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IA: Marriage Equality Advocates Reach Out to Iowans

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

Iowa Marriage EqualityGay marriage proponents don’t use that term. They just call it marriage. And they want most Iowans to think of it the same way.

With an anti-gay-marriage amendment seemingly a dead issue at the state Legislature this year, same-sex marriage supporters are shifting gears from winning over politicians to winning the hearts and minds of Iowa’s general public.

Last year the Iowa House passed an amendment to the state constitution that would define marriage as between one man and one woman. The amendment was blocked by Sen. Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, who has vowed not to allow the issue to go up for a vote.

Full Story from the WCF Courier

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IA: Senate Leader Again Vows to Block Marriage Equality Repeal

Friday, January 6th, 2012

Iowa Marriage EqualityThe leader of the Democrat-controlled Iowa Senate vows to continue to block any attempts to ban same-sex marriage. Sen. Mike Gronstal said this week that he will not allow a vote on an amendment to the constitution that would ban gay marriage.

“I’m not going to be a part of putting discrimination into the state’s constitution,” he said.

Gronstal has stuck to his guns even as opponents of same sex marriage have singled him out as a target of attacks. Bob Vander Plaats, leader of The Family Leader, has previously said Gronstal will be a prime target for defeat in the 2012 election.

Full Story from the WCF Courier

Click here for gay wedding resources in Iowa.

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Iowa Couple Sick of GOP Attacks on Marriage Equality

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

GOP and Iowa Marriage EqualityThe 2012 presidential election campaign has been personal for John Sellers and Tom Helton.

Several candidates in the race for the Republican nomination have pledged to end their same-sex marriage — and the marriages of gay and lesbian couples in Iowa and throughout the country — via constitutional amendment.

In an interview with the Washington Blade, Sellers, 51, a remote engineer for Clear Channel Radio, and Helton, 53, a clerical worker for the Iowa Department of Public Safety, expressed their unease with how the GOP contenders have addressed marriage.

Full Story from The Washington Blade

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Has the GOP Even Read the Iowa Marriage Equality Decision?

Saturday, December 31st, 2011

Iowa Marriage Equality DecisionNow that the campaign is ending in Iowa, here’s a question: Why have the candidates gone around the state bashing the Iowa Supreme Court decision that said persons of the same sex have the right to marry one another? For that matter, why have their fundamentalist and evangelical supporters been bashing it?

Perhaps it’s time — after 2 years — for those folks to read the 69-page decision. All of it. If they do, they’ll hold it to their breasts. For Varnum v. Brien is a ringing endorsement of the freedom all of us — right and left and center and believer and non-believer and candidate and non-candidate — hold dear, the freedom of religion.

“I actually campaigned in Iowa against those justices” who were ousted after the decision, the devoutly evangelical Rick Santorum proudly said during a debate. Newt Gingrich, who lately has said that as president he would ignore court decisions he doesn’t like, helped finance Bob Vander Plaats’s campaign against the three justices who were on the ballot for an up-or-down vote in 2010.

Full Story from Neiman Watchdog

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IA: NOM Attacks Ron Paul on Marriage Equality Position

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011

The National Organization for Marriage, a leading social conservative group that is opposed to giving same-sex couples the right to marry, is striking out at Representative Ron Paul with a new television advertisement, a move intended to blunt the Texas congressman’s rise in the polls a few days before the Iowa caucuses.

The group is just one of the many conservative political groups that are flooding the airwaves with commercials, adding a new element to the still unsettled race.

In recent days, groups working on behalf of former Senator Rick Santorum, former Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Gov. Mitt Romney have bought commercial slots on Iowa’s broadcast stations for the first time.

Full Story from the NY Times

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IA: Did Vander Plaats Sell Family Leader Endorsement to Rick Santorum?

Friday, December 23rd, 2011

Iowa Family Leader Endorses Rick SantorumBob Vander Plaats’ endorsement of Rick Santorum has produced a backlash among conservatives in Iowa, some of whom are accusing the FAMiLY LEADER president of engaging in “pay for play” schemes and selling his coveted support to the highest bidder. Earlier this week, Santorum admitted that Vander Plaats approached the campaign with an indirect solicitation of money to help promote his support, but now other sources familiar with the talks between Vander Plaats and GOP candidates are characterizing the tactics as “corrupt.”

“Clearly the endorsement was for sale — without a doubt,” one source told ABC News’ Shushannah Walshe and Michael Falcone, stressing that Vander Plaats had tried to receive money for his support in past election cycles:

Though Santorum did not specify the dollar amount he and Vander Plaats discussed, multiple sources said he was soliciting as much as $1 million from Santorum and other candidates.

Full Story from Think Progress

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Santorum Gets Family Leader Endorsement

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

Iowa Family Leader Endorses Rick SantorumThe FAMiLY Leader’s Bob Vander Plaats and Chuck Hurley of the Iowa Family Policy Center have endorsed conservative values stalwart Rick Santorum for president, who, despite a strong record of opposing abortion rights and marriage equality, has failed to gain any significant traction in the state.

Santorum is also the only GOP presidential candidate to campaign in all 99 of Iowa’s counties and has participated in over 350 town halls. The Leader’s board has agreed to remain neutral in the caucuses.

Vander Plaats and his group have sought to position themselves as kingmakers of the Iowa caucuses, hosting a presidential speakers forum earlier this year, and asking candidates to sign a 14-point marriage fidelity pledge vowing to oppose same-sex marriage.

Full Story from Think Progress

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Former Governor Approves of Marriage Equality – In Iowa

Saturday, December 17th, 2011

Tom Vilsack and Iowa Marriage EqualityFormer Iowa Governor and current Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack praised the establishment of same-sex marriage in his state — but stopped just short of endorsing it nationwide.

“I appointed the judges — most of the judges — that made that decision. I think it was a good decision,” Vilsack said about the 2009 Iowa Supreme Court case that legalized gay marriage in his state — and provoked a furious conservative backlash and recalls of several of the justices involved.

Still, Vilsack wouldn’t comment on whether that view on same-sex marriage extended nationwide.

Full Story from Politico

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IA: Openly Gay Senator Fears GOP Wins in 2012

Friday, December 9th, 2011

Iowa Marriage EqualityThe only openly gay member of the Iowa State Senate believes marriage equality in the state could “absolutely” be in danger, despite a recent win solidifying a Democratic majority in the chamber for the remainder of the year.

State Sen. Matt McCoy, who’s served in the legislature since 1993 — first as a House member and then as a senator — said marriage rights for gay couples could be in jeopardy in the 2012 election if Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal loses his seat or Democrats lose their majority in the chamber.

“We’ve got to make sure that we win some of those key seats that have allowed us to hold on to a majority,” McCoy told the Blade during an interview in Houston. “So we need to have a very strong Democratic year across the board, so that from the very top of the ticket on down, we’re going to need a strong ticket.”

Full Story from The Washington Blade

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IA: Marriage Equality Netted State $13 Million

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

Iowa Marriage Equality StudyA new report from the Williams Institute shows that just one year of marriage equality in Iowa had great financial benefit for the state.

In the 12 months after the Iowa Supreme Court overturned the ban on same-sex marriage in April 2009, wedding arrangements and tourism by same-sex couples and their guests generated between $12 million and $13 million in spending, resulting in up to $930,000 in new state and local tax revenues.

About 59 percent of the same-sex couples who married in that first year were from outside Iowa, but mostly from neighboring states in the Midwest.

Full Story from Think Progress

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