In the first victory for marriage equality in the Midwest, an Iowa district court has ruled that it is unconstitutional to deny same-sex couples the right to marry.
According to Lambda Legal, the winning decision in the Varnum v. Brien case on Thurs., Aug. 30, comes two years after six same-sex couples were denied marriage licenses by Polk County Recorder Timothy Brien. The suit was filed in 2005 by Lambda Legal in the Iowa District Court of Polk County, and is the first marriage equality case launched in America's heartland.
Lambda Legal—represented by Camilla Taylor, a senior staff attorney in the organization's Midwest regional office in Chicago—argued that because the Iowa Constitution guarantees equal protection and due process for all, same-sex couples should be allowed to marry. They represented six couples and their children.
The fight wasn't easy. In April 2006, 26 state legislators represented by an anti-gay legal group tried to intervene with the case, but were ultimately denied. The hearing took place in May of this year, and the defense brought in gay parenting experts, as well as other experts. The defense also had the support of religious groups and leaders, the Iowa Civil Liberties Union and others.
Judge Robert B. Hanson's 63-page decision said, 'Couples, such as Plaintiffs, who are otherwise qualified to marry one another may not be denied licenses to marry or certificates of marriage or in any other way prevented from entering into a civil marriage…by reason of the fact that both persons compromising such a couple are of the same sex.'
Polk County, whose population in 2006 was estimated at just over 408,000, is in central Iowa. Its county seat, Des Moines, is also the state's capital.
The Iowa Supreme Court will have the final say in the case.