Provided You Are Contrary

[filkertom]

... you really ought to give Iowa a try:

Iowa's Supreme Court legalized gay marriage Friday in a unanimous and emphatic decision that makes Iowa the third state — and first in the nation's heartland — to allow same-sex couples to wed.

Iowa joins only Massachusetts and Connecticut in permitting same-sex marriage. For six months last year, California's high court allowed gay marriage before voters banned it in November.

The Iowa justices upheld a lower-court ruling that rejected a state law restricting marriage to a union between a man and woman.

The county attorney who defended the law said he would not seek a rehearing. The only recourse for opponents appeared to be a constitutional amendment, which could take years to ratify.

"We are firmly convinced the exclusion of gay and lesbian people from the institution of civil marriage does not substantially further any important governmental objective," the Supreme Court wrote.

Iowa lawmakers have "excluded a historically disfavored class of persons from a supremely important civil institution without a constitutionally sufficient justification."

To issue any other decision, the justices said, "would be an abdication of our constitutional duty."

Law Dork 2.0 has a nice summary of the whole thing, and here's a statement by the Iowa legislature (h/t AmericaBlog for both).

This shakes up the landscape of the whole debate considerably. I suspect that the conservative evangelical base is gonna go ballistic, including the possibility of actual ballistics. But they are fading fast. Contrary to what Glenn Beck declaims, we -- that is, gays, lesbians, and those of us who support the cause of same-sex marriage... we surround them. And, possibly even worse: All we want to do is love who we want, and be left alone to do it. That's all.

It's turning out to be a pretty damn good day.

Comments

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Come on, majority of the 50 states...

Do you really want to be thought of as progressively behind... IOWA?!!

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

I'd be careful with that argument. Remember, the first state (post-Civil War) to give the vote to women was Wyoming...

... nobody would call them progressive now, would they?

[salkryn.livejournal.com]

What's so bad about Iowa? I've lived here for nearly ten years, and I've found it a HELL of a lot better than Georgia and Florida.

Nothing at all....

[stdharma.livejournal.com]

If you don't mind the cold, the flat lands, the tornadoes, and an extreme lack of things to do except look at cows, corn and soybeans.

On the other hand, there's Iowa City (which ain't bad) and Cedar Rapids (which was okay, except for the stenches.)

And it is a damn sight better than GA or FL, true.

But all the same, I'll stick by the South...up to the point where balkanization occurs and it becomes The Nation of Gilead. *shudder*

Saint Dharma

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

Nice to see that.
Edited to clarify that I wasn't expecting this to happen, and certainly not today, so yeah, very nice surprise.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

I remember in the early 90's, when there was a serious argument about strategy among the ranks of the gay-marriage advocates, about whether to concentrate on federal recognition and attempt to enforce it on the states from there, or go state-by-state. I supported the former strategy, figuring that we'd never get most states to go along with it except by federal mandate. I was wrong. State-by-state is working; the momentum from each one makes the next easier and resistance harder. We've literally changed the landscape of the subject. Color me convinced.

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

Not me.

If memory serves, every state that's legalized gay marriage thus far has done so by declaring the ban unconstitutional in the state courts. Vermont's effort, if it's not vetoed by the Republican governor, will be the first time a state legislature has made gay marriage legal.

Furthermore, over thirty states have amended their state constitutions to define marriage in purely monogamous, heterosexual terms. The courts are, for the time being at least, closed to gay marriage in those states.

And finally, we still have the Defense of Marriage Act in Washington, with minimal support in Congress for its repeal- never mind any legislated or adjucated mandate of gay marriage rights.

This is a fight that has to be waged on all fronts- local, state, federal- equally. Neither side will succeed completely without the other.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

I agree; I wasn't implying that I'm giving up pressuring the federal government. The disagreement I mentioned was about whether to bother with the state governments at all. I think it's proven worthwhile; what wedges we've successfully driven into the public mindset have come chiefly from the cases of, "Well, they said if gay marriage were legalized, everything would fall apart, but look at these states; it's legal there and things look pretty much like anywhere else."

[emiofbrie.livejournal.com]

Agreed...all it takes in those states is time, and a ballot initiative to repeal what the previous initiative set.

You know

[capplor.livejournal.com]

the California legislature DID vote for gay marriage, and the nice moderate (Republican) governor vetoed it.

[kakita-shisumo.livejournal.com]

New Jersey is also well-positioned to allow gay marriage via statute rather than court ruling, possibly by the end of the summer.

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

Vermont, unfortunately, appears to be six votes short of the promised veto.

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

I read the summary put out by the Des Moines Register... and it's good to see a court repeatedly using the legalese for, "bullshit."

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Is it this summary (http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090403/NEWS/90403010)? And/or its attendant FAQ (http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090403/NEWS/90403004)?

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

Neither, directly. If you look at the summary, you'll see about midway down links to two PDF's- the summary and the full ruling. I read the summary PDF.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Ah. My bad. Thanks!

