American Democratic vice presidential candidate and Roman Catholic Tim Kaine has expressed his opinion that the Roman Catholic Church may soon come around to accepting, and even embracing, the concept of same-sex marriage.
Speaking at the Human Rights Campaign's national dinner on Saturday, the senator from Virginia revealed that he had changed his views about the practice, and that his church may do the same someday.
"I think it's going to change because my church also teaches me about a creator who, in the first chapter of Genesis, surveyed the entire world, including mankind, and said, 'It is very good,'" Kaine reportedly remarked.
The 58 year old was the lieutenant governor of Virginia when lawmakers began to consider the passing of an amendment which would maintain that marriage must remain between one man and one woman. As The Guardian recalls, voters of the states approved of the amendment in 2006. But eventually, it was only in June 2015 that gay marriage was legalized by the US Supreme Court. Kaine himself admitted that it wasn't until the year 2005 that he experienced a shift in his understanding of the needs of the gay people.
As another article on The Guardian reports, the vice-presidential nominee stated, "For a long time while I was battling for LGBT equality, I believed that marriage was something different."
It was only when he heard some of the supporters of the amendment state that they wished the LGBT would feel unwelcome enough to leave the state of Virginia that his perspective shifted. "When I heard the proponents describe their motivations, it became clearer to me where I should stand on this," he revealed.
He further expressed his belief that the 'beautiful diversity of the human family' should be celebrated, not challenged.
Incidentally, before Kaine was introduced as the face of the Democratic side, Human Rights Campaign's president Chad Griffin stated that Republican nominee Donald Trump was the gravest threat the LGBTQ community has faced in a presidential election.