A new poll conducted last month found
that 64 percent of Iowans either are proud of or don't care about gay
marriage.
According to The
Des Moines Register Iowa Poll of 703 adults, 36 percent of
Iowans don't care about the issue, while 28 percent say they are
proud that Iowa allows gay couples to marry. Thirty-four percent
said that they were disappointed.
“Personally, it don't affect me,”
Ray Simmons, 28, told the paper. “It's up to them what they want
to do.”
Iowa will celebrate five years of
marriage equality next month. In 2009, Iowa became the third state
behind Massachusetts and Connecticut to legalize such unions after
the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously struck down the state's law
limiting marriage to heterosexual couples.
“That people say it does not matter
is a sense of resignation or acceptance,” said Jeff Stein, an Iowa
political analyst. “It's a battle that they just don't feel they
can win, so they don't want to fight. They've accepted the situation
and moved on to fight other battles.”
Donna Red Wing, executive director of
LGBT rights group One Iowa, agreed, saying that indifference signals
that “it's the norm.”
“The fact that more people are either
proud or just don't see it as an issue, that says we're winning in a
big way,” she said.