Really Proud of Iowa Today

Word comes today that the Iowa Supreme Court has overturned the state ban on gay marriage, making it the first Midwestern state to legalize the practice. This makes me proud, because I am a former Iowan. When I was in high school in Ottumwa, Iowa, I was one of the so-called "drama fags," for my participation in school plays, and I also got called a fag for wearing Birkenstocks to school a few years before they were cool. Thinking about that second example, well, I can kinda forgive it. I mean, I still think "fag" is a funny word - what I mean by that is it still has the capacity to sound transgressive in our absurdly P.C. world, which few words any longer can. When someone like Cartman says it, it's going to be funny, like it or not. And, you know, it's funny when you say it to your friends. Sorry.

I remember that I was putting up a poster for my literary magazine, Chautauqua, in the school cafeteria during study hall. There was a group of...what? Redneck heshers? I had moved to Iowa in 8th grade from Maryland and, even by the end of high school, I still thought of those folks as just Iowans. But redneck heshers works. So, there was a little gang of them nearby and they sent over one of their groupies to ask me if I was a "fag." I followed her back to the table to tell her boyfriends that if they had wanted to ask me out, they could just have done so. They didn't need to send their girl over to do it for them. They could not think of any clever responses, so I think they just told me to fuck off.

Here's the best part of the ruling, apart from that it's another repudiation of prejudice on the part of the courts and apart from that it allows gays and lesbians to get married:

"Same-sex marriages will be permitted in Iowa for at least two years, because the legislative process required to overturn the ruling would take that long. A constitutional amendment would require the state legislature to approve a ban on same-sex marriage in two consecutive sessions after which voters would have a chance to weigh in. Despite opposition to the ruling by Republican lawmakers, Democrats, who control the legislature, have given no indication that they intend to introduce such an amendment." (Davey & Robbins, NYT)

So the Mormons are going to have wait two years to force their bigotry on Iowans. Ha! Take that, Latter Day Dicks!