that California will become the 13^th state, plus the District of Columbia, to allow gay nuptials, and that the federal government must recognize those unions.

Griffin, who previously led the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), the group formed specifically to challenge Proposition 8, California's marriage ban, said that he traveled to Utah because “we can't tolerate the persistence of two Americas when it comes to equality.”

“In the other America, in the 37 states without marriage equality, like my home state of Arkansas, or right here in Utah, even the most basic statewide legal protections are nonexistent. Within five years, we will bring marriage equality to all 50 of our states, yes, right here in the state of Utah,” Griffin said.

Griffin was joined at the press conference by officials from the Utah Pride Center, the ACLU of Utah, Equality Utah and openly gay philanthropist Bruce Bastian.