The Midwest: We’re Nicer than you
Lauren Burdette
Iowa is pretty much one of the best states in the country. The Iowa caucuses are a vital threshold politicians must pass, as failed presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani can attest. Iowans are among the best educated Americans (take that Sidwell) and also live in one of the safest states, which explains why we haven’t seen CSI: Des Moines. Granted, this might be because the state’s population is barely over 3,000,000 people, less than half the population of New York City. Whatever.
The most recent event that puts Iowa even higher on the “cool” list is its recent declaration of marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples, placing it at an epic third on the list of states granting legal equality to all its citizens (Massachusetts and Connecticut are the other two).
California voters, you’ll recall, rejected marriage equality with the infamous Proposition 8 in the 2008 election, dealing a devastating blow to civil rights activists across the nation. As a side note, this is why we don’t want popularly elected judge Oftentimes our judges are actually ahead of popular opinion in determining what is constitutional—think back to Brown v. Topeka Board of Education. I highly doubt the population of the South would have voted to desegregate itself without the Supreme Court’s decision and executive enforcement.
Anyways, enter Iowa, a state whose Supreme Court has been a leader in the long, slow slog towards civil rights for the last two-hundred years. A brief history: 1839 rejected slavery, 1868 desegregated its public schools, 1869 allowed women to practice law. On Friday, the Iowa Supreme Court continued its admirable history when it unanimously ruled in favor of marriage equality. Justice Mark S. Cady wrote for the court, “We are firmly convinced the exclusion of gay and lesbian people from the institution of civil marriage does not substantially further any important governmental objective.”
Ironically, this progressive move might hurt Democrats in 2012, when the Iowa Republicans (who voted for Mike Huckabee in the primaries) can unite around moral issues. Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it and in the meantime celebrate the expansion of civil rights to yet another previously disenfranchised segment of the population.
Hooray for the kind hearts and level heads in Iowa!!