Gay marriage laws in iowa

Iowa Becomes First Midwestern State to Recognize Marriage Equality for Gay and Lesbian Couples

WASHINGTON - The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest queer woman , gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, acknowledged the Iowa articulate Supreme Court's unanimous 7-0 decision today ruling that the equal protection provision of Iowa Constitution guarantees gay and lesbian couples the same right to marry as heterosexual couples. As a result of the court's decision in Varnum v. Brien, Iowa becomes the first state in the Midwest and the third in the nation to now recognize marriages for gay and lesbian couples.

"This is a truly historic day for Iowa and a proud day for every American who believes in the promise of identical rights and fairness for all," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. "The Iowa Supreme Court did its job by knowing that gay and lesbian couples who form committed relationships and loving families deserve the similar level of respect afforded to heterosexual couples. The unanimous court made forcefully clear that the state constitution guarantees the same rights and protections for all Iowans. This decision st

Before same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide, couples came to Decorah

Jessica Cummins and C.J. Lucke decided to get married in 2010. But Cummins was living in Alabama and Lucke was in California, and neither express had legalized same sex marriage.

So Lucke had to execute a little bit of research.

"So Massachusetts was doing same sex marriage; they were the first one. I thought for sure, like California, Hawaii, that these would be the states. And so I Google online and I get Iowa," she said.

In April 2009, Iowa became the third state legalize gay marriage, and the first outside of the northeast to undertake so. Lucke stumbled on “Welcome in Decorah," a website with information on how same-sex couples could come to the northeast Iowa town for their weddings. Lucke quickly got in contact with the website’s founder.

"I said, 'we're going to come and elope. We don't know anyone. Can you help us?'" Lucke said. "And so she got the officiant who's now passed away, but he was a great guy. She and her husband were our witnesses. There was a guy who played guitar that was a buddy of theirs."

Di Yin

/

Courtesy of C.J. Lucke and Jessica Cummins

Welcome in D

Iowa Joins States Legalizing Homosexual Marriage

LAW's Robert Volk sees Northeast states following suit, and soon

On Monday, April 27, nearly 400 queer couples in Iowa applied for a marriage license. Granted waivers of Iowa’s three-day waiting period, dozens wed at hastily planned ceremonies on the steps of public buildings.

The number of states that recognize same-sex marriage doubled from two (Massachusetts and Connecticut) to four in April. In the rouse of Proposition 8, which changed California’s constitution and restricted that state’s definition of marriage to opposite-sex couples, Iowa’s Supreme Court voted unanimously to create the state the third in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage. And just days later, Vermont became the first declare to legalize gay marriage through a legislative vote when the legislature overrode Governor Jim Douglas’ veto of a bill allowing gays and lesbians to marry as of September 1.

Gay rights supporters — including Robert Volk, a School of Rule associate professor, expect more states to follow suit.

Volk is the advisor for Outlaw, the regulation school’s lesbian, gay, attracted to both genders, and transgender (LGBT) learner group, and he taught New

Same-Sex Marriage in Iowa

Legally ReviewedFact-Checked

What is Homosexual Marriage?

Same-sex marriage is a marriage that is entered into between two individuals who identify as the same sex. For example, a man who marries a man or a woman who marries a woman.

Currently, same-sex marriage is legal in all 50 states in the United States as well as the District of Columbia. In addition, if the lgbtq+ married couple relocates from one articulate to another, their marriage is

Additionally, if a same-sex married couple relocates from one state to another, their marriage will be acknowledged in both of the states.

Are You a Lawyer? Flourish Your Practice

What Recent Legal Changes contain Occurred in the United States for Same-Sex Marriage?

Congress enacted the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 1996. This act provided that marriage was only between one gentleman and one female as it pertained to federal benefits for married individuals in the Combined States.

The first articulate that legalized lgbtq+ marriage following DOMA was Massachusetts in 2003. Between 2008 and 2009, there were 5 states that legalized gay marriage, including:

  • California;
  • Connecticut;
  • Iowa;
  • New Hampshire;
  • Vermont; and
  • The