Marriage, after 70 years (video Sunday)

By now, you've heard the news of two women in Iowa who have been partners for 70 years, who got married. Oh, I can just hear the sanctity of marriage tumbling down! (NOT!) It's a very charming story.

Slow move towards acceptance in Iowa

Iowa is the furthest-west state with marriage equality. The other side got their revenge by recalling several Iowa Supreme Court judges.  And, they've been anxious to regain control of the statehouse so that they can put an end to marriages between same sex couples.  But a funny thing happened.  The world did not end, the sky did not fall, and Iowans are really not that interested in reversing the law.

From ABC:

Conservative lawmakers are watching public opinion move away from them on the gay marriage issue, and now fear that voters might not approve a ban even if the GOP can put one on the ballot by winning control of the Legislature in the November elections. 

The shifting views come as a bitter disappointment for the state's prominent Christian conservative community which has long bridled at Iowa's status as a gay rights haven in the heartland — the only place outside the Northeast where gays can marry. 

....Iowa gay rights advocates say they are encouraged by the fact that a ballot measure would come no earlier than 2015, considering it must pass both houses of the Legislature in consecutive two-year general assemblies.

Now is not the time for complacency.  We want to ensure that the Republicans can't get enough seats to try.  But it's encouraging nonetheless, and more evidence that people's views shift with familiarity.

Conservative Iowa Republican converts to marriage supporter

The Advocate reports on a conservative Christian Republican woman in Iowa who has become pro-equality. 

All that changed three years ago when her son met and married a young woman whose mother was in a long-term lesbian relationship. Potts met her future in-laws shortly before the wedding and left the meeting embarrassed about the stereotypes she had carried to the encounter. 

“I was just freaking out: ‘This just can’t happen,’” she recalls thinking before their first conversation. “And then it dawned on me, this wasn’t worth losing my son over. And then once I started hanging around with them, I’m like, ‘This is insane.’” 

A Charismatic Christian who now attends church sporadically, Potts attributes much of her former bias to her faith experience. Her conversations with other Christians focused almost exclusively on sexual activity and dehumanized gay people. 

“I just thought it was all about sex,” she said. “That’s what everything was based on: sex, sex, sex, sex. You were expecting that they were constantly going to be hanging on each other and making out. I’d never thought of anyone as people. It was just all based on sex.”
....
Potts wrote about her evolution last month in an op-ed for the Iowa Gazette. The piece, “Stand Together,” offered a stinging assessment of the Iowa caucuses that took place in January.

“I heard a lot of rhetoric about gay and lesbian Americans that didn’t fit with what I know to be true and what many Republicans believe,” she wrote. “As an evangelical Christian Republican, I know many people who hold conservative values like equality and freedom, but those voices were lost this year. However, I believe in my heart that things are changing. If it weren’t for the loud voices of a few in our party, I do believe more Republicans would stand up in support of marriage equality.”

In an interview with The Advocate, Potts said that many Republicans in Iowa support marriage equality but fear they could be “ostracized” if they speak up. She said that one husband of a party insider told her that he was glad she wrote the op-ed because it reflected his own feelings. 

“The party here is being led by strong right-wing people right now,” she said. “A lot of them would like for it just to be church. They’ve very antigay, and with the abortion issue, too, they’re extremely loud spoken about it.”

Will we ever change the fringe?  I don't think so.  But this story tells us we can reach those who can hear, and it's why we need to keep coming out, and be who we are!

"Faith-based" federal money attacked marriage equality in Iowa

This is a sterling example of why there needs to be a bright line between the government, church, and politics.

From the AP via dealsomaha.com (H/T GoodAsYou)

Federal grant money awarded to a social conservative group to provide marriage counseling also helped pay some of its operational expenses while it was leading an anti-gay marriage campaign, according to grant documents obtained by the Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act.

The $2.2 million received by the Iowa Family Policy Center between 2006 and 2010 helped hundreds of Iowans receive education and counseling, according to the documents. But it also paid for part of the salaries of five employees, rent, telephone, Internet and other expenses while the group was fighting legalized gay marriage in Iowa.

