Though local activists are heartened by the Iowa Supreme Court's recent unanimous decision to extend marriage benefits to same-sex couples—a decision that will remain in effect until at least 2012, the earliest it could be overturned by constitutional measure—leaders behind the marriage equality movement in Illinois say that it will not change their overall strategy, which does not rely on the court system.
State Representative Greg Harris, author of a civil union bill now pending in the State House, is nonetheless hopeful about the broader implications of the Iowa decision. "In the Midwest, there is a core value of fairness," he said at a forum on Saturday. The "will of the people" as expressed through elected representatives, said Harris, is what will ultimately institutionalize marriage equality in Illinois.
The aversion to a court-based strategy, said Equality Illinois' Rick Garcia, has to do with both the make-up of the Illinois Supreme Court and the language of the state constitution itself; the Iowa decision relied upon a "very strong equal protection clause" in that state's constitution.
Though Garcia said that he is "thrilled" about the Iowa victory, he reminded LGBT people in Illinois that while it will now be possible to get married in Iowa, they are still "legal strangers" in their own state.
Camilla Taylor, a senior staff attorney for Lambda Legal who was the lead counsel in the Iowa case, said that she thinks the decision will have a "transformative effect" on the marriage movement as a whole, and in the Midwest particularly. "Everyone will be watching all the happy families in Iowa," she said, and see that the "sky is not falling."
Taylor said that she is confident there will not be a constitutional effort to overturn the decision and downplayed the chance of there being a significant regional backlash.
Her comments were echoed by Lori Blachford, a professor of journalism who lives in Des Moines and was present for the announcement of the court's decision. "I would really be surprised if people would be swayed to write discrimination into constitution," said Blachford. "The common sense of people in Iowa is going to win out."
Blachford also said that she thinks she'll get married this summer to her partner when they celebrate twenty-five years together. "We're so far beyond needing toasters or towels," she joked, but said that the decision gives her and her partner—and their two teenage sons—necessary legal protections.
"We'll have to worry a lot less about stuff that other married couples don't have to worry about at all," Blachford said.