DES MOINES — Iowa became the first state in the Midwest to approve same-sex marriage on Friday, after the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously decided that a 1998 law limiting marriage to a man and a woman was unconstitutional.I am pleased for Iowans. But this state by state thing is tedious. We need a federal amendment granting equal rights for all people (including the right to marry).
Friday, April 03, 2009
Let's Hear It for Middle America!
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State by state is tedious, but it is the usual way. It leads to the momentum for national change. Women has won the right to vote in several states and territories before they won it nationwide.
ReplyDeleteAfter a few states have approved same-sex marriage, attorneys for GLBT folk can use the insterstate commerce act to argue in the U.S. Supreme Court against the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (1996) and for same-sex marriage equality nationwide. That's how Loving v. Virginia outlawed laws against interracial marriage in 1967.
Once DOMA is ruled unconstitutional, the rightwing will try for a national amendment to the Constitution that outlaws gay marriage--but it takess two-thirds of the states to ratify and must first clear both houses of Congress.
Thanks, Mike. Good thoughts.
ReplyDeleteBeing that Minnesota and Iowa have had a long-standing rivalry, I love that Iowa just did an idealogical smack-down on its "progressive neighbor to the north". Take your whoopin' like a big state, Minnesota, and fall in.
ReplyDeleteThe joke in MN was that Iowa stands for "I Owe the World an Apology". I think the world owes them one, now. And a hats off salute.