An Iowa native who flew to Iowa today with his gay partner plans to marry here this afternoon. Todd Ruopp — a native of Marshalltown who now lives in Orlando, Florida — landed in Des Moines shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court rulings on same-sex marriage.
“We’ve been making plans about how we want to actually have a ceremony and didn’t know how the Supreme Court was going to rule, but we wanted to find out how they were going to rule before we made our final plans,” Ruopp said during an interview with Radio Iowa. “…When we arrived today, we heard the news. It came across our cell phones, like, immediately — as soon as we landed — and that’s when we started getting excited about the idea of actually having the civil ceremony right away, today, on this historic day.”
The Iowa district court judge who first ruled same-sex couples in Iowa had the right to marry will perform the civil ceremony at the Polk County Courthouse at three o’clock this afternoon.
“One of the really cool aspects is that my parents are planning to come down, pick us up and take us back to Marshalltown and they’re going to be able now to participate in our civil ceremony with Judge (Robert) Hanson,” said Ruopp, who is 48 years old.
Ruopp and Bruce Hunter II — a native of Jacksonville, Florida — plan to hold a marriage ceremony in Florida when they return to their home in Orlando.