Iowa

Iowa

The news yesterday came to me as a surprise. Iowa has become one of three states in the Union to legally recognize gay marriage. Honestly, Iowa wasn't even on my radar. I'd suspected New Jersey would be the next state to claim that honorable distinction. And while I'm sure my surprise bespeaks volumes of my level of awareness and lack of adequate participation within the movement to gain equality, I could not be more proud nor feel this win more personally.

So far, the states that have recognized gay marriage, (Massachusetts, Connecticut, and, however briefly, California), have all been seen as overwhelmingly liberal states. And while that's to be expected on this issue, it also makes our progress there easier for social-conservatives to dismiss. The status of our rights in those states can be explained away as radical exceptions and the result of unchecked liberal rule run amok. They have the opportunity to fool themselves into believing that our progress is temporary, unpopular, (immoral), and ultimately fruitless on a national scale. Iowa isn't liberal. They aren't conservative either. They're a moderate Midwest state that's pretty evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. They're overwhelmingly christian and heavily evangelical. Iowa is the Heartland that politicians talk about, the Real America that social-conservatives believed would turn us away. With this ruling, Iowa instead acknowledges and accepts us in the eyes of the law. And while our success there may be tenuous, as it was in California, it is still an undeniable win in the face of great obstacles.

Every judge, every vote, every sign, march, and rainbow sticker demanding equality is an important step. And each voice that speaks out emboldens the next. One in every ten people, across every race, culture, and gender, are homosexual. I hope that someday our children will be horrified that Georgia's state constitution forbade the recognition of our marriage. I hope their generation will never be forced to argue against the hypocrisy of denying 10% of our population the rights held as fundamental by the other 90%.

-Kate