WOW! From the heartland of America! It looks like Vermont may be next, if the legislature can override Gov. Douglas' veto.
DES MOINES, Iowa - The Iowa Supreme Court legalized gay marriage Friday in a unanimous and emphatic decision that makes Iowa the third state — and first in the nation's heartland — to allow same-sex couples to wed.
Iowa joins only Massachusetts and Connecticut in permitting same-sex marriage. For six months last year, California's high court allowed gay marriage before voters banned it in November.
The Iowa justices upheld a lower-court ruling that rejected a state law restricting marriage to a union between a man and woman.
The county attorney who defended the law said he would not seek a rehearing. The only recourse for opponents appeared to be a constitutional amendment, which could take years to ratify.
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This was in the comment section of "From The Left," and it is just beautiful.
I found this joint statement from Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal and Iowa House
Speaker Pat Murphy on today’s Supreme Court decision:
“Thanks to today’s decision, Iowa continues to be a leader in guaranteeing all of our citizens’ equal rights.
“The court has ruled today that when two Iowans promise to share their lives together, state law will respect that commitment, regardless of whether the couple is gay or straight.
“When all is said and done, we believe the only lasting question about today’s events will be why it took us so long. It is a tough question to answer because treating everyone fairly is really a matter of Iowa common sense and Iowa common decency.
“Today, the Iowa Supreme Court has reaffirmed those Iowa values by ruling that gay and lesbian Iowans have all the same rights and responsibilities of citizenship as any other Iowan.
“Iowa has always been a leader in the area of civil rights.
“In 1839, the Iowa Supreme Court rejected slavery in a decision that found that a slave named Ralph became free when he stepped on Iowa soil, 26 years before the end of the Civil War decided the issue.
“In 1868, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that racially segregated “separate but equal” schools had no place in Iowa, 85 years before the U.S. Supreme Court reached the same decision.
“In 1873, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled against racial discrimination in public accommodations, 91 years before the U.S. Supreme Court reached the same decision.
“In 1869, Iowa became the first state in the union to admit women to the practice of law.
“In the case of recognizing loving relationships between two adults, the Iowa Supreme Court is once again taking a leadership position on civil rights.
“Today, we congratulate the thousands of Iowans who now can express their love for each other and have it recognized by our laws.”
13 comments:
Nice!!
Guess this shows that Iowa is more progressive than California as really always has been.
Right on.
Awww. from the picture, I was hoping it was news about the forthcoming movie "Lord of the Rings II"
While I cheer my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters in Iowa and celebrate this move toward equality, I am also a realist.
Expect the usual Mormon bigots and their Christian hatred to make an appearance in Iowa within a week.
Christianity is no friend to the LGBT community. In fact, faith is just an pass to get away with discrimination.
"Christianity is no friend to the LGBT community."
Certain strongly Christian LGBT friends of mine would disagree with you. It seems that you have some bigotry of your own to deal with.
dmarks,
I'm guessing your LGBT friends remain Christians, DESPITE Christianity's bigotry toward gays.
Or some of Christianity's bigotry, anyway. The problem here is with the monolithic view of "Christianity" that C. put forth. He plays about as fast and loose with things as Wordsmith does. Almost, but not quite.
I didn't even mention before his confusion between Mormonism and Christianity. However, it is a common confusion and another issue.
Mormons are Christians.
In fact the official name of the Mormon church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Prophet Joseph Smith explained that Jesus Christ is the central figure in the doctrine of the Mormon Church:
"The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it."
Latter-day Saints believe that complete salvation is possible only through the life, death, resurrection, doctrines, and ordinances of Jesus Christ and in no other way.
They aren't "Christians." They are a separate religion that is based upon Christianity, much as Christianity was an offshoot of Judaism.
If you actually get down to the main beliefs they differ quite a bit.
One main difference is that Jews have the torah as their scripture. Christianity added to it and made the Bible. Mormons added to that a sequel called the book of mormon, which christianity decries.
Basically, mormonism is intially similar to christianity until you get further into their beliefs.
From wikipedia's "mormonism" page and the "articles of faith" section. I'll list the ones that don't fit within Christianity at all:
8. We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.
10. We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent ; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacle glory.
There are many other differences, but it is a different religion.
I always thought that people who believe in the divinity of Christ and who believed in his resurrection were Christians.
Who knew?
What I think Christopher is feeling or saying, if I may, is that lots of Christians, in fact, most of the ones I know, are as far from Christ-like as you could imagine. It's like a title they give themselves, which they seem to feel gives them license to discriminate and look down their noses at anyone who doesn't think like them. The worst part is how they pick and choose which biblical passages they will actually follow, based on whether or not it's convenient for them.
Shaw: There is a large overlap.
It seems that you have some bigotry of your own to deal with.
I'm trying to understand the tiny intellect of dmarks.
My guess is, there's even less below the surface than I imagine so this shouldn't take too long or require much effort.
According to dmarks, when someone acknowledges the contempt Christianity, especially, radical, rightwing Christianity, shows for the LGBT community, this is bigotry?
No wonder this loon, dmarks, is lost in the wilderness, defending George W. Bush.
Christopher: You are making stuff up entirely. I was speaking of your blanket statement about Christianity, which was a bigoted generalization itself.
You only narrowed it down to a specific subset of Christianity in your most recent comment.
So it is not "According to Dmarks", since I never made any such statement defending the narrow section of Christianity that you only now started to refer to.
Good job of immitating Wordsmith from "the other side".
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