A University of Iowa researcher who was a consultant on the grant also told AP the group declined to provide same-sex couples education and counseling with the money.

Iowa Republican comes out for marriage

The question I have is why the heck they never do this while they're in office. From The Des Moines Register,

Five years ago [Jeff] Angelo, who did not seek reelection in 2008, co-sponsored a bill that would have launched a process to amend Iowa’s constitution and prohibit same-sex marriage.

Angelo has since said his former position on the issue was wrong. He has said his views have evolved because of his friendships with Iowans who have same-sex couples in their families. Those families deserve the same protections of marriage as similarly committed opposite-sex couples, he has said.

Iowa Republicans want to impeach the rest of their court

From Reuters:

Five Republican state legislators co-sponsored resolutions on Thursday to impeach four of the justices on the Iowa state supreme court but the measures are likely to stall this year, lawmakers said.
Iowa voters tossed three justices off the bench last November who joined the court's ruling that legalized same-sex marriage. But four other justices who were part of that unanimous ruling remain on the court.

Representative Tom Shaw said the articles of impeachment he helped draft accuse the four remaining justices of overstepping their authority....

House Democratic Leader Kevin McCarthy issued a statement on Thursday night calling on the Republican leaders in the House to "publicly condemn" the efforts of the five.
McCarthy said impeaching the justices is an "outrageous, extremist proposal."

Republicans: the party of ignorant hate and bigotry. really.

Why he changed his mind

Jeff Angelo, a former Republican State Senator in iowa wrote a great op-ed in the Des Moines Register.I've quoted nearly the whole thing because it's so good.

[T]here came a point when I could no longer ignore how much this attitude hurt the people I know. Because this issue is not about rhetoric; this issue is about people and their freedom to choose a spouse.

Our constitution exists to protect the rights of individuals, and does so by limiting the government's power to control the lives and properties of citizens. A constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, instead of limiting government control, would limit the ability of a select group of citizens to enter into civil marriage, therefore violating the very purpose of our constitution.

When we start allowing constitutional amendments that limit individual control, and give that control over to the government, we open ourselves up to more limitations on our individual freedom. It's easy to feel so passionately about an issue that you don't look at it objectively, but what happens when the individual freedom we're discussing is gun control or universal health care? We need to set aside the rhetoric and look at the slope on which we're starting to slide.

This debate centers on a devaluation of the lives of select group of people. At its worst we are being asked to believe that our gay friends and neighbors are involved in a nefarious agenda, the outcome of which is supposedly the unraveling of society itself. It's tempting to place the blame for all society's ills at one doorstep; indeed, that has been the plight of minorities throughout history. But a villain like that only exists in movies. In reality, the forces we face are all the same: getting a good job, supporting our families and making our communities better places to live.

The stability of marriage and the sanctity of personal liberty are the foundations of conservative values, and we should be glad those values are spreading and being embraced in so many different walks of life. They are universal and fundamental.

There is no reason to think heterosexual marriage is threatened by gays and lesbians getting married. There will be the same number of heterosexual marriages, divorces and children born. Churches can choose not to marry same-sex couples, and churches that do have the religious freedom to perform those ceremonies.

Whether or not you agree with gay marriage, we're all joined by our love of liberty. Free citizens are allowed to disagree and live their lives as they choose without fear of government reprisal as long as life and property are not threatened.

The tenor of this debate does not serve the people Iowa well, and is not in keeping with an Iowa culture known nationwide for displaying respect and generosity of spirit. Each day, Iowans worship with, work with, live with, and love people who are gay. Together we make a great state, facing the same problems and, hopefully, the same bright future.

Attacks on equality continue in Republican Iowa

From the Des Moines Register, the right wing continues its attack on our system of government.

County recorders would be prohibited from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples and the Iowa Supreme Court would be unable to rule on the issue under a new bill sponsored by six conservative House Republicans.

..
Review of laws by the Supreme Court is one of the fundamental pieces of Iowa’s checks and balances system....