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

The opinion itself was fairly blunt about it at some points.

[karjack.livejournal.com]

State by state, we're being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. It's about damn time. Good show, Iowa.

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

And let's not forget Sweden! Gays can now marry there!

Almost a century ago, women fought for equal rights--and won. In the 60s, African-Americans fought for equal rights--and won. Now the homosexuals are fighting for equal rights--and I'm going to do my part to help them win!

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

Of course, in the US and many other places, women still don't get equal pay, and it's hardly ever addressed. Makes me mad when people say we won equal rights, seeing as it's still very much a work in progress, for all of us who are not part of the ruling, male "elite".

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Indeed. According to the National Committee on Pay Equity (http://www.pay-equity.org/), it's at 78¢ for women per dollar for men, up from 59¢ in 1963. That's still more than 20% less than men for the same work. And that's wrong.

[sdelmonte]

Aside from how important this is, I keep thinking that it would be interesting if people chose to vacation in Iowa instead of California as a sign of support and protest.

Of course, if you want to get married, Iowa has an attraction California doesn't.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Or instead of Utah. ;)

[ann-totusek.livejournal.com]

Well now, that depends. If you're male and poly some areas of Utah might have some attraction for you. The down side is that the current residents wouldn't want anything to do with you unless you toed their religious line (come to think of it, I'm not sure that's a downside). OTOH, if you're female and poly and want the legal right to wed more than one man at once, you're still SOL.

[saganth.livejournal.com]

Hrmm, something you're trying to tell us milady? *arched eyebrow*

[jss]

Male, straight, and poly.

[bryanp.livejournal.com]

But I've already promised never to set foot in the state of my birth (*spit*) again. I need to find a way to spend money so that less of it goes to businesses based in CA.

[mdlbear]

We're still waiting for the CA supreme court to issue their decision on whether the initiative overturning their decision to allow gay marriage should, itself, be overturned. Based on the wording of their previous decision, I fully expect them to do so.

[saganth.livejournal.com]

I hope so too, but the question is, why have they not done so yet?

[wizwom.livejournal.com]

Because the lawsuits are nonsense.
Proposition 8 was a constitutional amendment by plebiscite, which is constitutionally a valid form of amending in California.

The lawsuits claim it's not valid because the legislature needs a 2/3 majority to revise the constitution.

Whether you revise or amend a constitution, the change occurs, and the new text is part of the constitution.

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

No, there is a legitimate distinction between amendment and revision, and it has been the basis of throwing out a wholesale rewrite of the Oregon Constitution.

On the other hand, I don't think the California court (which has been politicized ever since the Republicans bought the defeat of Justice Bird with fact-fudging ads) is likely to find this a revision.

[wizwom.livejournal.com]

The Wikipedia page on the California constitution quotes "Lee":
The constitution of California distinguishes between constitutional amendments and revisions, the latter of which is considered to be a "substantial change to the entire constitution, rather than ... a less extensive change in one or more of its provisions".[16]

The text of the amendment is a single sentence.
A single added sentence is not a substantial change.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Iowa also has Riverside, which has been billing itself for years as "the future birthplace of Captain (or Admiral) James T. Kirk".

I would strongly suggest to anyone who decides to vacation in Iowa at least partly because of this that they send postcards to the governor and to the Chamber of Commerce in the city they're visiting, saying WHY they are choosing to spend their tourist dollars in Iowa. The carrot is often more effective than the stick.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

If ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE, Iowa gave us ericcoleman and toyboatband. :)

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

I read the opinion today. It appears to be a well-reasoned decision by a court not known for taking political positions.

[gan-chan.livejournal.com]

A bit I particularly liked from the summary (http://www.desmoinesregister.com/assets/pdf/D213209143.PDF), re "traditional marriage":

“When a certain tradition is used as both the governmental objective and the classification to further that objective, the equal protection analysis is transformed into the circular question of whether the classification accomplishes the governmental objective, which objective is to maintain the classification.”

Glad somebody in a position of authority finally said that.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

As an Iowan born, I'm very happy with this decision. It looks like people who don't like it won't have a legit reason to whine about "activist judges". Of course they will anyway. They always do when the courts make a sound legal decision they don't like. It's as if conservatives can't accept the fact they can be wrong sometimes. No... they lost because the courts were against them from the start.

Iowa is mixed politically. We have several world-famous universities which are left-of-center. The rural areas can be a bit mixed. The problem is in the lists of "what is liberal" and "what is conservative" Iowans tend to pick a lot from both lists. It's only the confrontational "us vs them" attitude in the nation that's confusing people.

[enjis.livejournal.com]

A 'Music Man' ref for the win!

[jenrose]

Oh! *dances happy dance all verklempt.*

[aota.livejournal.com]

Very proud of my state for doing this. As I always say when asked about gay marriage. Why should only straight men and women suffer. ;)