Comments on: Iowa House advances constitutional amendment

By: Virgil

Virgil — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:15:52 +0000

Really? The Fourteenth Amendment demands Gay Marriage? Wouldn’t the legislators of 1865 be surprised!

Evidently it is forgotten that the Supreme Court can only hear what Congress permits it to hear. (See Article III Section II Judicial Stripping) and that further, the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution, from which the suits would derive their basis, has an exception for any item that Congress excepts. The Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 is just such an exception.

It is also forgotten that in this country, at least, the people must be convinced of the rightness of a course of action or it does not take place. In New England and New York the people evidently are willing to undertake the experiment. Iowa also needs its chance at the polls. Mark my words, this is an experiment. 2003 is when the first state legalized Gay Marriage in the United States. It is not certain whether the imposition of Gay Marriage will harm Heterosexual Marriage, whether it will lead to the legalization of polygamy or whether it will in fact strengthen the institution. The matter is blank.

If rights have any meaning, it must mean the right to live under the laws that the people wish to enact. I can not blame Iowa if they don’t want to be at the forefront of a grand sociological experiment.

By: Doctor Whom

Doctor Whom — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 19:29:58 +0000

They must know on some level that they are on the wrong side of history. I have heard some anti-freedom conservatives even admit as much in their more candid moments. It appears that they are doing what they can, while they can, to pander to their base.

By: Skeeter Sanders

Skeeter Sanders — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 18:04:29 +0000

Damn fools. They think they can defy the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by passing an amendment to the Iowa Constitution banning same-gender marriage. They haven’t learned from recent history.

They’ve obviously forgotten the 1996 U.S. Supreme Court ruling (Romer v. Evans) that declared that states cannot single out gay and lesbians Americans for exclusion from rights and privileges guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution that all other Americans take for granted.

This was the ruling that struck down Colorado’s voter-approved state constitutional amendment that struck down all state and local laws that banned anti-gay discrimination and barred the Colorado Legislature and all county and municipal governments in the state from enacting any new ones.

What are the Republicans in the Iowa Legislature going to say and do if the U.S. Supreme Court declares California’s Proposition 8, the federal Defense of Marriage Act and, effectively, all other laws that bar gay and lesbian couples from marrying unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment?

By: Joe Mustich

Joe Mustich — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 15:11:25 +0000

Why are you dudes against marriage? Get a life; it’s the 21st century.
I’ve been with my spouse for 32 years.

Onward to full marriage equality rights now!
Cheers, Joe Mustich, Officiant,
Red Studio Farm, Washington Green, CT USA.