Gay marriage legalized in freaking Iowa!
Wow. I sure as shit didn't see this one coming! From the Des Moines Register...
The Iowa Supreme Court this morning upheld a Polk County judge’s 2007 ruling that marriage should not be limited to one man and one woman.
The ruling, viewed nationally and at home as a victory for the gay rights movement and a setback for social conservatives, means Iowa’s 5,800 gay couples can legally marry in Iowa beginning April 24.
There are no residency rules for marriage in Iowa, so the rule would apply to any couple who wanted to travel to Iowa.
Today’s decision makes Iowa the first Midwestern state, and the third in the country, to allow same-sex marriages. Lambda Legal, a gay rights group, financed the court battle and represented six couples who challenged Iowa’s 10-year-old ban on gay marriage.
Supreme Court Justice Mark Cady, who wrote the unanimous decision, at one point invoked the court’s first-ever decision, in 1839, which struck down slavery laws 17 years before the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of a slave owner to treat a person as property.
Iowa’s gay marriage ban “is unconstitutional, because the county has been unable to identify a constitutionally adequate justification for excluding plaintiffs from the institution of civil marriage,” Cady wrote in the 69-page opinion that seemed to dismiss the concept of civil unions as an option for gay couples.
“A new distinction based on sexual orientation would be equally suspect and difficult to square with the fundamental principles of equal protection embodied in our constitution,” Cady wrote.
Can we just all go ahead and officially term Iowa in as a "progressive" state? After all, this is the place that shocked the world by voting overwhelmingly for a black candidate named Obama in their state's Democratic caucus last year, the single event that many experts say was his springboard to the White House.
Iowa...now famous for corn AND progressive politics. Who'da thunk it?
6 comments:
Iowa Supreme Court said gay-YES!
See the actual video.
video
caj, the Jurists deserve all the credit not Iowa, yet. They courageously tackled the equal protection clause, as they should be and are required to do unlike the pussies in new york, and elsewhere where they actually become "activist judges" but only incidentially for the religious right. (but of course you don't hear the Right speak of judges who turn away gay marriage as "activist judges")
As an Iowan I am very pleased with this decision. I am 60yrs old and will celebrate my 40th wedding anniversary this very month and am happy my two gay neighbors down the street will now be able to possibly celebrate the same anniversary. Although the jurists do deserve all the credit many polls in Iowa indicate that only about a third of us have an objection to this decision so I think the voters of Iowa would also back up the Iowa Supreme Court on this one!
@rottweiler tom...now that i read more about it, i think you're right, but still, as far as midwestern states go, iowans seem to be the most progressive-minded of the lot.
@anon...thanks for sharing that. offer your neighbors my congrats.
Ya know, I was pretty proud of CT last year when we did it (you still can't buy beer after 8 or on a Sunday), and I'm hoping Iowa will start triggering other states to follow suit! Good for them!
Horray for Iowa... and horray for the midwest. Grew up in Illinois and now live in Southern California. Since moving to Socal I have never been around so many right wing lunatics in my life.
This insanity that somehow California is so damn progressive.. it is a load of crap.
What was the first state to remove their sodomy laws back when all 50 states had them? ILLINOIS
What was the first state to outlaw discrimination (statewide) based on sexual orientation? WISCONSIN
And now Iowa becomes one of the first to adopt gay marriage.
Go MIDWEST!!! you can keep the uptight west coast with their "too cool for school" attitude and their right wing wackjobs. CA is pretty much bankrupt now anyway. Schools and healthcare are getting cut, but not the precious freeways!!
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