We should have known from the way Iowa was always pressed up against Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois (while Kansas, though geographically close, would have nothing to do with it) that there was something different about “the food capital of the world.” We didn’t want to say anything in mixed company, because the Bible Belt isn’t notorious for its acceptance of The Other, be he black, gay, Asian or gaysian. Now our suspicions have been confirmed: The Iowa Supreme Court doesn’t hold the opinion that same-sex unions will destroy everything good, everywhere, and thus assiduously slid past the slippery slope straight into the gaping maw of the Gay Marriage Club.
Court rules dictate that the decision will take about 21 days to be considered final, and a request for a rehearing could be filed within that period. That means it will be at least several weeks before gay and lesbian couples can seek marriage licenses.But Polk County Attorney John Sarcone said the county attorney’s office will not ask for a rehearing, meaning the court’s decision should take effect after that three-week period.
It’s a beautiful day for the gay couples of the state that didn’t long ago flee to the comparatively liberal urban centers that dot the nation. And that may be the biggest irony of the gay marriage struggle so far: while a state most would turn their noses at is letting this go forward, no one in San Francisco is allowed that right anymore, and the legal future of those who tied the knot still hangs in the balance. Still, gay Iowans should be on guard. There are Christians who who are terminally obsessed with the wrongness of their very existence but don’t have a problem eating shellfish and pork, and, as they showed in California, they’ll make disgusting plays to further their cause, pair up with a religion that in their eyes is at best a cult and at worst Satan’s handmaiden, and stir up reptile brain emotions until they’ve ensured the only ones who can be unhappily married is themselves.
