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Iowa wins a trifecta of honors
…and Iowa City is the focus of two out of the three In January, Iowa received three surprise honors. Just as many people outside of the state were surprised that Iowa could end marriage discrimination for its same-sex couples, many people—even inside Iowa, this time—were surprised that the state would win nationwide kudos three times in one month. First, Oprah put Iowa into her “100 Things that are Getting Better.” One third of the way down the list is this:
32. Iowa - Legalizing gay marriage in 2009 + producing artisanal charcuterie (try La Quercia’s organic prosciutto) + University of Iowa football landing among the top 25 college teams for the fifth time this decade + ranking second on MainStreet.com’s Happiness Index = one seriously happening Hawkeye State. Second, in the February issue of Men’s Health, Dr Sanjay Gupta himself declared Iowa City the “Healthiest Town in the United States.” Being in Iowa certainly helped the city
win this honor, as low pollution, local farms, and green spaces were included as factors in determining a city’s score. Third and last, using “unscientific but accurate” statistics, “intrepid amateur sociologist” Mike Albo examined such data as rentals of gay movies from NetFlix, whether the state has marriage or domestic partnership rights, and “out” public officials (congratulations, Janelle Rettig!), and determined that Iowa City is the “#3 Gayest City in the United States.”
On Sunday, January 24, The Des Moines Register published an opinion piece by the Iowa Family Policy Center’s public relations director, Bryan English. Of course English is entitled to his opinion, even if he thinks the Supreme Court decision flies in the face of “all human history and the universally understood meaning of the word marriage” (he’s even decided what marriage means on other planets). “All of human history,” claims English, “tells us that marriage is an institution designed to promote the union of one man and one woman”—a ridiculous statement to even the most casual reader of the Bible, and startlingly ignorant of our history and global neighbors. Among the many arguments for discrimination, English says every society that ever recognized same-sex couples “perished shortly thereafter.” Surely we should be warning Sweden, England, France, Canada, Mexico and many other countries,
some of which have been recognizing samesex couples for years. Even Republicans won’t touch the IFPC with a 10-foot pole these days, so having the Register package English’s bizarrely illogical rant on the Sunday opinion page like it was a piece of fine art, worthy of anyone’s time and consideration, illustrates just how important it is for us to keep our positive conversation going, and at the top of our considerable voices. We hear from people all the time who think the fight for marriage equality is won, but the IFPC will never stop spreading their negative message, we can’t afford to become complacent. Remind your friends and neighbors that all families need our support and protection. Write your letter to the editor today! One Iowa has made the process easy by helping you to find contact information for your local paper at this link: http://bit.ly/bP1Kuf
IFPC editorial illustrates Peacefully need for letters to the editor by Jennifer Merriman, One Iowa CounterProtesting
“Another argument, vaguer and even less persuasive, is that gay marriage somehow does harm to heterosexual marriage. I have yet to meet anyone who can explain to me what this means. In what way would allowing same-sex partners to marry diminish the marriages of heterosexual couples? Tellingly, when the judge in our case asked our opponent to identify the ways in which same-sex marriage would harm heterosexual marriage, to his credit he answered honestly: he could not think of any.” — Federal Prop 8 case lawyer Ted Olson writing in Newsweek, Jan. 9. The trial in the lawsuit arguing that Prop 8 violates the U.S. Constitution began Jan. 11 in San Francisco.
US News Page 5
World News Page 6
“You Can’t Have My Grief” Page 9
Anti-gay hate group fails to show, but on January 15, 2010, 600 Iowans rallied to support play about Matthew Shepard What happens when an anti-gay hate group threatens to picket a performance of “The Laramie Project” in Iowa? Well, on January 15, what happened was an excited yet peaceful counter protest with a crowd of approximately six hundred people. Even with freezing temperatures— and having to stand on a snowbank on the side of 1st Avenue—the crowd cheered when cars honked in greeting as they passed. John Chaimov of Cedar Rapids, pictured here holding the “IOWANS DON’T HATE” sign, has now attended three such counterprotests. As is often the case in such situations, the original anti-gay protesters did not show up—this time.
“The Epic of Gil…” Page 14
“Inside Out” by Ellen Krug Page 28