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Loading ...Iowa gender-neutral marriage bill withers
03.13.2009 10:38am EDT
(Des Moines, Iowa) Legislation that would make marriage gender neutral in Iowa appeared dead Friday after it was stripped from the list of measures to be take up by lawmakers this session.
While it remains possible the bill could reemerge near the end of the session, most political observers believe it has little chance of being taken up.The bill was sponsored by Sen. Matt McCoy. It would have replaced the words that define a couple as husband and wife under Iowa’s marriage law with spouse.
With the bill failing to be marked up, same-sex couples are now pinning their hopes on the state Supreme Court. The court late last year heard arguments in a challenge to the state ban on same-sex marriage.
In 2007, Polk County Judge Robert Hanson struck down the state Defense of Marriage lawn declaring it to be unconstitutional. Later the same day Hanson stayed the ruling pending an appeal.
Arguing before the Supreme Court Assistant Polk County Attorney Roger Kuhle told the justices that Hanson had overstepped his authority.
Kuhle also said that state support of same-sex marriage would damage traditional marriage, arguing that it would indicate to future generations that marriage is no longer about procreation.
Lambda Legal attorney Camilla Taylor, representing the six couples who are challenging the ban on gay marriage, told the court that the law violates Iowa’s constitution.
Taylor said that the constitution protects gay people’s rights to due process and equal protection. There is no indication when the court will rule.
Iowa deserves congratulations for taking on this issue. I don’t fault them for failing to de-sex marriage. Look at the path from discussion to legislative action. If you look at it like an expressway on-ramp, it’s very short compared to the marriage issue in New York or California. If anything, the frankness in Iowa is far more impressive than anything a California activist has said or done, not least because Iowa is as Middle America as it gets. Small-town doesn’t mean stupid or unreflective. Contrast? Look north, to Minnesota, and the idiocy over the smoking ban (bars becoming “theaters,” customers allowed to smoke because they were “actors”).
I’d like to acknowledge Iowans for even taking up this issue, and I expect they’ll be part of a real solution for the whole country.
Wait, this is the state to start OBAMA (that is Mr President) off on the path to the Whitehouse, but can’t get it straight (no pun intended) to get right with Marriage Equality?
I am getting dissappointed in IOWA, It seems the WHINERS in Cali need to let the courts there do their work and get their Cali. Azzes on busses and head on over to IOWA…. Where is Ashton Kushner(?sp) and Tom Arnold, and other Liberal, equal minded IOWANS??? Get to Des Moines and start lobbying. PLEASE!
David,
marriage is for the joy and comfort of a couple and children if children are wanted. In case of a gay couple options being adoption or birth by surrogate mother.
I am so disappointed in my lawmakers here in Iowa. I would have loved to marry my partner in our home state but, they are seeing to it that we can’t do that. It’s getting harder and harder to want to stay in Iowa and raise a family when there are so many people still considered fourth class citizens here. Mr. McCoy, thank you for your efforts, you make us all proud!!! Mr. Kuhle, I watched you present your case before the Iowa Supreme Court, I couldn’t believe the things you were saying. Where do you get your information and so called facts??? I live in Des Moines and I vote–I’ll be watching for you in the future….
Marriage has never been about procreation as people can procreate without being married.
Spaulding. No, Mr. Kuhle would not support a ban on infertile opposite sex couple from marrying, nor should he. He was using religious/political mantra as an argument. That is the core of contemporary religion. They can’t attract anyone into their pews without using homophobia to generate interest. It has nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with political power and money. Religion has raised hundreds of millions of dollars by opposing anything gay. That is the bottom line for them. They are disgusting!
Isn’t it interesting how the very same people who will argue that “marriage” is only a word and doesn’t matter as long as rights are equal will scream bloody murder at the suggestion that the term “marriage” be replaced with “Civil Union” in applicable statutes?
So I take it then that Assit Cty Attny Kuhle would support disallowing marriage between heterosexuals where one or both are not fertile for whatever biological reasons. He would also support a “marriage license period” werein if a couple did not procreate withing a specified lenght of time, that marriage would be dissolved by the state.
Kuhle, get a hint, join the 21st century.
Equality for all.