as goes iowa, so goes the nation

I've been watching the same-sex marriage fight in Iowa for awhile now but was still moved to tears yesterday morning to learn that not only had the state's supreme court found in favor of same-sex marriage, but found in favor of same-sex marriage in a unanimous decision. And then I read a joint press release from the Senate Majority Leader and the House Speaker and was pretty much blown away by how progressive Iowa has actually been over the years. (Don't you, too, just love the idea of the Iowa Supreme Court declaring in 1839, decades before the Emancipation Proclamation, let alone before the end of the Civil War, that any slave, just by setting foot on Iowa soil, became free?)

This got me to thinking about the sea change that seems to be occurring these last few months in this particular struggle for civil rights. While it is true that New York State does not yet allow gay marriage, we now have not one but two Senators in Washington, D.C. giving it their full-throated (if not entirely genuine) support; Iowa, as of the end of this month, will not only be allowing Iowan gay couples to marry, but will be allowing out-of-state couples to marry as well; New England is in the midst of several close battles over gay marriage.

I was talking to Nate earlier this evening and he pointed out that, despite such heartbreaks as Proposition 8 and the Arkansas Unmarried Couple Adoption Ban, the truth of the matter is that these anti-gay folks are beginning to sound like... dinosaurs. It's hard to take too seriously a political party whose leaders must publicly and humiliatingly apologize to a man who says things like this (or this or this or this). And other than the infamous (and horrifying) Westboro Baptist Church, do that many people really believe that God is hellbent on destroying America because of the gays? Even Rick Santorum, of man-on-dog fame, more recently seems to believe that gay couples can legitimately love each other (though of course he still manages to sound like a complete and utter fool, and possibly a pervert).

It may be that Iowa's Varnum v. Brien eventually gets overturned (though this seems somewhat unlikely, given the support it has in the legislature and the more arduous process needed in Iowa to do amend the constitution, as opposed to California), but I think, I hope, that this is a bellweather moment.

The decision itself is worth reading, or at least skimming through all the legalese: it is simply yet thoroughly well-reasoned, eviscerating point by point each and every one of the anti-gay marriage arguments.

"In the final analysis, we give respect to the views of all Iowans on the issue of same-sex marriage—religious or otherwise—by giving respect to our constitutional principles. These principles require that the state recognize both opposite-sex and same-sex civil marriage."