Iowa LGBT rights and marriage equality
Remember that lesbian couple who married in Iowa after being together for 72 years? They have an adorable video about how they met and fell in love.
Towleroad.com reports:
I wrote the other day about Vivian Boyack and Nonie Dubes of Iowa, ages 91 and 90, getting married the other day after 72 years of being a couple. Well, the women did an interview with the Des Moines Register. A-DOR-able.
Find more articles and gay wedding resources in Iowa.
A lesbian couple in Iowa have married, after being together for 72 years. Vivian Boyack, 91, and Alice Dubes ,90, met in Yale, and then moved to Davenport in 1947.
They exchanged vows in the First Christian Church in Davenport on Saturday, accompanied by family and friends, reports the QCTimes.
Reverend Linda Hunsaker told the couple: “This is a celebration of something that should have happened a very long time ago.”
Authored By Joseph Patrick McCormick – See the Full Story at Pink News
Find more articles and gay wedding resources in Iowa.
As stealthily as it reared its ugly head, the power to harness prejudice against gay people to win national elections is shriveling up and dying a well-deserved death. Republicans see that, even if they won’t all say it out loud, and even if presidential hopefuls keep trying to get traction equating being gay with moral failure or disobedience to God.
“A lot of people I talk to understand if we don’t change our position, we won’t win elections,” said GOP political strategist David Kochel, Mitt Romney’s chief Iowa adviser in 2012. He said it at a sold-out Des Moines celebration Saturday marking five years of same-sex marriage in Iowa, an event that underscored how mainstream the issue has become. The U.S. vice president sent a letter of congratulations. A major insurance corporation in an industry that is by nature conservative placed an ad with a rainbow flag logo in the program book.
In the same state where, it was noted Saturday, an emcee once wouldn’t introduce the Des Moines Gay Men’s Chorus by name, it’s now common for a man to introduce another as his husband. With nearly 40 percent of Americans now living in states (17) that recognize marriage equality, and young people overwhelmingly considering it as a non-issue, it’s hard to imagine anyone who beats the drum against gay marriage winning the presidency. The parties won’t nominate one, unless they’re self-sabotaging or in denial about the massive shift in attitudes around the country. If they do, such a candidate won’t win.
Authored By Rekha Basu – See the Full Story at The Des Moines Register
Find more articles and gay wedding resources in Iowa.
Periodically we’ll feature one of our vendors here to let our readers know about some great people who can help you plan the perfect wedding.
Gay Wedding Event Location in Greenfield, IA, USA. Come to the beautiful rolling hills of Southwest Iowa for a romantic wedding (Innkeeper is an ordained wedding officiant) and a lifetime of memories. The famous Bridges of Madison County are only minutes away – or wed poolside at the award-winning Brass Lantern Bed & Breakfast. Every wedding should be as special as the two people getting married. Just 60 minutes from Des Moines airport, 90 minutes from Omaha. Intimate… romantic…. memorable… affordable…. thoroughly enjoyable!
See the Brass Lantern B&B Expanded Listing on Purple Unions Here
Gay Friendly Wedding Vendors in Iowa
After Iowa Representative Steve King suggested that we should’t give rights to “self-professed” gays because there’s no way to independently verify their gayness, Stephen Colbert had an idea.
Towleroad.com reports:
Colbert agrees with Rep. Steve King (R-IA) that “self-professed” gays want to be refused service so they can sue people, and that the only way for gays to be protected is to have their gayness “independently verified”. So Colbert suggests that gays send photos and/or videos proving that you are gay to Steve King’s office for independent verification.
Enjoy!
Find more articles and gay wedding resources.
Five years ago last week, on Election Day 2008, California’s electorate passed Prop 8, marking perhaps the most notable low point in the marriage equality movement as a minority was stripped of a previously recognized constitutional right. As of this week five years ago, only two states – Massachusetts and Connecticut – fully recognized the marriages of same-sex couples.
How far we’ve come since then. And how fast.
Read the full story on the MEUSA News Blog…
Marriage Equality USA closely monitors marriage equality polls, ballots, laws, and lawsuits nationwide, and updates its website with changes in these areas on a near-daily basis. Every Monday we update you with policy and legal updates covering the preceding week.
You may always find the most up-to-date information, including changes that have taken place between these weekly posts, on the Current Policy & Legal Status page on the MEUSA website.
See this week’s updates on the MEUSA news blog…
It’s amazing the lengths these right-wing groups will go to in order to get their way.
LGBTQ nation reports:
Activist organizations spent $833,000 in Iowa last year trying to influence voters to decide whether to keep an Iowa Supreme Court judge who supported same-sex marriage, according to a new report that analyzed spending by special-interest groups and political parties. The nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice, the National Institute on Money in State Politics and Justice at Stake released the report Thursday. In it, they concluded outside influence has turned judicial elections into a special-interest battleground and contributes to the perception that justice is for sale, The Des Moines Register reported.
And they still lost.
Find more articles and gay wedding resources in Iowa.
A gallery who turned away a same sex couple in August for a proposed wedding is suing the state.
Think Progress reports:
In August, the Gortz Haus Gallery outside Des Moines, Iowa refused to host a wedding for a same-sex couple, with the owners citing their religious beliefs as justification. The couple sued, claiming the business violated the Iowa Civil Rights Act (ICRA). Now, Betty and Richard Odgaard, the owners of Gortz Haus, have filed their own suit against the Iowa Civil Rights Commission (ICRC) seeking the right to continue discriminating lest their wedding business fold, as well as nominal damages for the harassment they say they’ve experienced since refusing to host the wedding.
And there’s the fine line. Not a church, but owners with “sincere religious beliefs.” What if those beliefs included a ban on marriage between two races?
Find more articles and gay wedding resources in Iowa.
NOM’s campaign finances are coming under investigation again, this time in Iowa. Joe.My.God reports:
NOM will be investigated for cloaking its donors during the successful campaign to unseat three Iowa state Supreme Court justices who backed same-sex marriage. The Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board voted unanimously to investigate the National Organization for Marriage, saying that if the allegations against it are proven true, the marriage group’s actions would violate state law.
Fred Karger has been tireless in pursuing NOM’s finances. Go, Fred, go!
Find more articles and gay wedding resources in Iowa.
I have a story in this new anthology, coming out on 6/26/16 - Marriage Equality Day!
Four Wedding Stories by Gay, Married Authors.
