Iowa Marriage

Proclaiming a "rainbow over Iowa, " Evan Wolfson, leader of the group Freedom to Marry says, "equality in marriage has come to America's heartland." No...marriage equality has existed in Iowa since before the first official American settlers moved there in 1833. All adults, gay and straight, are free to marry. Proponents of same sex marriage are attempting to change the very definition of marriage and, therefore, he institution itself. Their successes so far have been in the courts...the most recent: a unanimous ruling issued earlier this month in which the Iowa Supreme Court upheld a 2007 district court ruling that the state's Defense of Marriage law is unconstitutional.

Why Iowa? Gay rights groups say that while the Midwest is culturally and politically conservative, Iowa has an "independent streak." "Independent" is also the way these folks characterize New England where Lambda Legal and other gay advocacy groups are pursuing a "six by Twelve Campaign. Massachusetts and Connecticut and now Vermont already have same sex marriage. The aim of this effort is to achieve legal same sex marriage in all six New England states by 2012.

Iowa is also similar to the New England states in that voters cannot initiate constitutional amendments: the so-far successful remedy for the court decision forcing gay marriage on California. In fact, Constitutional Amendments now protect marriage in 30 states, defining it as between one man and one woman. These 30 were the "easy ones." Now it will get tougher to protect marriage. Hence, the focus on New England....and Iowa. Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage says, "Activists have targeted these states because they think it's going to be easier to convince legislators than the populace."

This may very well be true, thanks in no small measure to Tim Gill. Mr. Gill is a Denver-based software tycoon... founder of Quark...and is perhaps the most powerful force for homosexual activism in American politics.

Never heard of Tim Gill? That's because he's a self-described introvert who rarely speaks publicly and shuns the media spotlight. In 1994, he formed the Gill Foundation, investing huge amounts of his fortune to seed gay-rights organizations in all 50 states. Wanting to elect pro-gay candidates, but seeing that a single out-of-state mega donor could arouse suspicions, in 2005, he formed the Gill Action Fund, which recruits homosexual contributors who write small-to medium -sized checks to favored legislative candidates.

Like many other state legislatures that year, Iowa's was narrowly divided. So all it would take to break the momentum toward a constitutional marriage ban was to tip a few close races. One of those was Danny Carroll, speaker pro-tem of the Iowa House of Representatives. Carroll had sponsored the marriage amendment and guided it to passage in the state House of Representatives, the first step toward getting it on the ballot. In the summer of 2006 he was looking to win his 7^th term. Small donations started flowing in from out of state to his opponent and before he knew what hit him, Danny Carroll lost his election. This is one story. Gill's group flooded the coffers of its favored candidates at the last minute, effectively buying the democrats a majority in the Iowa legislature. They did it again in 2008. Otherwise Iowa would have a marriage amendment...and we wouldn't be looking at the state as a heartland headquarters for same sex marriage.

To protect traditional heterosexual marriage in Iowa, the legislature must approve an amendment to the state constitution in two consecutive sessions before it goes to a statewide ballot. All eyes are on the legislators. Some were essentially elected by outsiders. The citizens of Iowa must let them know who their real bosses are.