Married should mean `married’ married in Iowa

By Iowa City Press-Citizen

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Let's be clear: Because of a 2009 Iowa Supreme Court ruling, marriage means marriage in Iowa - whether the couple is gay, lesbian or straight.

- That means lawmakers shouldn't freak out (as some did last year) when the Iowa Natural Resource Commission expanded its definition of “family members” from referring exclusively to “husband, wife and children” to include “domestic partners,” “spouses” and “legal guardians.”

- That means - when issuing birth certificates to children born to a married couple - the Iowa Department of Public Health should start offering married same-sex couples the same options for being listed as parents as the department offers to married heterosexual couples and adopting couples of either sexual orientation. (A lawsuit to that effect is working its way through the courts.)

- And that means neither the Iowa Department of Corrections nor any other state agency should be making any distinctions between gay, lesbian and straight employees when deciding whether to grant extended leave under the provisions of the Family and Medical Leave Act.

Unfortunately, Department of Corrections officials tried to make such a distinction recently when they denied leave to Teresa Heck of Iowa City so she could take time off to care for her wife, Rebecca Andrews, who was undergoing surgery for ovarian cancer.

The department denied the request because the Family and Medical Leave Act is a federal law, and the federal Defense of Marriage Act - which has yet to be ruled unconstitutional, but we do hope the day is coming - would preclude its provisions from being extended to same-sex couples.

Because she was denied leave, Heck, who has worked as a prison guard at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville for nine years, had to use vacation days and sick leave as Andrews underwent surgery to remove a huge tumor from her abdomen. Heck eventually took her grievance to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees as well as the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa.

The Iowa Attorney General's Office, after reviewing Heck's case and state policy, recently determined that, because same-sex marriages are recognized in Iowa, the definition of spouse and the benefits they are entitled to under the FMLA have changed.

“(FMLA) is a federal statute, and the regulations promulgated under that act pretty clearly state that the definition of spouse is a matter of state law, so in Iowa, when the Iowa Supreme Court changed the law in Varnum, the benefits under FMLA would change as well,” said Eric Tabor, who serves as chief of staff for Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller.

As we've written before, we're glad that Iowa has proven ahead of the curve when it comes to recognizing this civil right for its gay and lesbian citizens. But we'll be even happier when that civil right is recognized throughout the nation.

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