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The
Des Moines Register
Fight
looms over issue of same-sex marriage
By JASON CLAYWORTH,
from the Web, January 15, 2008
A legislative battle is brewing about
whether Iowa should amend its constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage.
At least 500 people are expected to join religious groups Wednesday in a prayer
session at the Capitol. And, as lawmakers opened the 2008 session on
Monday, some Republicans pushed majority Democrats to bring the issue up for
debate.
"I think that it is worth one hour of debate time," House Minority Leader
Christopher Rants said. "If we can spend an hour debating propane tank
regulation, I think we have one hour that we can debate out of a hundred days to
debate the value of traditional marriage."
The issue of gay marriage gained attention last August when District Judge
Robert Hanson ruled that Iowa's marriage law is unconstitutional. He
ordered the Polk County recorder to permit same-sex couples to enter into a
civil marriage.
The decision has been appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court.
An Iowa law passed in 1998 says that "only a marriage between a male and female
is valid."
At least 48 representatives have signed onto Joint House Resolution 8, which
calls for a constitutional amendment to prevent same-sex marriage. Rants
urged Democrats to push the issue out of committee and onto the floor of the
House for debate.
House Speaker Pat Murphy, a Dubuque Democrat, said lawmakers should wait for the
courts to act.
"We don't see the courts in here trying to subvert the Legislature," Murphy
said. "We shouldn't be trying to subvert the judicial process, either."
Chuck Hurley, president of the Iowa Family Policy Center, is helping to organize
the prayer session, which will begin at 10 a.m. Wednesday in the Capitol
rotunda.
Hurley said that waiting to debate the issue is unfair to Iowans because it
delays the start of a lengthy process required to alter the Iowa Constitution.
Amendments to the Iowa Constitution need to be approved by simple majorities in
both the House and Senate in two consecutive general assemblies and then be
approved by a simple majority of voters in the next general election. That
means if a resolution is approved this year and in the 2009 or 2010 session, it
can be on the general election ballot in November 2010.
If lawmakers wait a year to start the process, the earliest a resolution could
reach the ballot is 2012.
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