Gays Can Get Married in the Cornfields!!!

A county judge struck down Iowa's decade-old gay marriage ban as unconstitutional Thursday and ordered local officials to process marriage licenses for six gay couples.

Gay couples from anywhere in Iowa could apply for a marriage license from Polk County under Judge Robert Hanson's ruling.

Less than two hours after word of the ruling was publicized, two Des Moines men applied for a license, the first time the county had accepted a same-sex application. The approval process takes three days.

Gary Allen Seronko, 51, was listed as the groom on the form and David Curtis Rethmeier, 29, the bride.

"I started to cry because we so badly want to be able to be protected if something happens to one of us," Rethmeier said.

Deputy Recorder Trish Umthun said she took five calls from gay couples after the judge filed his ruling Thursday afternoon and expected a rush of applications Friday.

County attorney John Sarcone said the county will appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court and immediately sought a stay from Hanson that would prevent gay couples from seeking a marriage license until the appeal is resolved. The Supreme Court could refer the case to the Iowa Court of Appeals, consider the case itself or decide not to hear it.

A hearing is likely to be held on the stay motion next week, said Camilla Taylor, an attorney with Lambda Legal, a New York-based gay rights organization.

House Minority Leader Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, said the ruling illustrates the need for a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

"I can't believe this is happening in Iowa," he said. "I guarantee you there will be a vote on this issue come January," when the Legislature convenes.

Massachusetts is the only state where gay marriage is legal, though nine other states have approved spousal rights in some form for same-sex couples. Nearly all states have defined marriage as being solely between a man and a woman, and 27 states have such wording in their constitutions, according the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Dennis Johnson, the lawyer for the six gay couples who sued in 2005 after they were denied marriage licenses, had argued that Iowa has a long history of aggressively protecting civil rights in cases of race and gender. He said the Defense of Marriage Act, which the Legislature passed in 1998, contradicts previous rulings regarding civil rights.

Roger J. Kuhle, an assistant Polk County attorney, argued that the issue is not for a judge to decide.

Hanson ruled that the state law allowing marriage only between a man and a woman violates the constitutional rights of due process and equal protection.

"Couples, such as plaintiffs, who are otherwise qualified to marry one another may not be denied licenses to marry or certificates of marriage or in any other way prevented from entering into a civil marriage ... by reason of the fact that both person comprising such a couple are of the same sex," he said.

Zarth said:
Iowa? This will get uglier before it gets pretty.

Subrosa said:
crop up

oyaji said:

On what basis? I agree that homosexuals should be able to get married. But I don't see exactly how the bans are unconstitutional. Is sexual orientation a protected class? Did I miss something?

oyaji said:
This judge made new law, is my point.

oyaji said:
And the county bench of bumblefuck Iowa is not a good place from which to make new law.

oyaji said:
This is just an end run around saying that sexual orientation is a protected class. Which is to say, I'll believe it when the Supreme Court says it's true. Until then we are just saying what it should be. The Court gets to say what it is.

This is a better argument. But rational basis review is just a way, really, of imposing judicial personal preference over legislative preference. It's not going to go the way you want it to go if it is reviewed by any one of a wide, wide swath of the judges on the federal bench.

BlastProcessing said:

"Couples, such as plaintiffs, who are otherwise qualified to marry one another may not be denied licenses to marry or certificates of marriage or in any other way prevented from entering into a civil marriage ... by reason of the fact that both person comprising such a couple are of the same sex," he said.

oyaji said:
And the county bench of bumblefuck Iowa is not a good place from which to make new law.

dingoes8 said:

It is mind-boggling that this is considered revolutionary thinking in 2007. How can anyone in their right mind disagree with that statement?

Also, coming from Wisconsin, another state that people assume is full of farmers and hicks... don't underestimate the heartland. There are a lot of intelligent, progressive-minded people here.

Subrosa said:

Well, the unconstitutionality of gay marriage bans is one of those things that's just painfully obvious to any honest jurist, that it doesn't surprise me that it's starting to crop up in places where you wouldn't expect it.

Marigold said:
i don't know why, but i read the headline as "gays can get married to the cornfeds." o_o

Marigold said:
i don't know why, but i read the headline as "gays can get married to the cornfeds." o_o

oyaji said:

Obviously there are right-thinking people everywhere. It just happens to be that most of us are not in those big square states in the middle. It's called reality. Deal with it by going out into the countryside and convincing the people you live with not to behave like retrograde fucktards.

Don't go confusing we people on the East and West coasts with some whole other body; you don't get to waltz in here and call us names without blowback just because you feel hurt and insecure about living in the retard part of the country.

Now Stuart, if you look at the soil around any large U.S. city with a big
underground homosexual population - Des Moines, Iowa, perfect example.
Look at the soil around Des Moines, Stuart. You can't build on it, you
can't grow anything in it. The government says it's due to poor farming.
But I know what's really going on, Stuart. I know it's the queers.
They're in it with the aliens. They're building landing strips for gay
Martians. I swear to God.

Colinism said:
What amazes me the most about gay marriage bans is that religion is protected in the constitution, not to mention most people in the country do favor civil contracts. The push should be on getting laws allowing those civil contracts in each state or better yet recognized at the federal level, and then due to freedom of religion gays can go to any church that will marry them and get the ceremony. Lets be honest here it's about getting the rights thats important, the church part is just for show.

Am I crazy or does this make sense?

DannyDMc said:

Well, yes; thats the way I'd go about doing it.
I think the problem is, though, that the term 'marriage' carries such a big whallop with it. The The Homosexual community want to get the right to officially marry because, anything less than that would seem to be being reduced to a second-class status.