Same Sex couples can get married in Iowa

[pnggrad79]

Did anyone read that on Yahoo News? Wow! It's moving west. We'll see. Anyone live in Iowa? :D

[mjules]

Did anyone read that on Yahoo News? Wow! It's moving west. We'll see. Anyone live in Iowa? :D

I just read it!! I had to pop on to see if anyone else had seen it. GO IOWA! It's not even a 'civil union,' it's marriage!

>Hanson ruled that the state law allowing marriage only between a man and a woman violates the constitutional rights of due process and equal protection.<

Go Iowa! I don't live there... and I never thought I'd want to, but hey... :aparty:

[sailaway58]

I think that t is great, now 50% of the Gay couples can be as miserable as 50% of the straight couples.
We are equal!
But really that is a great victory.


Lucy Ward, social affairs correspondent
Thursday December 21, 2006
The Guardian


A gay man who was set to make legal history by becoming one of the first people to "divorce" by dissolving a civil partnership yesterday decided to delay proceedings to avoid entering the record books.
Darryl Bullock had planned to go to court today, the 12-month anniversary of the ceremony and the earliest possible date he could legally dissolve his civil partnership with Mark Godfrey.

But Mr Bullock, 42, has instructed his solicitor to hold off until new year. "I don't want to be the face in the Guinness Book of Records," he said. "I don't want to be the poster boy for the divorce generation. I am trying to end an unpleasant period in my life and move forward, and obviously that means I have had to instruct a solicitor to deal with my dissolution, but I am not trying to break any records."

[pnggrad79]

Hey gay people make mistakes, too, when choosing a life mate. But we should have the same rights as anyone else making the same mistakes. Y'know?:)

[paul]

Iowa, the next gay mecca.

[u-dog]

Iowa, the next gay mecca.

I think there is lots of water to cross the damn before we throw the big celebration party!

[andrewlittle]

I am recently from Iowa, from where my wife and I were pretty much expelled for our support of LGBT. My wife was ejected as a minister from the Iowa UMC, and I was prevented from even seeking a call by the PC(USA) presbyteries in NW, North, NE, and Eastern Iowa.

This was a ruling - and the wagons are already circling for an all out war. Iowa is way too conservative in the most part to allow this to happen long term. The battle is engaged - and the ignorant have the greater numbers.

[paul]

I think there is lots of water to cross the damn before we throw the big celebration party!

it was a joke u-dog. how many self respecting gays are gonna move to Iowa. geeze, don't you know the stereotypes?:lol:;)

[u-dog]

it was a joke u-dog. how many self respecting gays are gonna move to Iowa. geeze, don't you know the stereotypes?:lol:;)

Ever read the book "Farmboys" by Will Fellows? there are LOTS of gay boys and men who love living in Iowa. and minnesota and illinois and indiana and ohio and nebraska, and, and, and. Its a very interesting book about closets (or would it be "tackrooms" in a rural context?) being gay and rural. I found it very moving and enlightening.

[paul]

Ever read the book "Farmboys" by Will Fellows? there are LOTS of gay boys and men who love living in Iowa. and minnesota and illinois and indiana and ohio and nebraska, and, and, and. Its a very interesting book about closets (or would it be "tackrooms" in a rural context?) being gay and rural. I found it very moving and enlightening.

yup. understood. my email address is "deerbrookfarm."

[Emproph]

A Des Moines minister married two Iowa men on Friday in the state's first legal same-sex marriage, but the window for those who rushed out for licenses quickly closed.

Sean Fritz, 24, and Tim McQuillen, 21, were married Friday morning by Rev. Mark Stringer of Unitarian Church in a service in the front yard of his home.

You can read the rest here:

http://www.local6.com/family/14020877/detail.html?rss=orlpn&psp=news

[Daniel]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/01/us/01iowa.html


By MONICA DAVEY
Published: September 1, 2007
DES MOINES, Aug. 31 — From towns around the state, places like Cedar Falls, Ames and Cedar Rapids, same-sex couples converged on this city as early as dawn on Friday as word spread that a judge had overturned a state law banning gay marriage.

“Imagine this — right here in Iowa,” Amanda Duncan said as she and her partner of three years, Aleece Ramirez, filled out their application for a marriage license and put down $35. “Hopefully, this starts a fire that spreads to other places.”

The chance was fleeting. After four hours, Robert B. Hanson, the same county judge who had deemed the ban on same-sex marriages unconstitutional, delayed further granting of licenses until the Iowa Supreme Court decided whether to consider an appeal.

Still, national advocates for same-sex marriage pointed to the developments as significant. An issue that has largely been battled on the coasts in states like Massachusetts and California, they said, has made its way squarely to the more conservative middle.

“There are some people

scratching their heads and saying, Iowa?” said Jon Davidson, the legal director at Lambda Legal, which worked on the case that led to the marriage applications here. “But this shows that there are lesbian and gay people everywhere who would like to get married.”

