Gay marriage supporters rally
from the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier
More than 50 gay and lesbian rights activists from the Hawkeye State, along with supporters from Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Illinois attended "Achieving Marriage Equality in the Heartland," a conference sponsored by the Northeast Iowa chapter of Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians and Gays, or PFLAG. ...
In a unanimous opinion in April 2009, Iowa's highest court ruled the state's 1998 law defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman was unconstitutional. But the fight for equal marriage rights began long before that time, said Sharon Malheiro, a Des Moines attorney and founder of One Iowa, the state's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual advocacy organization.
"We were on the ground talking about it for a couple of years before we filed a lawsuit," said Malheiro, who worked with Lamda Legal to lay the groundwork of Varnum v. Brien. "Then we had groups of people like you in the various communities, so that when issues came up, we could deflect what people were saying."
The conference kicked off Friday night with a barn dance. House Speaker Pat Murphy (D-Dubuque) and Harry Knox, director of religion and faith for the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT organization, joined Malheiro as keynote speakers.
Following the Iowa supreme court decision legalizing same-sex marriage Murphy, along with State Senate majority leader Mike Gronstal, released a statement saying "(W)e believe the only lasting question about today's events will be why it took us so long."
