Gay Marriage in Iowa... and Beyond

citizenzen

citizenzen

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Friday, the Iowa Supreme Court on Friday unanimously rejected a state law restricting marriage to a union between a man and woman.

While I think this is great, I'm sure there are some people at interfaith who disagree.

How will allowing gays marriage affect our social fabric and our lives?

Predictions welcome...
 
Eerily quiet here in the Evangelical Vatican today on this issue.

I talked with my wife- apparently it doesn't destroy our marriage. :)
 
seems an inevitablility.. why deny the obvious... l live in a very isolated hilly part of scotland and theres at least 3 gay couples here [have to say all are from south of the border, are they hiding?!]:confused:
 
nativeastral said:
seems an inevitablility.. why deny the obvious... l live in a very isolated hilly part of scotland and theres at least 3 gay couples here [have to say all are from south of the border, are they hiding?!]:confused:
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Maybe the sheep are plug ugly round these them there parts, and the inbred teuchters even worse? ;):D
 
Paladin said:
Eerily quiet here in the Evangelical Vatican today on this issue.

I talked with my wife- apparently it doesn't destroy our marriage. :)
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:D:D Maybe it is because the latest spring blizzard has frozen all communications from the "castle on the hill" known as Focus on the Family. I am thrilled..as one person stated: "this is a great day for civil rights in Iowa."

However, Byran English, spokesman for the Iowa Family Policy center, a conservative group that opposes same-sex marriage, said that many Iowans are disappointed with the ruling and do not want courts to decide the issue.

He also said that the group will immediately begin lobbying legislators "to let the people of Iowa vote" on a constitutional amendment.

OK then, I have a question..in Colorado we, the people, can add amendments to our state constitution by submitting it to the voters to decide. What other states have this way of amending their constitution? I know that California does.

Does this seem like mob rule? Why are so many conservatives whining about "activist judges" anyway? Don't the Courts decide arguments about the meaning of laws, how they are applied and whether they break the rules of the Constitution?

I am not a lawyer but could someone tell me if this ruling could be used to overturn Amendment 8 in California?
 
As usual, the drive-by media is touting this as some great victory for gay rights in the heart of the midwest. I am no lawyer, but if I am not mistaken, the Iowa Supreme Court did not say that gay marriage was a right or that it was correct. They said that the current law prohibiting it was worded in such a way that made that law unconstitutional. The Supreme Court does not make decisions based on what is morally or socially correct or incorrect. It makes rulings on what is legal or what is not legal. How many gay people are there in Iowa…7 or 8?
 
Personally, I'm with shawn. Except I give a s**t in favor of gay rights. Why I should care who other people live/sleep/whatever with is beyond me, but I do think all people should have equal rights in the simplest legal way possible. And that is to simply extend the legal suite of benefits of marriage to all people regardless of sexual orientation.

I really never understood why some people get all uptight about it. It isn't their sex or marital life, so what gives? Also, seems to me that there is far more danger in poor heterosexual marriages than homosexual ones. The sky-high hetero divorce rate causes a lot of kids to grow up in awkward family situations (I was one of them, but we made the best of it). But homosexual couples seem to only have children (in my experience) when they are really stable for a long time. It takes more planning to have kids if you're homosexual, and that seems to assist in ensuring people aren't just having kids when they are not prepared for them.

The effects of gay marriage? A nice little economic boom in the wedding and honeymoon industry? Um, maybe some more kids who need homes will be adopted one day?

I can't really see any negatives coming from more people marrying. I mean, hetero people marry for all kinds of stupid reasons... might as well extend the option to everyone.
 
rebis said:
I am no lawyer, but if I am not mistaken, the Iowa Supreme Court did not say that gay marriage was a right or that it was correct.
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You are correct sir!

What the Iowa Supreme Court did say is, "The Iowa statute limiting civil marriage to a union between a man and a woman violates the equal protection clause of the Iowa Constitution..."

rebis said:
As usual, the drive-by media is touting this as some great victory for gay rights in the heart of the midwest.
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And how do you see it?

rebis said:
How many gay people are there in Iowa…7 or 8?
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Ha ha... funny... not.

According to Google the population of Iowa is 2,926,324. If 5% of the population is gay, that would mean there are 146,316 homosexuals in Iowa.
 
On average, 10% of the human population is gay. Don't ask me where that stat came from, I've long forgotten, but it was from a cross-cultural study in human biology.

Of course, since people move around to more or less tolerant areas, you might find more or less gay people in certain areas. And the whole cultural thing impacts whether or not people realize they are gay and whether or not they come out of the closet.
 
Jamarz said:
OK then, I have a question..in Colorado we, the people, can add amendments to our state constitution by submitting it to the voters to decide. What other states have this way of amending their constitution? I know that California does.

Does this seem like mob rule?
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Yes it does.
Jamarz said:
I am not a lawyer but could someone tell me if this ruling could be used to overturn Amendment 8 in California?
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No, not really. The Iowa Supreme Court only has authority over Iowa. One state supreme court might cite another state's supreme court if they like the reasoning, but each state is autonomous.
rebis said:
As usual, the drive-by media is touting this as some great victory for gay rights in the heart of the midwest.
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It is.
path_of_one said:
On average, 10% of the human population is gay. Don't ask me where that stat came from
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That's from the old Kinsey study. It is considered a gross overestimate, since he was including bisexuals and those who had been "situationally homosexual" (in prison, say, or in the navy) in the absence of women.
 
bob x said:
That's from the old Kinsey study. It is considered a gross overestimate, since he was including bisexuals and those who had been "situationally homosexual" (in prison, say, or in the navy) in the absence of women.
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Good to know. Yuppers... here's some latest data from the Kinsey Institute:

<LI class="style5 style6">The incidence rate of homosexual desire for men is 7.7% and 7.5% for women (Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, Michaels, 1994).
<LI class="style5 style6">6.2% of men and 4.4% of women are attracted to people of the same sex (Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, Michaels, 1994).
<LI class="style5 style6">4% of men and 2% of women consider themselves homosexual while 5% of men and 3% of women consider themselves bisexual (Janus & Janus, 1993).
88.2% of adolescent youths as a Minnesota junior/senior high school described himself or herself as heterosexual, while 1.1% described himself or herself as bisexual or homosexual, and 10.7% were not sure of their sexual orientation (Remafedi, 1992).
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Do you know of any more recent studies that give better statistics, particularly cross-culturally?

It's a bit of a problem, since you have cultures (few, but they do exist) were homosexuality is the norm for at least some groups (especially warriors). We may define that as situationally homosexual, but the question of how sexual orientation is located in between biology and culture is a difficult one to answer- similar to personality, I would imagine.
 
Same sex marriages by other states to be honored in our nations capitol!

The kicker....congress has to approve it as DC can't right its own laws.

Confused Barry Asks for Same-Sex Marriage Vote Back | NBC Washington

Headline is designed to inflame locals...Marion Barry was Mayor of DC for years and now on the city council. the vote was 12-1 with Barry as the only dissenting vote.
 
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