Iowa GOP introduces same-sex marriage ban. Again.
This is, arguably, the most dangerous week in the Iowa Legislature’s session. After this week, only bills that have been passed through a committee are eligible for consideration. That means some pretty horrendous stuff can get dropped at the last minute.
That “can” became “did” this morning with the introduction of House Joint Resolution 8, which would add an amendment to Iowa’s Constitution limiting marriage to heterosexual couples, throwing the marriages and lives of thousands of Iowans into chaos. It is the latest effort of Iowa Republican legislators to tell Iowans and the world: if you’re different you don’t belong.
I emailed the sponsors. You can too by clicking here.
Representatives,
You are all listed as sponsors of HJR8, the latest attempt at using the power of the state to banish certain citizens to second-class status. I am demanding you stop this waste of time and abuse of power and immediately pull this bill from consideration by the Judiciary Committee.
My family includes a married couple of the same gender. They deserve the same treatment under the law as my wife and I do. I have a daughter who loves her aunts and has known nothing but love from them. They are her family and your bill would make it so they can never come visit her again.
Follow your oath to uphold the Constitutions of the United States and the State of Iowa and keep your religious views to yourselves. Varnum and Obergefell are precedent, and not a single bad thing has happened to you because of those decisions. The only thing that has happened is more people get to share their lives together with the people they love in their short time on this planet.
You don’t have to agree with it, you don’t have to like it. But it does not affect you, and in America we have freedom, so leave these people alone. Get a hobby. Ride a bike. Start knitting. Do anything other than make laws because this makes Iowa a sadder, meaner place and I don’t think you ran for office to do that but here we are.
Think about the people you’re supposed to represent. We the People. All of us. Not just the ones who agree with you.
Greg Hauenstein
Des Moines, IA
Photo of the Iowa capitol building by Austin Goode on Unsplash