It would make the lower courts ruling final and it would also set up the likelihood that Iowa would have pockets of the state were the law was recognized and others were it was thrown out.
....
Massie said his ambition behind the bill is to advocate Judeo Christian ethics as law.

“The Republic is ruled by law. Now the question is from what source do those laws come,” Massie said.

Massie continued: “Everything I do in this building I look at as: I swore an oath to a supreme creator to uphold his law. I know that’s something more of a lecture but I want you to know where I come from. Is this guy just another religious Bible-thumping nut or do I have some reasoning for my thoughts? Historically, I think I have some reasoning for my thoughts.”
...
All the legislative measures restricting same-sex marriage rights face unlikely futures. The senate is narrowly controlled by Democrats and Majority Leader Michael Gronstal of Council Bluffs has vowed to block any such bill.

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day: Mike Gronstal, Iowa State Senate Majority Leader, in an interview

I’m not going to put to a vote of the people anybody’s constitutional rights. Because if I can do that to gay people, I can do it to Catholics, I can do it to Methodists, I can do it to Baptists, I can do it to blacks, I can do it to Hispanics. If I can put to a vote of the people, people’s constitutional rights, then you may be popular today – old white guys like us might be popular today and our rights will be fine – but someday the baby boom will be gone and there won’t be enough old white guys left to protect us from the tyranny of the majority.

Legalizing Discrimination in Iowa

From the Des Moines Register:

It would be legal for an Iowa business owner who cites religious beliefs to refuse to provide jobs, housing, goods or services to people involved in a marriage that violates his or her religious convictions, according to a bill an Iowa House subcommittee will consider on Wednesday.

House Study Bill 50, called the Religious Conscience Protection Act, would allow a person, business or organization such as a charity or fraternal group to deny services without fear of facing a civil claim or lawsuit if they think doing so would validate or recognize same-sex relationships.

The same-sex exclusion is by itself constitutionally troubling, several legal scholars and civil rights activists said.

However, the bill is so broad that it would legalize a wide spectrum of other discriminatory acts, they said. They raised questions about whether services could be denied if, say, a Christian were married to a Jew or if a woman who is 60 married a man who is half her age and the couple could not procreate.

So far this bill is not moving, which is something, I suppose. Tomorrow: a similar bill in Utah that could ban Mormons. Really......

Zach Walls: testimony in Iowa (video Sunday)

Iowa: vote YES!

In Iowa's 2009 marriage equality decision, the state Supreme Court unanimously decided that there was no "constitutionally adequate" justification to limit marriage to opposite sex couples.

This record, our independent research, and the appropriate equal protection analysis do not suggest the existence of a justification for such a legislative classification that substantially furthers any governmental objective.

By all accounts, Iowa has been relatively unaffected by gay citizens getting married. There has been no onslaught of divorce, or sex in the streets. And there is really no question about overturning the decision.

But our "friends" at NOM are in the mood for retaliation, and are running another one of this season's bus tours trying to incite voters to reject three of the Supreme Court justices, who in Iowa are subject to retention elections every few years. It won't change anything--except perhaps put fear into the hearts of elected officials.

As with their previous NOMbus tours, the NOM forces have a glitzy bus but not much else. Equality supporters have been turning out, usually in greater numbers, to witness to LOVE, not division.

The Courage Campaign NOM bus trackers regularly post photos and videos, including interviews with NOM supporters who variously compare LGBT people to goats, claim that gays are a “disease-carrying nasty threat to society," and obsess about "sodomy marriage". Oh, and Brian Brown, NOM leader, defines the ONE difference between men and womenthus: “A mother can nurture and take care of a baby. A man can’t do that.” (That will be a surprised to a lot of fathers I know!)

The Judges are trying to stay above the fray and not engaging the NOMmers in campaigning.

If you are an Iowa voter, PLEASE vote YES YES YES to retain the judges and tell NOM to keep its hate out of state. (For more about NOM's hate campaigns, please see NOM exposed.)

For ammo on repudiating the "activist judges" claim, please see my previous post here.