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Last year, when Iowa adopted same-sex marriage, most, if not all of the press it received claimed major surprise. Could this really be Iowa? Was this midwestern state really farther ahead than California and New York? At the time, I shared some of the surprise, and figured the advancement of marriage equality was the product of timing and circumstance. But when I saw this posted to Twitter today, I realized that it had been far more than merely timing and circumstance. Iowa, really is ahead of the curve in terms of creating a space where equality that grow.

Governor Chet Culver proclaims Wednesday January 27 Iowa Gay-Straight Alliance Day. This is the fourth year of Iowa’s GSA Day – and Iowa is the only state in the nation with such an event.

There are a few words thrown around when discussing gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer (GLBTQ) rights. Equality, Tolerance, Liberation are but a few. Unpacking the language used around these issues is a blog post all by itself. But there are two points I want to make today.

Today honors Gay-Straight Alliances in high schools and colleges.

The day, organized by Iowa Pride Network seeks to honor student GSA groups in high schools and colleges that work to end violence and harassment of students including those that are GLBT.

Meanwhile here in Pennsylvania, our currently recognized state-wide organization has two bills introduced in the house, that don’t seem to be going anywhere fast. Maybe the approach is all backwards. By focusing almost exclusively on legislation, we are missing the opportunity to change public perception and build alliances. Yes, in Iowa, the far right has tried to overturn same-sex marriage, but the vast majority of Iowans are fine with letting it be.  We don’t have that broad level of acceptance that Iowa seems to demonstrate. The moderate stays more moderate in Iowa- or so it seems.

GSA’s make a difference!

GSAs decrease absenteeism, name-calling, harassment and assault. According to the 2007 Iowa School Climate Survey, in schools with GSAs, GLBT students are:

· 25% less likely to be verbally harassed because of their gender

· 23% less likely to skip class

· 23% less likely to be physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation

· 21% more likely to report never having been sexually harassed at school

· 12% less likely to be physically harassed or assaulted because of their gender expression

Where is our governor?

This is the fourth year for this event, and I have to admit, I feel a bit jealous. Here in Pennsylvania, I don’t think it is a secret that our governor is more supportive of GLBTQ rights than he is against them. But where is his public statement or any public notice from him on our issues? Governor Rendell hasn’t even publically come out and spoken in favor of the passage of HB 300, a nondiscrimination bill that covers housing, employment, and public accommodations.

I believe the thinking is that most of the state is more conservative, and so it is better for the governor to be quiet. But what does Iowa say about that type of strategy?

We have two democratic candidates running for governor. Take a few minutes to pick up the phone or drop them a letter and ask them: Will you be more voal on GLBTQ issues than the current governor?

via Iowa Gov. Chet Culver proclaims ‘Iowa Gay-Straight Alliance Day’ | ProudParenting.com.

The link below is to a blog by Deanna talking about a Des Moines Register poll and story. The whole story is an excellent read and worth time, but there is one point that isn’t being talked about enough:

The overwhelming majority of Iowans — 92 percent — say gay marriage has brought no real change to their lives.

This is a critically important point that isn’t getting enough consideration. A few points I want to make about it:

• Every state where Same-sex marriage now exists, has potential data to be collected about how the addition of same-sex marriage has impacted their lives. Why isn’t anyone really collecting that data and talking about it?
• Of the remaining 8% in Iowa, how many of these were gay and lesbians? Are any heterosexuals counted in that 8%? If so, what has been the change to their lives?

The radical anti-gay conservatives use fear mongering and all sorts of accusations about how Marriage Equality (or any GLBTW rights for that matter) will cause all sorts of catastrophic change, when this has never happened, and won’t. The best way to counter this fear mongering is with real information about real peoples’ lives.

Iowa Poll on Same-Sex Marriage Disconnect « Deanna’s Ramblings.

Commentary on Republican loss in Iowa special election. Well worth reading.

EXTREME RIGHT WATCH: Sour grapes Republicans spin loss | One Iowa.

If you either do a search or use the Marriage Equality category on my blog, you will see it has been a fairly frequent subject for me. IO most often make a point to differentiate Civil Marriage from Religious Marriage, as the battle for same-sex marriage is one for allowing all couples, including same-sex couples to have the same legal rights and privileges as straight couples. I’m of the belief that the government shouldn’t be in the business of telling Churches what they must be, and vice versa, churches shouldn’t be dictating what government should be doing. But I wanted to post this link and talk about it a bit, since it is an example of an Iowa church offering same-sex marriage. Yes, the push for same-sex marriage is about over 1000 legal rights, but at the same time, marriage is very much about becoming a joined couple- a family- and for many, a church is a space in which that can happen.

