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Loading ...Iowa Supreme Court to issue gay marriage ruling
04.02.2009 11:40am EDT
(Des Moines, Iowa) The Iowa Supreme Court announced Thursday it will issue its long awaited ruling on same-sex marriage Friday morning.
The court heard arguments in December 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 law, declaring it to be unconstitutional. Later the same day Hanson stayed the ruling, pending an appeal.
Arguing before the high court in December, 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.
Meanwhile, legislation that would make marriage gender neutral in Iowa appears dead after it became one of several bills stripped from the list of measures to be taken 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.
Well hearing the oral arguments of the Iowa court made me feel far better than the arguments to overturn Prop 8 did. I think we have a good chance to win in IA! Also, the Iowa constitution is a lot harder to amend so we won’t see this right disappear this year at least.
that it would indicate to future generations that marriage is no longer about procreation.
Um, I am 43 and the chances of me getting pregnant are lesser than me getting struck by lightening during a sunny day. But I can still marry any man I wish but I can’t marry my Partner who I have loved for almost 10 years. Just doesn’t make sense to me.
>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.
This reminds me of the tee shirts from the eighties: A cartoon woman exclaiming, “I forgot to have a baby!” or “I left my baby on the bus!”
Call me crazy, but I don’t see any evidence that straight people need marriage to remind them to procreate. (Ahem…PALIN!) It kinda takes care of itself. In fact, I’ve seen evidence of the opposite problem…too much procreation in parts of the world.
This comment is not very constructive, but don’t you love how the homophobes love to complain about how same sex couples marrying will reduce procreation (as if these people would procreate if they remained unmarried).
Now, how many unmarried people have children? Oh, wait, they are against that, too… They just can’t prevent unmarried people from having children. They would probably like to do that, too.
The American version of the Taliban (the so-called “Christian” Radical Right) also does not realise that same sex couples (married, civil unioned, or still “single”) can and do have children. Female same sex couples, for obvious reasons ,can and often do have children together, but there are also many excellent male couples as parents.
These families, especially their children, suffer if governments fail to recognize and support their efforts at good parenting.
As we all know, good parenting has everything to do with education and access resources and nothing to do with having the desire have sexual relations with members of the opposite sex.
If the courts buy into the “marriage is for procreation” argument, I would love to watch the fireworks that would arise when the state or some other organization asks the courts to void the marriages of those couples who can’t have children (or don’t want to have children) because they are not fulfilling the obligation of marriage to procreate.
Wouldn’t that make for some interesting evening news?
We need to ban gay marriage to protect white women.
We need to ban gay marriage because the kids may come out looking “different”.
We need to ban gay marriage because it may cause a loss in property value.
We need to ban gay marriage because they do not know how to vote.
I know none of this makes any sense, neither do any of the anti-gay marriage arguments.
Tom in Long Beach
I really don’t see gay marriage happening in Iowa, PERIOD (WAY too many tabacco chewing, bible-(&wife) beating homo-phobes!!)…let alone, BEFORE California. Don’t get your hopes up, friends.
(I’m still waiting to know if my CA July 25th marriage is legal.)
Don’t try to lump all of Iowa into that description. We are ready here in Iowa for legalized same-sex marriage, and everyone I have talked to about this was shocked and saddened when the first ruling was stayed to the higher court – even my crazily christian right family.
If the oppositions arguments were really as weak as they sound here, we should all be pretty happy tomorrow.
Iowa may be a rural state, but many people living in it are well-educated, logical, and good-natured people. Iowans are ready for this and they are smart enough to accept this if this happens.
My partner and I are planning on going back to Iowa to get married if it is allowed. We are both from there and our families, still there, support us in our partnership. In fact both my Dad and step-mother, in their late 70’s and republicans, would love to see this happen and have started making plans. And to think here in Washington state we are still fighting over expanding our Domestic Partnerships.
I am a proud Bostonian, existing in California for the last 20 years. I am hopeful for all of the couples in Iowa. The educational level is probably higher in IA than CA which bodes well for same sex marriage there. Most of California is like the south, educationally and culturally backwards. I live in OC and it is full of redknecks and immigrants that line up when someone sees mother mary in the urine stain in the ally. Pathetic place, I miss the northeast.
Iowa’s a definite wild card! I’m not building up any hopes just yet for IA. I’ve been through Iowa and know that they do have some pretty rednecky towns there. It will be a FREAKIN’ major victory for our side if they can pull it off. I eagerly await tomorrow’s decision. Do the right thang Iowa. Don’t define yourself by your geographic location. Peace out.
“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.”
Same-sex marriage has no effect on traditional marriage or procreation – except that married same-sex couples have more protections, so they’re in a better position to adopt the children of hetero couples that procreate too much.
I’m from the midwest, and the people there have a sense of fairness. I remember going door to door as a teenager, raising money for a gay and lesbian group. I was amazed at how friendly people were, and how willing to contribute! And that was several years ago.
I sure hope this passes, and I think the people of Iowa will be fine with it. And that, in itself, will send a positive message to the rest of the country.
I think this can happen in Iowa. I believe it. I have hope.
How many of you are from Iowa? I am. I’m extremely nervous, even though I’m totally single. And, also, Iowa was the first state outside of New England to grant African-Americans the right to vote. We’re not ignoramuses.