Steps Forward

As reported across the nation and readable in this Yahoo! News post, the state of Iowa has recently passed legislation which will allow the free marriage between couples, regardless of sex.
+More/-Less

This comes as somewhat of a surprise to me. Any who know me well know that I fully support the gay rights movement - I view it as a 21st-century equivalent of the civil rights movement to end racial segregation and the movement to end gender discrimination - but nonetheless, Iowa's decision to allow same-sex marriages is a bit off-kilter. The reason is, of course, not because the issue is inappropriate; it's just that Iowa is about the last state I would expect to lead the charge in gay rights. Iowa has been, to my limited knowledge at least, a perennially Conservative state. To make such a liberal move is astounding and touching. I can only hope that the reasoning for the legislation change is a noble one and not a pseudo-event designed to bring publicity to an ailing state. To the best of my knowledge, Iowa is doing fairly well for itself (Michigan having firmly rooted itself in the Red Lantern position, for those of you in the know about the Iditarod), so unless someone is up for re-election in the coming months, I can only see this as a step forward in the fight for human liberties.

Now all we need to do is convince some choice hard-nosed Republicans that Socialism is not a bad thing at this juncture.

-RKS