Monday, April 06, 2009

Victory for Equality and what it means for 2012

My recent posts on gay marriage have proven more timely than I expected. In the space of a few days, Iowa has legalized gay marriage, the Vermont Legislature has voted to let same-sex couples marry, and so has the House of Representatives in New Hampshire.

Loony Iowa Republican Congressman Steve King has demanded that the state legislature now enact marriage license residency requirements so that Iowa does not become "the gay marriage Mecca." This strikes me as an odd attitude, as Iowa can certainly use the money.

So hooray for equality! I have one other observation. Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post made a good point last week regarding the impact that gay marriage in Iowa will likely have on the Republican race for the Presidency in 2012. As much as the rest of the country may hate it, winning the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus is still critical to winning a Presidential nomination. Gay marriage in Iowa gives a boost to the Republican Party's social conservatives, who will undoubtedly compete to see who can go the craziest demanding that equality be repealed. Given that the Christian Right and the GOP aren't as cozy with each other as they used to be, this is a significant development.

2 comments:

BuddhaBlog said...

Two questions:

1. If Iowa is now a gay Mecca, does that mean homosexual Muslims must stop and pray to Des Moines 3 times/day?

2. Does this give new meaning to the phrase "cornholed"?

M. Joseph Goodfriend said...

Congratulations on coming up with a joke almost as tasteless as a Congressman mocking religious pilgrimage.