The Orbis

Issue date: 4/15/09 Section: News/Features

Media Credit: Flickr user Rua.A. Photo from the PFLAG rally following Iowa's decision.

It has long been believed that the battle for equal rights for gay Americans would be most successfully waged along the Blue State coasts, where progressives provide a more sympathetic audience to the movement’s advocates. In early April, however, that assumption was challenged by significant victories for gay rights advocates in Iowa and Vermont. Starting April 27, 2009, the state of Iowa will allow gay marriages, and Vermont, which currently recognizes civil unions, will recognize gay marriages by Sept. 1, 2009.

Polk County, Iowa, and the state’s Supreme Court may not seem like vanguards of liberalism, but the Lambda Legal team has achieved an unusual success there. Many pundits and observers have asked what made the environment in Iowa different from before, yet it appears that the victory for gay rights in the Varnum v. Brien decision can simply be traced to good lawyers, a strongly constructed case, and excellent judges. In a court-issued summary of the landmark decision, the judges “reaffirmed that a statute inconsistent with the Iowa constitution must be declared void even though it may be supported by strong and deep-seated traditional beliefs and popular opinion.” In this case, no credible charges of judicial activism can be lodged. Finally, the Equal Protection Clause is being justly applied to protect homosexual Americans’ rights.

Civil unions have been recognized in Vermont since 2000, after a contentious state Supreme Court trial and legislative battle. Certainly the civil unions were a step in the right direction for gay rights, but many of the movement’s most fervent activists likened civil unions to a “separate but equal” circumstance that made it difficult to argue for full equality through marriage rights. Luckily, a bill passed on April 7, 2009, that implemented full marriage rights for all citizens. Vermont Governor Jim Douglas vetoed the bill, but the state Senate and Legislature had a strong enough will to override it. The Vermont Congress has not successfully overridden a governor’s veto since 1990.

Gay rights activists across the country have heralded these two victories as proof that respect for their cause has gone mainstream. Massachusetts, one of the most liberal states in the country, has recognized gay Americans’ right to marry since 2004, but this development was unable to spur further reform until now. Iowa and Vermont, considered by many the archetypal ‘heartland’ states, are hopefully the first in a charge of victories for the movement.

The issue of recognition for gay rights is in flux in many states, but most gay advocacy groups intend to ride these recent victories to positive resolutions in other states. Perhaps most prominently, California’s refusal to respect the human and Constitutional rights of its citizens by defeating Prop. 8 is an embarrassment to both the state and the movement. California, Connecticut and Washington, D.C., seem like the most likely followers of Iowa and Vermont.  Civil unions are either permitted or recognized in those states, and D.C. recently announced that they would recognize unions contracted in other states.

Hopefully the results in Iowa and Vermont are not a fluke. The time has come for gay rights to be fully recognized across the country. The hard work of national groups, local activists, and individuals should be rewarded with Constitutional protection.

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