Gay couples will likely be getting married soon in Iowa and activists on both sides of the issue claim the sight of same-sex unions in America’s heartland will spur other states to take action.
What is less clear is whether the action taken will result in legislation to legalize gay marriage or constitutional amendments to outlaw it.
UNANIMOUS RULING
Supporters and opponents of gay marriage said on Saturday they were energized by the Iowa Supreme Court’s forceful and unanimous ruling on Friday that a state law limiting marriage to a man and a woman violates the constitutional rights of equal protection.
The ruling opens the door for gays and lesbians to exchange vows in Iowa as soon as April 24.
“It really adds to momentum in favor of the freedom to marry already under way, but now going to a higher level,” said Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, a New York-based group working to win marriage equality nationwide.
Illinois state Representative Greg Harris agreed that the Iowa decision shows “the values of basic fairness are spreading from state to state.”
Harris, a Chicago Democrat who is gay, has sponsored a bill that would legalize civil unions in Illinois, giving gay couples many of the legal benefits of marriage. The bill passed out of committee last month and faces a vote on the House floor.
Illinois is one of 14 states that restricts marriage to one man and one woman.
SOUTHERN STATES
Chris Sanders, president of the gay rights group Tennessee Equality Project, speculated that gay couples legally married in such states as Iowa will move to Southern states and fight to have their marriages recognized.
“This ruling will have no direct bearing on what is going on in Tennessee,” he said. “How it will contribute is a critical mass of states will move to support marriage equality and eventually the federal courts will have to take up this matter,” Sanders said.
Though the Iowa ruling points to a favorable trend, opposition to gay marriage is still formidable, said Jon Davidson, legal director for Lambda Legal, a New York-based gay rights organization.
‘INEVITABLE’
“There is certainly strong opposition, with 29 states amending their Constitution,” he said. “But this case will provide additional momentum and we can see the day where same-sex marriage is allowed throughout the United States. People are coming to understand that this is inevitable.”
Opponents reject the notion that legalizing gay marriage is inevitable. They said the Iowa ruling serves as a warning to other states that haven’t enacted constitutional amendments to preserve the status quo.
“This [ruling] will catapult all of those states forward in the marriage amendment process,” said Douglas Napier, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative legal group based in Scottsdale, Arizona.
“I think they’re going to work hard to get it on their Constitution before another renegade court goes out and creates new law,” he said.
That’s exactly what Florida voters did in November, said John Stemberger, an Orlando attorney who led the Florida Family Policy Council in campaigning for the measure. Same-sex marriage was banned in Florida law even before the election, but Floridians voted to enshrine a definition of marriage in the state’s Constitution.
“It’s a classic example [of] why we in Florida amended our state Constitution — to protect it from judges who would not seek to appreciate their limited and restrained role as a jurist,” Stemberger said of the Iowa ruling.
THIRD STATE
The court’s decision makes Iowa the third state to allow same-sex marriage, joining Massachusetts and Connecticut.
The Vermont Legislature is moving toward approving a same-sex marriage bill, but its governor has promised to veto the measure.
For six months last year, California’s high court allowed gay marriage before voters banned it in November.
Andy Pugno, general counsel for the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign, said the Iowa decision was not relevant to California.
“Iowa’s decision looks almost exactly like last year’s narrow decision of the California court when it was interpreting a mere statute in light of constitutional principles,” he said. “It is ironic that they would rely on a decision that the voters essentially reversed.”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not