NEW JERSEY: Marijuana Legalization Bill Advances After “Testy Exchange” With Anti-LGBT Hate Group Leader

The Associated Press reports:

New Jersey took a step Monday toward legalizing recreational marijuana as lawmakers advanced a measure allowing adults to use cannabis after hours of delay and back-room wrangling over the measure that irritated witnesses and some legislators. Democratic-controlled Assembly and Senate legislative committees advanced the legislation late Monday despite having scheduled a hearing earlier in the day on the agreement that Gov. Phil Murphy and legislative leaders announced last week.

The exchanges got testy at times. “This bill is wrong for the state,” said Gregory Quinlan, founder and president of Garden State Families and an opponent of legalization. “I can’t comment on amendments I haven’t seen.” Democratic Assembly appropriations committee chairman John Burzichelli told Quinlan that his voice was heard and that many in the state supported legalization. “Thank you for the lecture,” Quinlan said.

RELATED: Longtime JMG readers may recall that Gregory Quinlan is the former head of PFOX (Parents & Friends of Ex-Gays) and that he was a leading voice in the failed campaign to block same-sex marriage in New Jersey.

In 2012 Quinlan was sued for libel by activist Wayne Besen after Quinlan claimed in a live television appearance that Besen had threatened to “inject him with AIDS.” The suit was later dismissed by a federal court on the grounds that Besen is a public figure.

Quinlan on before he allegedly stopped sucking cock: “I wasn’t your flaming faggot, you know. I can say that because I’ve been there and done that. You know, the one’s whose wrists are so limp that when the wind blows they slap themselves in the face. I wasn’t one of them.”