Gay marriage is now legal in Iowa, based on a unanimous ruling handed down by the Iowa State Supreme Court today. Here's an excerpt from the ruling:
In this case, we must decide if our state statute limiting civil marriage to a union between a man and a woman violates the Iowa Constitution, as the district court ruled. On our review, we hold the Iowa marriage statute violates the equal protection clause of the Iowa Constitution. Therefore, we affirm the decision of the district court.
Gay couples -- from Iowa and other states -- can begin getting married in 21 days. Opponents of same-sex marriage have reported that they will not appeal the case to the US Supreme Court, but plan to try to pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. According to the NY Times, though, doing so would require "the state legislature to
approve a ban on same-sex marriage in two consecutive sessions after
which voters would have a chance to weigh in." This is not considered likely to happen.
Today's ruling not only affects the lives of LGBT Iowans, but also has a significant national impact as it shifts the terms of the debate about the country's mood on this issue. It establishes a toe hold in the Midwest, and challenges the notion that gay marriage will only be legalized in states with political climates like those of Massachusetts and Connecticut.
This is good news, and is just the kind of fortification that our movement needs. But it also raises big strategic questions for the national LGBT movement.
I'll put this bluntly: Iowa has beat California, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Rhode Island in legalizing gay marriage, turning on its head the very foundation of our movement's national strategy to win marriage equality. Clearly, this isn't a race. But stop and think about it for a second. Iowa got there before California.
We have been operating on the (flawed) premise that the only way to win marriage equality is to make incremental gains in the nation's most progressives states, while more or less ignoring regions like the Midwest and South because they are deemed unwinnable.
This is a misguided path, for the same reasons that the Democratic Party was misguided in its insistence between 2000 and 2004 that it could the win the White House by campaigning in only 16 states. You don't win a national campaign by simply flying over the majority of the nation as you hop from White Parties in Miami to black tie fundraisers in DC to opening night screenings of MILK in San Francisco. You win a national campaign by working in all 50-states and devoting resources to states like Iowa and North Carolina, which have been overlooked because of a thin reading of regional trends and which possess the potential for wins like this. Our national organizations need to get this, and quickly.
This ruling is the result of people and organizations, including Lambda Legal and One Iowa, pursuing a true national strategy. The more we do this, the more we will win.
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