Gay Marriage State by State: A Trickle Became a Torrent

[Surya Gayatri]

Excellent N.Y. Times overview, with good graphic support:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/03/04/us/gay-marriage-state-by-state.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

The Supreme Court is expected to decide this summer whether all 50 states must allow gay and lesbian couples to marry. If the court decides to allow such unions, then the 13 states where same-sex marriage is still prohibited will be forced to reverse their bans. Gay marriage is now legal in 36 states and the District of Columbia. Its status in a 37th state, Alabama, is unclear because of conflicting state and federal court orders. The court will hear arguments on April 28.

A ruling by the Hawaii Supreme Court in 1993 allowing same-sex marriage, along with rising demands for marriage equality nationwide, prompted a backlash. A majority of states, including Hawaii, adopted laws or constitutional amendments that limited marriage to a man and a woman. In 1996, Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act, banning federal recognition of same-sex marriage.

In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. The same year, however, voters in 13 states passed constitutional amendments that defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act, requiring federal agencies to recognize same-sex marriages performed in states where it was legal. Citing that decision in part, dozens of federal district courts have declared state marriage restrictions to be unconstitutional, the Supreme Court has declined to intervene, and the number of states authorizing same-sex marriage expanded rapidly.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/03/04/us/gay-marriage-state-by-state.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

[stone space]

1. Iowa's DOMA (a statute, not an amendment) was passed on 1996, the same year...

...that Bill Clinton signed the federal DOMA.

11 years later, at the end of August of 2007, Polk County Judge Hanson made his historic ruling, and Iowa had its first legal same sex marriage (two ISU students).

Judge Hanson eventually stayed his ruling pending appeal a day or so later, but before he did so, about a dozen couples managed to secure a marriage license from the Polk County Recorder's Office.

These couples went back to their communities and got married, although they were unable to actually submit their paperwork to the County Recorder for another two years after the unanimous Iowa Supreme Court ruling (7-0) in Varnum v Brian in 2009.

Naturally, folks outside of Iowa tend to date gay marriage in Iowa from 2009, but for us living here in the state, by 2009, gay marriage was old news.

It was August and September of 2007 when Iowans woke up to see change happening all around in our communities and in our churches.

Gay Weddings were happening all over Iowa.

This was 4 months before the 2008 Iowa Democratic Caucus on Jan 3, 2008.

It was during that primary campaign that Iowans looked around and saw Change happening all around us.

And that Change we saw happening all around us filled us with Hope.

It was the perfect setting for a political candidate (then far behind) pushing slogans of Hope and Change to come to Iowa looking for votes.

That candidate was able to tap into preexisting feelings of Hope and Change that had come alive in the Iowa atmosphere at the time.

Senator Obama came to Iowa during a Perfect Storm of Hope and Change, and his campaign slogans had great resonance here, since it mirrored exactly what we were feeling at the time.

The rest is history.

[Surya Gayatri]

2. Being originally from Nebraska, that bastion of wing-nuttery just next door...

I say to the liberals in Iowa who brought that off. Blows me away!