Why I am ashamed today to call myself an Iowan

 

By Emily Heyer

On Feb. 1, the Iowa House voted 62-37 to prohibit gay marriages and make recognition of state civil unions or domestic partnerships for same-sex couples illegal.

On Feb. 1, I felt truly ashamed to call myself an Iowan for the first time in my 20 years.

Growing up in Iowa has always been a good thing for me. I went to good schools, I had a good childhood and I've had the opportunity to go to a great college. I have always been taught through my parents and my education to respect the individual and to treat every person how I wished to be treated.  On April 3, 2009, when the Iowa Supreme Court upheld the ruling stating that there is no legality in denying citizens marriage licenses based on sexual orientation, I, an openly straight woman, was more proud of our little state than I can properly put into words.

How Iowa, a state known to others as having lots of corn and some pigs, managed to become one of this country's most progressive and accepting states intrigued me. We're different from other, bigger states like California and New York that are commonly set in debates about social topics. We are not the state the country looks to for up-to-date social awareness. But that day, April 3, 2009, we became a beacon of hope for those looking for equality.

After reading various online articles following the announcement, I researched the decision and its background. What I discovered during this research is that Iowa has been a progressive state for quite some time. In the official Iowa Supreme Court opinion for the 2009 appeal, this fact is reiterated, stating several cases where Iowa was on the fast track of social change.

Seventeen years before Dred Scott v. Sandford, which maintained the rights of a slave owner to treat a person as property, Iowa refused to do the same – our laws were decided then to extend equal protection to people of all races and conditions. Eighty-six years before Brown v. Board of Education, Iowa struck down the idea of "separate but equal." We were the first state to allow a woman into the practice of law (in 1869), three years before the Supreme Court ruling denying women that same right, and 25 years before the repeal of that decision.

Iowa has been on the forefront of social change and equality since its beginning. Our state's ideal has always been absolute equality for all people, and although there have been bumps in the road, when it was demanded, Iowa delivered.

Why then this setback for our state? Why did 62 elected officials decide to take us back into times of inequality, discrimination and hatred for others that we have worked to avoid and rise above? Why let fear and misunderstanding of others corrupt our laws into dictating that some of our citizens are not equal to others? What gave anyone the right to tell two people in love that they cannot get married? Why are we allowing laws that deprive same-sex couples their unalienable rights as citizens of this country – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

I cannot fathom how this can be allowed, how one person can look into the eyes of another and tell them that they do not deserve the same rights, that they are less of a person, that their happiness in life is inferior. On Feb. 1, Iowa shocked me by saying this to its citizens. Iowa shocked me by allowing injustice to openly and cruelly wound its own people.

An argument for the repeal of the decision is that gay couples cannot procreate.  The Des Moines Register quotes Representative Rich Anderson of Clarinda saying "gays don't deserve marriage protection because they can't foster responsible procreation." They cannot have children without help, through adoption or other means. If that is truly the issue, then why not ban marriage for all couples who do not wish to have children? Ban all couples who cannot have children without medical intervention? If not being able to create a child is the issue, then allowing heterosexual couples who do not wish to have children, or who cannot have children to marry should also be illegal.

Rep. Anderson continues this argument, saying, "We want to drive procreation into a stable relationship and procreation only happens between a male and a female. See, a male and a female can do something that a homosexual couple cannot: They can create children accidentally. That's the issue." By allowing this rough definition of a married man and woman (that is, a couple able to accidentally create children), then any man married to a woman who is physically unable to procreate (due to perhaps cancer or a hysterectomy) is in a same-sex relationship. Likewise, any woman married to a man unable to procreate is also in a same-sex relationship. Unable to create a child accidently, a couple like this does not fit Rep. Anderson's ignorant definition.

These "reasons" are just excuses to be argued away with semantics. The true reasoning behind this repeal is ignorance. Ignorance fuels the human race into hurting those who are different from us, and this ignorance fuels hatred. I will liken this to slavery, I will liken this to not allowing interracial couples, I will liken this to the attempted genocide of the Native Americans and I will liken this to the most horrible versions of ignorance and hatred this country has ever seen. They are one in the same.

Not allowing same-sex marriage is a gross injustice and pollution of our rights as citizens of the state of Iowa, and as citizens of the United States of America. I reserve my right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and if I wanted to marry a woman, then you better believe that I retain those rights even if my pursuit of happiness includes one hell of a wedding and a lifetime of marriage.  

If the resolution to ban gay marriage in the state of Iowa passes in the Senate and goes to a vote, I will be first in line to shoot it down and vote to keep the rights of ALL Iowans equal.  I hope that every voter -- despite their sexual preference, their religion, their age or their political party -- does the same, because no person has the right to tell another that they do not deserve the same rights. The patriots of the revolutionary war, the abolitionists, the suffragettes, the leaders of the Civil Rights movement -- they began our fight for equality, and it is our duty to continue it. We are Iowans, and as our state motto says, "Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain." I hope I can be proud once more of my state and its people.

Published on northerniowan.org