Check out the linked story, it is a very good read. Aside from the detailing of these 9 Minnesota couples, the story contains some data about the number of marriage certificates being issues.

The most important take away message however is this:

Brad Sears, executive director Williams Institute of the University of California-Los Angeles Law School, said the views of Americans are changing rapidly. He predicted less and less resistance to gay marriage in Iowa the more time Iowans are around it. That’s what has happened in Massachusetts, where gay marriage has been legal for five years.

“In the end, same-sex marriage is not that exciting,” he said. “It tends to look like marriage in general, and it hasn’t really caused any waves in any communities.”

Groups like the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) which should really just be named the National Organization Against Gay People, spread fear by suggesting dire things will happen if gays are allowed to marry, but the reality is nothing bad has ever happened in any of the communities where gays can get married. No heterosexual marriage has been harmed or impacted in any way.

Wedding unites 9 gay couples at Des Moines church | DesMoinesRegister.com | The Des Moines Register.

I have written before (and will probably say it many times to come) that we are living in one of the most amazing and frustrating period of cultural change. Cultural, as opposed to merely political, although we see it in the political arena all the time. But the actual change itself is happening at a deeper level than our governance systems. Like the shifting of the teutonic plates which lead to an earthquake, our collective cultural experience is the result of coming to grips with the changing understanding of God, and there is just no arguing with stupid.

The other night, my partner and were watching a program about the landscape under the sea and this notion of the shifting plates that cover the earth. In places, these shifts happen extremely slow at a rate of an inch or so a year, and at other locations at much faster rates. When it comes to Science, we have ways of measuring and talking about these changes, but we lack either a methodology or a language for such a discussion when it comes to our collective understandings of God. But the plates of understanding have shifted enough that there is no denying it any longer. Those on the Religious Right have no language or frame of reference except a collection of texts, edited, organized and combined more than 2000 years ago, called the Holy Bible. Even with the most generous interpretations, this anthology, which reflects attitudes, ideas and historical reflection, is a mouthpiece for that narrow understanding:

Homosexuals are not allowed to enjoy sunlight

In his op-ed column for the Maine newspaper The Times Record back on Aug. 7, the executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine said concerning Maine’s gloomy, sunless summer that it is “fitting that this eclipse of human reason (the voting in of homosexual marriage) is mirrored by the disappearance of the sun.”

Heath said in his column that in May, Maine’s elected officials “overturned the law of nature, and in its place paid honor to evil and unnatural practices.” They in fact “allowed a cloud of error to hide the light of reason, and then the rain began,” according to Heath.

Delevan Ogle is suggesting that the weather is a prediction of a JudeoChristian God’s happiness with what is done at the level of state government! I’m not the only one to jump to that conclusion. The single comment left on the blog entry  follows what s/he feels is Ogle’s logic, but to a different conclusion. But on a closer read, I draw a different conclusion- Ogle is arguing with Heath’s op-ed.

But you can’t argue with stupid! It is impossible to use the logic in an attempt to dissuade others from agreeing with it, or to try and highlight the insanity of it. When you do, you just end up looking as stupid as what you are supposedly arguing against. Here are the clues that Ogle doesn’t see things in the same framework as Heath:

if Kansas’s wheat and Iowa’s corn fail horribly, and Missouri’s cows pine away — just wait and see if it comes to pass. If something like this does happen, some Midwesterner should write an op-ed piece about how God hates homosexuality, but is fine with methamphetamine production, for he has not been punishing that.

A few problems here. It is possible to see predictions of Iowa’s agricultural production by this point, isn’t it? What’s up with that? And here is the craziest element of the post- the mention of Methamphetamine. Ogle must be totally off his rocker.

The moral of the story, if you don’t want to look stupid, don’t try to argue with stupid on stupid’s level. Name it what it is, and move on. Everything (else) is moving on, and those trying so hard to cling to what used to be (if it ever really was what used to be) will be left behind eventually.

Homosexuals are not allowed to enjoy sunlight.

