Notes From Today’s Iowa Supreme Court Gay Marriage Case

Same-Sex Marriage Ban Ruled Unconstitutional: Failure Of Five Arguments Opens Door To Equality

 

Early this morning, the Iowa Supreme Court released its decision, reaffirming that of a lower court, that any ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional under Iowa law. The decision by the judges was unanimous.

While not surprising, given that this was an appeal to an already-reached decision in 2007, it’s important that you know what the arguments against gay marriage were, and what the judges said, because these are the same arguments we hear every day from the Right. It’s time we all learned to defend our selves.

Overall, the five arguments were that gays cannot procreate, children should be raised by a mother and a father, stability of a heterosexual relationship is crucial for a child’s development, the state does not benefit by gay marriage, and the government has an inherent interest in promoting traditional marriage.

All of these arguments were successfully challenged and refuted. Here are a few important arguments and responses from the court decisions:

Gay Marriage Diminishes The Value Of Straight Marriage, Will Lead To More Children Born Out Of Wedlock

From the 2007 decision,

“this court has yet to hear any convincing argument as to how excluding same-sex couples from getting married promotes responsible reproduction in general or by different-sex couples in particular. So far as this court can tell (the law) operates only to harm same-sex couples and their children.”

So yes, gays getting married will not encourage or discourage straights to not have sex out of wedlock, to stay married, or to get married. One marriage does not impact another. If you think it does, you need to examine your marriage, not someone else’s.

Gay Marriage Harms Heterosexual Marriage, And Harms Children Raised In Same-Sex Marriages

From today’s decision,

“The plaintiffs produced evidence to demonstrate sexual orientation and gender have no effect on children raised by same-sex couples, and same-sex couples can raise children as well as opposite-sex couples. They also submitted evidence to show that most scientific research has repudiated the commonly assumed notion that children need opposite-sex parents or biological parents to grow into well-adjusted adults. Many leading organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychiatric Association, the America Psychological Association, the National Association of Social Workers, and the Child Welfare League of America, weighed the available research and supported the conclusion that gay and lesbian parents are as effective as heterosexual parents in raising children.”

The Constitution Does Not Allow Gay Marriage. Marriage Has Always Been Between A Man And A Woman

“The framers of the Iowa Constitution knew, as did the drafters of the United States Constitution, that “times can blind us to certain truths and later generations can see that laws once thought necessary and proper in fact serve only to oppress,” and as our  constitution “endures, persons in every generation can invoke its principles in their own search for greater freedom” and equality.”

“As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes poignantly said, “It is revolting to have no better reason for a rule of law than that so it was laid down in the time of Henry IV.  It is still more revolting if the grounds upon  which it was laid down have vanished long since, and the rule simply persists from blind imitation of the past.”

(photo: Jamison)