"Mixed" reaction to court ruling on lesbian divorce

The head of the Iowa Family Policy Center says there’s a silver lining in today’s (Friday’s) Iowa Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage. Chuck Hurley’s Iowa Family Policy Center provided the legal work for the legislators who challenged the “lesbian divorce” a northwest Iowa judge granted. “We’re very happy that the Iowa Supreme Court did not say same-sex marriage is the law in Iowa now, but we’re very disappointed that they didn’t say the oppositve,” Hurley says. “They could have slammed the door on a rogue judge.” Hurley predicts couples in other “civil unions” from Vermont or other states that have legalized same-sex unions will try to get a divorce in an Iowa court to try to push the issue of gay marriage. Hurley says his group will now focus its attention on the Iowa Senate. “It needs to get off its backside and allow the people to vote on the Iowa Marriage Amendment,” Hurley says. The Iowa House this past March passed a resolution that calls for letting Iowans vote to outlaw gay marriages, but the Senate must endorse the resolution, too, before the issue goes to voters. “The Senate Democrats told me to my face…that they were not going to allow any debate on it,” Hurley says. “Seventy percent of Iowans have shown they support one-man-one-woman marriage and the Senate Democrats need to allow them to have their say.” The Supreme Court’s opinion also said the group of lawmakers who sued hadn’t proved that their own marriages were harmed by the lesbian marriage or divorce. “Marriage affects all of us and so to say that these two parties are a total island unto themselves is just not credible,” Hurley says.