‘Remarkable’ gay marriage win for Iowa – ABC News Australian Broadcasting Corporation

On some level, when I first saw this story, I thought it wasn’t much. Like, old news… what’s the point? But it got more interesting for me when I read the section called “Opponents Strike Back,” where Bryan English, the PR director for the Iowa Family Policy Centre (NOT Center) is quoted. He feels the country is being dragged into a constitutional crisis!

Now I actually think there are plausible justifications against same-sex marriage. I don’t personally agree with them, but that is the meat of the issue that people on different sides have differing ideas that all need to be put out there and discussed as the country continues to move forward. When we don’t have 2 sides allowed to lay out ideas, that’s when I think our democracy is in trouble. So, I’m all for hearing plausible ideas against same-sex marriage.

All that English can come up with? The “activist judge” thing. That’s it. Very disappointing if one wants to actually hear ideas. But very promising if you are a marriage equality supporter.

“We’re governed by a constitution, not by seven justices in black robes sitting behind the bench, and it’s time to put them back in their place.

“I think that as much as this decision in Iowa is the next step for the folks trying to force legalisation of homosexual marriage through the courts, I also think it’s perhaps the straw that broke the camel’s back in this constitutional crisis and people are starting to rise up and say ‘enough, this has got to stop’.”

The Iowa Family Policy Centre has already begun lobbying for an amendment to the state constitution to outlaw gay marriage, but the vote on that may not be possible until 2012.

“The people of Iowa and really the people around the country just never thought that the Iowa Supreme Court would be so bold as to ignore the law and ignore the constitution and rule the way they did,” Mr English said.

I’m so confused. That there is a panel of judges, isn’t that part of constitutional law? and didn’t they rule that the ban was unconstitutional- their decision based completely on the state’s constitution? and this was a set of 7 judges who agreed unanimously in the decision?

The constitution protects all citizens, and the couples who filed the suit were good Iowa residents, so I’m surprised to see them characterized as  ”folks trying to force legalisation of homosexual marriage through the courts…”  but here is my favorite line:

just never thought that the Iowa Supreme Court would be so bold as to ignore the law and ignore the constitution and rule the way they did

Wow. Ignore what law? Ignore the constitution.. what? Did they read the justice’s decision? I tried to see if I could determine what degree Mr English holds that makes him more expert than the Iowa Supreme Court when it comes to knowing the law and the constitution, but I couldn’t find any mention.

The article mentions a voter referendum in 2012. There had been talk about a call for a Constitutional Convention this year, so I guess that is definitely off?

Marriage Equality is on the way, there is no doubt about it. With five states now offering same-sex marriage, it isn’t going away. The issue will be how long will the battle be drawn out delaying the inevitable win, and will the opposition decide to actually get involved in the discourse so that marriage equality laws are structure to protect everyone’s rights? The more time and energy wasted on crazy, activist judges verbiage, the more opponents to the issue are disadvantaged. Whatever plausible arguments that they could be raising are overshadowed by the ludicrous stuff they are passing off as rhetoric.

The other possibility is that they have nothing substantive to put out there, and marriage equality for Iowa is here to stay!

‘Remarkable’ gay marriage win for Iowa – ABC News Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

I tagged this the other day as something to write about and post. To what ends will people go to try and stop gays and lesbians from equal rights? I guess it could be argued that ethics and morals are 2 different things, but I’m of the belief that acting unethically is breakdown of moral action. In other words, if you are acting morally- using morality as your justification for your actions- to act unethically is hypocritical. The willingness to advocate breaking the law/ going against the law is astounding.

In most of the verbiage written about Iowa, and definitely all of the verbiage written by the opponents to marriage equality, the fact that the original law was deemed unconstitutional by the Iowa Supreme Court seems to have been forgotten. I get it that they are opposed to same-sex marriage. I can’t wrap my head around the reality that they want what they want at any cost- even if it includes unconstitutional laws or breaking the laws. Our prisons are full of people who want what they want irrespective of the law. And this is different?

I would never want a government where all elected officials think exactly the same. I want an elected body of officials to represent the diverse view of all people, and to question and disagree with each other as they sort out good laws that protect the rights of all. I just think it should be done within the boundaries of acting ethically and lawfully. Is that crazy?

Opponent of Gay Marriage Taken To Iowan Ethics Committee.

The linked story is about Iowa recorders preparing to issue same-sex marriage certificates. A clerk for a republican who is opposed to it, is suggesting that clerks do not have to obey the court order, because it is “not a law, just an opinion.” But the reality is that the opinion, was that an earlier law was unconstitutional.

