Friday, April 3, 2009

Iowa City Graffiti: The Birds



I'm afraid I have not yet completely managed to get my head around the Iowa Supreme Court's UNANIMOUS decision this morning. I'm still working (writing this very quickly while on lunch break, at home). Every so often, I remember what's going on and think to myself, HOLY FUCK, but then the moment passes and I forget again. This will probably be happening a lot for a few days.

For those who have asked: yes, the husband and I will be getting married (in as cheap and low-key a way as possible, I think) when the opportunity exists. I've been reading that it will take a while for the 99 county courthouses to get themselves set up to be able to do same-sex marriages (the delay, I'm guessing, has mostly to do with printing new forms? I'm really not sure, and nobody has said), but the Des Moines Register said that it should be possible by April 24. As I officially came out to my parents on April 30 (1997), I'm leaning toward April 30 to do the actual marriage (beats April 25, which is Mom's birthday), but we'll see how things go.

I appreciate all the people who have stopped by to say congratulations. I'm basically out of time now, but there will be more talking about this later, after I've had time to read some stuff and finish the plant-watering I started yesterday and so on and so forth.

Oh, and I would appreciate it if my co-liberals could refrain from acting like this is totally out of character for Iowa to do. The Upper Midwest in general (IA / MN / WI / IL) used to be progressive all over the place. There's a history. Try not to look so shocked that it's Iowa. We're not all a bunch of slack-jawed reactionary bigoted hicks here. If it were Oklahoma, or Utah, then maybe you could be surprised.

Now I want to try something.

I want a million, billion dollars.


Ah. Apparently Lantana pictures aren't magic. Oh well. Worth trying.

EDITED TO ADD: Like it says, the post was written in a hurry. I did not mean to suggest that everybody in Utah or Oklahoma are slack-jawed reactionary bigoted hicks. (For example, some Oklahomans have very taut jaws. I kid, I kid. . . .) I know they're not. But still, Iowa is a good order of magnitude less surprising than Utah would be. It's also worth noting that if you haven't already seen it, there's going to be a backlash coming: the way the Iowa Constitution is set up, it's hard to change, but you can bet that there are people organizing now who are going to try, and a lot of money is going to be changing hands in order to make that happen. No victory is ever so solid that it can't be lost.

One bright spot I see is that even the bigots are likely going to see Iowa benefit from this. We have no residency requirement for marriage here, so anybody can come across the border and marry, which means that not only are we going to be seeing a sharp spike in wedding-related business in the next few months, as couples who have been waiting for something like this start planning and having their own weddings, which will be awesome for those of us tangentially connected to the floral industry, but there's going to be a lot of money coming in from out of state too, and possibly people moving to Iowa. This will be good for Iowa. Maybe not so much for MN/WI/IL/MO/NE/SD, 'cause I assume they're the states that will be losing most of the people who do come here. And if the Iowa economy improves as a result, even the hard-core bigots are going to be a little less worried about it.

It also means that every drought, tornado, car accident, flood, or, you know, livestock escape from now until 2030 is going to be attributed to the Judgment of the Lord Upon the Wickedness of Iowa. But, you know, the 2008 floods happened when Iowa had last (barely) voted for Bush and had a Defense of Marriage Act restricting marriage to one-man-one-woman, so I'm not going to be convinced God cares unless our next disaster is a lot worse than that. Ask Cedar Rapids how bad that would have to be.


10 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is great news! That makes three states to my knowledge. Hopefully Vermont is successful too.

Anonymous said...

Congrats.

Kenneth Moore said...

I say w00t!

I came to work late today (I had to go to my mom's divorce), and a coworker had stuck a sticky note on my monitor saying "Yay Iowa!" Glad I didn't have to Google it, I would have forgotten!

Another misconceived "backwards" place... The frigid Canadian territories recognized same-sex unions years and years before the provinces did. The aboriginal tribes revere "two-spirited" people up there, it's viewed pretty highly, actually, kind of like being marked by god or something.

And, dude, birds scare me. I saw "The Birds" when I was six, I think. They always choose me to poop on, too... :-S

our friend Ben said...

Go Mr. S! I saw the news headline this morning and thought oh, wow. I've not been to Iowa but I hear what you're saying about Minnesota. Congrats!!!!

Wicked Gardener said...

I hope you and your husband can become offical soon! I also hope all the other states get with program so we can all start thinking about other things . . . like plants!

Anonymous said...

I read PATSP this morning, and then I saw the decision on the New York Times and was so happy for you (and for progress)!

Anonymous said...

Jumped up and down when I heard the news. I wish my state would get in line now, we're right on the edge but there is a pretty persistent and vocal opposition. Like Iowa, Maine has a reputation for being more conservative than it really is. Let us know your date, I'll bake a cake even if I have to eat it for you.

Unknown said...

I've been behind, and didn't know about Iowa's coming into the 21st century. I'm thrilled to bits for all of you! Congratulations to you and your dearly beloved on your pending nuptials. Wish I could help with the million billion dollars, too.

daphne said...

I didn't even know that was in the works til I read your post a couple of days ago. I heard the news on the radio at work, but it was kind of overshadowed by the hostage/massacre thing:

I turned to my 2 coworkers and gleefully cried "They Did It!"
They turned to me as ones just woken from a midafternoon nap and asked in unison something like, "They caught the guy?"

I shook off the dissonance and told them that Iowa would be joining us in CT. They were as delighted as I, we high-fived and all. But they heard it from me, not from the radio in the same room. So there's such a thing as Too Much NPR.

Recognizing this, we agreed to break the workplace taboo and bring in some tapes and CDs. Today was Day 2 and so far it's OK.

My opposite-sex partner (a fan of your Lithops profile) and I second Anonymous' suggestion of baking a cake to eat for you. And if you have a favorite beverage, let us know and we'll drink of it and breathe heavily all over our aroids.

Anonymous said...

A very belated congratulations from a former Iowa Citian who is making her way through the archives at Shakesville.

-rachel b