Opponents of same-sex marriage said they viewed the decision as a rallying cry, a reason that a federal amendment defining marriage is needed and a reason that an amendment to the Iowa Constitution, not just a statute, is needed.

“This is the misguided decision of one person,” Chris Stovall, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, which opposes same-sex marriage, said of Judge Hanson’s ruling on constitutionality. “I don’t think it represents at all what Iowa thinks. People across America and certainly in Iowa, in the heartland, understand that marriage is the union between one man and one woman.”

Massachusetts is the lone state that allows same-sex marriage. A handful of other states, including Vermont, New Jersey and Connecticut, allow same-sex civil unions. A few others, including California, allow other legal partnerships.

Judge Hanson’s ruling on Thursday, and the fallout on Friday, have also raised once more the issue of same-sex marriage among the presidential candidates who devote so much time in this state leading up to its early caucuses.

It is welcome for those candidates firmly opposed to or supportive of same-sex marriage, political experts said Friday, but has created an unwanted and thorny issue for those who have tried to walk a careful line somewhere in between.

“It really is a monkey wrench that sort of is thrown into the process for some of them,” Steffen W. Schmidt, a professor of political science at Iowa State University, said. “It’s potentially more dangerous for the Democrats, where the front-runners have been trying to finesse this issue.”

At least two Republican presidential hopefuls, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas and Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, swiftly issued statements opposing the judge’s decision.

Mr. Romney called it “another example of an activist court and unelected judges trying to redefine marriage and disregard the will of the people.”

Asked about the ruling, Phil Singer, a spokesman for the campaign of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, spoke of civil unions, not marriages.

“Hillary Clinton believes that gay and lesbian couples should have the same rights and responsibilities as all Americans, and that civil unions are the best way to achieve this goal,” Mr. Singer said. “As president, she will work to extend benefits at the federal level to same-sex couples in committed relationships.”

Here, the brief flurry of applications for marriage licenses was low key. About 20 couples applied before a stay was granted. No protesters appeared. Few passers-by near the Polk County administration building said they were aware of the ruling.

The legal case here began in 2005 when six same-sex couples sued the county recorder, who declined to accept their applications for marriage licenses.

The question now goes to the State Supreme Court.

In the hours before the case was suspended, just one couple, Timothy McQuillan, 21, and Sean Fritz, 24, managed to obtain their license, and also to marry. Trailed by reporters, they raced around Des Moines in search of someone who could officiate at their wedding and found a minister who agreed to conduct the service.

“We had to get married — we’re at that point in our life,” said Mr. Fritz, who said he proposed to Mr. McQuillan in a parking lot after he heard about the ruling on Thursday night.

The men, who live in Ames, met on Facebook more than a year ago, Mr. Fritz said. Whatever the outcome of the legal case, he said, “As far as I’m concerned, I’m married in the state of Iowa.”

John Sarcone, the Polk County attorney, who is representing the county recorder’s office in the case, said the marriage could be considered legitimate. Ultimately, though, it, too, may depend on the decision of a higher court.

Patrick Healy and Michael Cooper contributed reporting from New York.


A step in the right direction, even though I think, as Andy has indicated, it's going to be a long haul. Never know though. This could surprise all of us. That would be great.

I love these two guys.....they had to get married! I applaud their resourcefulness!

[Daniel]

http://www.towleroad.com/2007/08/two-men-married.html

The sweetest part....

Fritz says he called McQuillan's mother in California to ask permission to marry her son.

[pnggrad79]

:mad: The judge had to stay the ruling he made striking down the ban on gay marriage and halted applications. These two guys barely made it under the wire. My question is if Iowa votes to ban gay marriage will their marriage license be nullified like those in San Francisco were?:(

[Emproph]

These two guys barely made it under the wire.

My question is if Iowa votes to ban gay marriage will their marriage license be nullified like those in San Francisco were?:(

Not to appear too optimistic about it, but whatever happens, it only takes one marriage to "redefine" the concept of marriage, anywhere, or even in the state of Iowa. Isn't that the entire premise of their complaint?

Every legal marriage in the state of Iowa is now officially null and void, as much as they will ever be null and void. And all because two men are now officially married in the state of Iowa.

They are a living example of the argument for equality. It can't be undone.

[tpdncr4christ]

This was a ruling - and the wagons are already circling for an all out war. Iowa is way too conservative in the most part to allow this to happen long term. The battle is engaged - and the ignorant have the greater numbers.

This comment reminds me so much of Gandalf in return of the King, when he says something about the deep breath before the plunge right before the battle of Pelanor feilds. I love you Andy.

[pnggrad79]

I agree, it's an avalanche that the government can't control. They can't keep us in the closet and they can't tell us we can't get married. This whole thing is preposterous. It's like telling black children in the 50's, yeah, go ahead go to that white school, and then the next day, oops sorry, just kidding!!!! What kind of retarded sense does that make. Freedom is freedom and the longer you keep it down, the more it fights to get out.... You can't give it then snatch it away....The avalanche is rolling people...