Are Republicans pushing for anarchy in both big and small ways? In the Minnesota election,  the residents of that state have been without adequate representation as the losing republican has fought to keep it in the courts via appeal even though the democrat was the definite winner. Last week, the Republican governor of Texas seemed to call for secession from the union, and in Iowa an elected official is suggesting officers of the government refuse to do their duty. What’s up with all of this?

State to counties: Obey gay marriage ruling, issue certificates | DesMoinesRegister.com | The Des Moines Register.

As nice as it seems to read that “no circumstance should any Christian attack the character of a person who claims to be homosexual,” the opinions expressed here are little different in content and not that different in tone. There are a few fundamental comments that I’d like to make.

1) Through out history, the bible has served as the basis for many decisions about things. An earlier example was the way that Galileo was condemned for suggesting (correctly) that the Earth moved around the Sun instead of the other way. In more recent history, the Bible has been used to support slavery, and the oppression of women. The Bible was used as the basis to oppose inter-racial marriages. To use the Bible as the basis for any argument is counterproductive to the health and well being of our society. The Bible’s rightful place is use within a religious community, not within the framework of public policy.

2) In our current culture, Marriage has two parts. There is a Civil part where a marriage license is issued by the government and bestows on the couple a set of rights, priveleges and obligations of a legal nature. The other part is for some couples a religious ceremony. We have culturally come to understand these as one thing, when in reality they are not. One is about the legal side of marriage, and the other is about the religious side. Couples do, even today, enjoy one as opposed to both. I know same sex couples who have had ceremonies in a church, presided by a minister, but who lack the legal part of the marriage license. I know straight couples who have been marriage by a justice of the peace and have not had a religious ceremony. The Iowa decision and al other Marriage Equality actions are designed to provide only the legal side of marriage. No religious denomination has to begin to perform same-sex religious ceremonies unless they want to. So this legal decision does not intrude on religious beliefs in any way. It does however draw the distinction between civil marriage and religious marriage. Some are afraid that this will trivialize marriage, but in reality if it does anything it is the exact opposite. It provides another avenue to recognize long lasting committed relationships. For example, my partner and I have been together for 10 years. Additionally straight society has been trivializing marriage for years through the high divorce rate, and through such gimmicky marriages as the proverbial Las Vegas marriage by Elvis.

3) It is incorrect to claim that Iowa has been thrown into an “out-of-control tailspin.” In fact there has been no change in Iowa overall. The only possible change has been an activation by many to attempt to codify bigotry into law. Because of the way Iowa’s government is structured, it isn’t as easy for mob rule as it was in California, so those who oppose equality are working extremely hard to create chaos because there is no other way to derail progress.

4) It is an outright lie to claim that “someone like me (a Pastor) may in the future face criminal prosecution for not being willing to perform a same-sex marriage.” It is appalling first because it is such an outrageous claim, and second because lying is a sin and as a pastor you ought to know better. The law as passed only provides Civil Marriage to same-sex couples. Nothing more.

Lastly, all I can say is that it is offensive to me to read that “homosexuality is a dangerous lifestyle.” This remark suggests that you really don’t know much about gay, and lesbian people. Is this not an attack upon my character- something you spoke against at the beginning? There is no such thing as “the gay lifestyle.” Nor is there anything about my life, my relationship with the man I love or the way we participate in society,than my heterosexual neighbors. My ancestors arrived a year after the Mayflower to Plymouth Colony. They came here to flee religious persecution in England and Europe, and our country formed with a sound basis of the separation of church and state. We live in a democracy and not a theocracy. Our governmental structure has been formed over time, and developed to assure a check and balance system to act in ways that are best for all and still protect the rights of the minority.

Masterpastor’s Blog: Same-Sex Marriage in Iowa.

Really wonderful op-ed from the NYTimes. A gay man with inter-racial parents describes the beginnings of his own family, where Iowa played a major role.

He writes:

…and were wed in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on March 1, 1958. This was five years before Nebraska would strike down its laws against interracial marriage, and almost a decade before the Supreme Court would outlaw miscegenation laws throughout the country in Loving v. Virginia.

As we watch change happen and more states recognize Marriage Equality, we need to remember that these battles are not won overnight. The gap between when Iowa allows inter-racial marriage and Loving v. Virginia was over 10 years! Please check out his own post. It’s good!

Op-Ed Contributor – Iowa’s Family Values – NYTimes.com.