If you legislate it, they will come. Via McMorr @ Flickr.
Iowa’s Supreme Court has just UNANIMOUSLY struck down a ban on same-sex marriage, ruling it unconstitutional. Iowa is now the 3rd state in the union (after Massachusetts and Connecticut) to legally permit SS marriage, although California had their brief flirtation with it last year. See the NPR story here.
The battle is likely not entirely over, but any legal ruling that reinforces the (stunningly simple and American) idea of “equal treatment under the law” is a very very good thing.
Hugz, Iowa!
!!!!!!!!!!
I can also tell you from extensive Wikipedia research that my man Nikita K. preferred Iowa corn to Soviet corn.
LEG HUGZ!
I also love Iowa because Marilynne Robinson lives there.
“If you legislate it, they will come.”
drrty.
Iowa FTW! Meanwhile: New York, what the fuck? Time to catch the fuck up.
Whoa, go Iowa! Anticipating homophobic referendum on this in 3…2…1…
let love rule iowa
@SarahMC: Can we arrange for an all-LGBT baseball team on a new Field of Dreams? And no pitching/catching jokes.
Yay Iowa! Let me tell you, as a born and raised Iowa, it is a great day to be here!
Cait, you’re on the ground (although I’m not sure where exactly): can you tell us a little about popular response, and maybe indicate if you think that’s common? I would imagine it varies by location (Ames would probably be liberal-er than other places, frex), but you’re seeing local news, local people…what’s the good word?
My sister is going to a spontaneous celebration at the Unitarian church in downtown Cedar Rapids. Hopefully there will be pictures!
yay, IA!
It is so good to hear that more conservative states like Iowa are coming around. Hopefully, this will help convince the California supreme court to not uphold Prop 8 (so I can actually be proud of CA again).
[...] Not only did this move allow Vermont to enter the hallowed ranks of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa as those states in the union that recognize same-sex marriage, it was the first of them to do so by [...]
@PhDork: Aaah, sorry, delayed response. Been too busy destroying marriage and being on the apocalypse and whatnot.
The mood where I am is pretty ecstatic. Granted, I live in Grinnell (home to the ultra-liberal Grinnell College) and was born in Des Moines (which is probably the second most liberal place in the state outside of Grinnell). There was a huge rally in downtown Des Moines that attracted about 1000 people, and one in Iowa City drew 750. Local media coverage seems pretty positive, with only a few small counter-protests around the Supreme Court building during the ruling. The Twitter responses to the DM Register’s #iagaymarriage hashtag were generally happy, and everyone I’ve talked to is supportive. My mom’s coworker was one of the happy women in the picture that popped up on the front page of the NY Times and USA Today, which was awesome. Granted, I live in a sort of bubble of gay-friendliness, but a lot of people seem genuinely happy.
The funniest (and most infuriating) thing is hearing the news from the rest of the country, a lot of it from people who obviously have no idea what Iowa is really like. The reaction has ranged from “Oh really? Wow!” to “OMG, I can’t believe those corn-fed hicks got tricked into having gay marriage.” Come on, Iowa went to Obama by 54%! We have a Democratic governor, house, and senate. A pretty large majority of the state supports civil unions. Iowa is solidly moderate while leaning liberal. People from the coasts seem a lot more surprised than Iowans by this, that’s for sure.