Gay marriage ruling in Iowa!

[chicken]

I'm surprised not to have seen this on my f-list yet, it seems like huge news!

http://www.planetout.com/news/article.html?date=2007/08/30/3&navpath=/news/

http://www.planetout.com/news/article.html?2007/08/31/4

It isn't totally legal yet because it's being appealed to the state
supreme court, but there's a good chance it will stand.

California, Maryland, and Connecticut are considering related cases.

On this first day of September, three days before the first anniversary of my mother's death, I find this news very uplifting. She was a native Iowan, and as a champion of gay rights (thanks to having me as her gay gay daughter, and having several gay friends), I think she would have been very happy about this.

Comments

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

I was going to write about it but didn't get around to it.

It's an interesting question whether those 20 couples are going to be allowed to legally marry. They've got the licenses!

Unfortunately, I'd guess the chances are fair to good that Iowa will pass a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage as a result of this. There will certainly be a push for it.

But that doesn't mean this ruling was a bad thing; just seeing these couples out and together in the local media will help change minds. The experience in the Northeast is that as soon as gay marriage becomes a real part of the world in people's minds, instead of a disturbing hypothetical presented as a threat, it starts to fade as an issue. Iowa is a fairly conservative state but nowhere near as conservative as the Southeast or Great Basin; it will be interesting to see what happens.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

(By the way, my mother is also a native Iowan. She was a city girl, growing up in Davenport while her father worked at the Rock Island Arsenal, and keeps having to remind people that the state is not all farmland.)

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

My mother did actually grow up in a small village, not exactly on a farm, but they did have a cow. This was during the Depression, though.

[anelith.livejournal.com]

We saw it in the paper and think it's great, great news. Ron was going on about how if the state supreme court goes back on the deal, they will have to break the contract with those couples, and that's a big no-no. So... who knows?

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

That's a good point -- it will be very interesting to see what happens.