In Iowa, a historic day for gay couples
Today is the first day same-sex couples can apply for a marriage license in Iowa. The Des Moines couple hopes to be among the first to get one, then get a judge to waive the three-day wait to marry.
"We took a lot of time thinking about what marriage meant to us," Keeton says. "For us, it was binding."
Wolfe, 38, and Keeton, 31, are among couples who plan to marry following the Iowa Supreme Court's unanimous ruling April 3 that barring same-sex marriage violated the state constitution. It made Iowa the third state, after Massachusetts and Vermont, to allow gay marriage.
I don't want to sound defeatist, but this is one battle us conservatives are not going to win. We may be able to delay the "progress" for some time, perhaps even a decade, if we are especially lucky, but at the longest, we will lose this battle in a generation or less (i.e. about 30 years or so).
The only honorable way out for us is the libertarian way out: get the government out of marriage business. No "marriage licenses" for anyone. Perhaps some kind of recognition for any couples living together, but don't let the government call it "marriage", and don't let there be much requirement (as would be implied by "license"). Let it be more like ... "partnership registration".
Smaller, local organizations can defend the traditional values as long as there's need (after all, how long did the Amish communities survive?). But the big government will always be pushed towards the progressive agenda, even when it lacks popular support (and popular support will come as newer generations are brainwashed in the progressive agenda).