Gay marriage celebrates its fifth
anniversary in Iowa on Thursday.
In was on April 3, 2009 that the Iowa
Supreme Court handed down its unanimous Varnum v. Brien
decision which brought for the first time marriage equality to the
Midwest.
The following year, angry social
conservatives successfully campaigned to oust three judges from the
bench. The Republican-led House in 2011 approved a constitutional
amendment which would define marriage as a heterosexual union, but
Democrats have blocked the measure in the Senate.
Speaking to The
Des Moines Register, former justice Michael Streit described
the state's arguments of “protecting procreation” as “pretty
feeble.”
“Why would you let old people get
married over 50 or 60? Why would you let people get married if they
don't intend to have children?” he rhetorically asked.
Streit added: “In all our cases …
we discuss the case after it's argued. So we go back into chambers
and we start with the writing justice [Mark Cady] discussing what we
all just saw … And then the way our group works is we progress
around the table. … By the time we're getting to Justice Appel I'm
thinking, 'This is gong to be unanimous.'”
Massachusetts will celebrate a decade
of marriage equality next month.