Iowa: Gay marriage in the heartland

It’s not just a “coastal thing” now, said Michael A. Lindenberger in Time. “Deep in the rural heartland,” the Iowa Supreme Court last week issued a 7–0 decision overturning the state’s ban on gay marriage. Citing the state constitution’s commitment of equal protection to all citizens, the emphatic opinion—“written by a justice appointed by a conservative Republican governor—methodically eviscerates one argument after another that for decades has been used to keep marriage the sole preserve of straight couples.” Iowa now joins Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Vermont—the last of which legalized gay marriage just this week—as states in which same-sex couples can marry. As a minister who occasionally performs same-sex wedding ceremonies, said Paul Raushenbush in Beliefnet.com, I can tell you that the Iowa court was absolutely correct. The gay people I’ve married put a lot of careful thought into their decisions to spend their lives together, and “I see no qualitative difference between the love and commitment of same-sex couples and heterosexual couples.”

Marriage, though, is not a “right,” said Rod Dreher, also in Beliefnet.com. It’s “an ancient and fundamental social institution” designed to create stable families for the creation and rearing of children. But in defiance of popular will, the court invented the right for men to marry other men out of thin air, insisting that modern norms must be taken into account. The gay marriage debate is a political issue, said Robert F. Nagel in The New York Times, so it should be resolved by legislatures, not judicial whim. Unfortunately, too many judges believe “that the mental efforts of a few judges are in fact a better source of wisdom than, as the court puts it, ‘thousands of years of tradition.’”

Religious conservatives are furious, but where do they “go with their outrage?” asked Dan Gilgoff in U.S. News & World Report Online. For Iowa to reverse the court’s ruling, two consecutive legislatures would have to pass a constitutional amendment, and then the public would have to approve it. Which means gay marriage will be legal in the state until at least 2011. That’s perfect timing for the next presidential election, said Alex Koppelman in Salon.com. An anti–gay marriage amendment will likely “energize” social conservatives to vote in the Republican caucuses and in November, too. Thanks to Barack Obama’s popularity, Iowa went “blue” in 2008, but thanks to this court decision, it “could end up being a battleground in 2012.”

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