Defending all Iowa marriages by scrapping DOMA

For every marriage in Iowa to be fully defended by the Constitution, the Defense of Marriage Act had to go.

And on Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court sent DOMA's core provision to history's scrap heap, where so many other misguided, spiteful spasms of officially sanctioned discrimination have gone to die, usually after a long, tough fight. The high court ruled that our federal government can no longer deny the equal benefits and protections of its laws to legally married same-sex couples in states such as Iowa. DOMA, the court majority found, is “unconstitutional as a deprivation of the equal liberty of persons...”

Sure, it was another tight 5-4 split decision. And after issuing its historic DOMA knock out, the court punted, in its ruling on California's Proposition 8, on the broader question of marriage equality for all. That punt still paved the way for equality in the nation's largest state.

But the death of DOMA is a very big deal.

“It's been an incredible morning. I can't believe it,” said Kate Varnum, who, along with her wife, Trish Varnum, were lead plaintiffs in Iowa's landmark 2009 lawsuit taking down a state ban on same-sex marriages.

“What it means is there's no asterisk on our marriage. People will ask us, ‘Are you married?' and we'll say, ‘Yes, but ...' We don't have to say yes, but. We can just say yes.

“It means that our son will never live in a time when his family is not valued,” Kate said.

Battles remain, to be sure. Even here in Iowa, where the tide has turned decidedly toward equality.

But this was another victory for the principle that our government can't simply seek to punish or injure our fellow Americans with ill-conceived laws, based on thin justifications, backed up by legal arguments that melt under constitutional scrutiny. DOMA was a mean-spirited exercise in cynical politics and grandstanding, approved by weathervane jockeys in both parties, and dressed up with lofty talk of traditions and patriotic bunting.

Luckily, it's also a great American tradition for equal protection to knock the legs out from under such laws.

Change is also a tradition. And as long as this fight has taken, it's remarkable how little time it took for DOMA to go from safe politics to what were we thinking? One reason is because the American people have rapidly become more supportive of equality and much less supportive of the scary wedge politics that drove DOMA. Young Americans, especially.

This is yet another warning to parties and politicians who peddle tired cultural outrage. Plenty of room on the scrap heap.