Iowa Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Gay Marriage Case

The Iowa Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case challenging the constitutionality of the gay marriage ban in that state. The case Varnum vs. Brien involves six same-sex Iowa couples who sued Polk County Recorder and Registrar Timothy Brien in 2005, after his office denied them marriage licenses. To me, inasmuch as we are discussing CIVIL law marriage, if equality under the law means anything, then committed couples whether heterosexual or same-sex should be allowed to reap the civil law benefits of civil marriage. This is particularly true since sexual orientation is not - despite the lies and protestations of Christianists and Mormons - a choice. Just as in my view churches must at some point come into the 21st Century and recognize the advances in mental health and medical knowledge and accept the true nature of sexual orientation or else run the risk of dying out, so to must the civil laws recognize modern mental health and medical knowledge regarding sexual orientation. Otherwise, equal under the law becomes a farce. Here are highlights from the Des Moines Register:

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Varnum vs. Brien involves six same-sex Iowa couples who sued Polk County Recorder and Registrar Timothy Brien in 2005, after his office denied them marriage licenses. Polk County District Court Judge Robert Hanson sided with the couples in a ruling last year, but suspended his decision until the high court reviews the matter.

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Oral arguments today pitted the Polk County attorney’s office against the couples, financed and represented by the national gay and lesbian rights group Lambda Legal.An attorney for six same-sex Iowa couples insisted that allowing gay marriage would not open the door to polygamous marriages, despite challenges from several Iowa Supreme Court justices.

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Johnson criticized Polk County’s arguments about possible long-term damage to marriage as “highly speculative,” and cast the law as an intrusion on equal rights.“The question is: Why are same sex couples kept out?” Johnson asked. “They have families, they would benefit from the stability, the financial stability. Their children would benefit.”Johnson concluded his arguments 10 minutes over his allotted time.

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Assistant Polk County Attorney Roger Kuhle in his arguments said a ruling that allows same-sex marriage could harm children in future generations by eventually leading to belief that marriage is unneeded.“We’re saying that, after a generation, maybe two, people will see or could come to believe that if it’s not necessary to have its biological father, or its biological mother, then what’s the need for getting married?” Kuhle said. The statement came in response to a question by Justice Brent Appel, who quizzed Kuhl about their arguments that same-sex marriage could harm children.

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Kuhle took issue with assertions that gay marriage was a civil rights issue. The civil rights issue for gays, he said, was addressed largely in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Lawrence v. Texas, which declared sodomy laws unconstitutional. Now, he said, same-sex couples are pushing an agenda beyond mere civil rights.