Iowa became the third state in the country and the first from the rural heartland to legalize same-sex marriage when its Supreme Court Friday unanimously struck down the state’s decade-long ban.
Gay advocacy groups hailed the decision as another example of same-sex marriage gaining traction in an increasing number of states, despite a ballot initiative in California last year that banned it there. They also said the emphatic ruling probably will sway other courts, including California’s Supreme Court, which must decide by early June whether the November referendum is constitutional.
“Justices look at opinions from other states,” said Jennifer Pizer, the national marriage project director for Lambda Legal, which brought the Iowa case. “There’s a significant likelihood that (the decision) will influence other states, like California.”
Efforts to legalize same-sex marriage are also gaining political support. On Thursday, the state House in Vermont overwhelmingly approved a bill legalizing such unions, following a similarly lopsided vote earlier in the state Senate. Republican Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas has said he would veto the measure, but gay advocacy groups noted that the House vote was just four short of the number needed to override a veto.
On March 26, the state House in New Hampshire voted narrowly to allow same-sex marriage in that state, sending the bill to the Senate.
Before Friday’s ruling, only Massachusetts and Connecticut allowed same-sex marriage. New York has said it would recognize such unions performed in other states. California allowed same-sex marriage for about five months last year before the ballot initiative banned it.
The strongly worded decision by all seven justices of Iowa’s Supreme Court moves the issue away from more liberal coastal states, where most of the legal and legislative action aimed at overturning bans on same-sex marriage has taken place. While Iowa is home to many conservative Christians and evangelicals, the decision adds to a strong liberal streak that has spawned politically progressive movements.
The Iowa Supreme Court decision upholds a lower court’s ruling that a 1998 state law defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman violates the equal protection clause of the Iowa Constitution.
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