Iowa Supreme Court Upholds Gay Marriage

Launch campaign to defeat justices who legalized it

(NEWSER) - Opponents of same-sex marriage have launched a full-scale campaign to vote out the Iowa Supreme Court justices whose ruling legalized the practice. “We need to vote them off the bench to send a message across Iowa that we, the people, still have the power,” Bob Vander Plaats, the Republican politician heading the effort, tells the Washington Post . His staff is planning a full range of mailers, phone calls, and door-to-door campaigning. More»

(NEWSER) - Gay marriages will begin taking place in Iowa on April 24, the Des Moines Register reports. The state supreme court’s ruling today that prohibiting the unions is unconstitutional applies to Iowans as well as visitors, because the state has no residency laws for marriage. “I’m off the wall,” said a Democratic state senator who is gay. “I’m very pleased to be an Iowan.” More»

Advocates and opponents of same-sex unions dig in

(NEWSER) - Iowa’s Supreme Court will review a state law banning gay marriage next month, the Los Angeles Times reports. A district judge last year struck down the Defense of Marriage Act on the grounds that it violated state constitutional rights of equal protection, but nine hours later that decision was appealed to the high court. More»

Man calls encounter 'disheartening'

(NEWSER) - Oskaloosa, Iowa native Scott Arnold is a gay Democrat, but he says he went to a Newt Gingrich event at the Smokey Row coffee house yesterday with an open mind. “I asked him if he’s elected, how does he plan to engage gay Americans. How are we to support him,” he tells the Des Moines Register . “And he told me to support Obama.” And hey, why not? It's what Newt's gay half-sister is doing . More»

Gays have right to marry member of opposite sex, she insists

(NEWSER) - Michele Bachmann returned to one of her favorite issues in her bid to woo Iowa voters yesterday, calling for an end to gay marriage in the state. "Marriage, historically, for all human history, has been between a man and a woman. It hasn't been the same-sex marriage," Bachmann said on Fox News. The candidate added that Iowans support her, pointing to the ouster by state voters last year of three out of seven state Supreme Court justices after conservatives lashed the judges for striking down a law restricting marriage to straight couples. Bachmann was asked earlier this week where she stood on equal rights for gays and gay marriage—click for her headline-generating response . More»