It's all over in Iowa? Not so fast

By Elizabeth Matus

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I tell anyone who will listen that I'm from Iowa. To each new acquaintance, I want to embody Iowa. I want them to feel in my handshake the gravity of the country's earliest caucus, to see in my posture the pride I hold in the University of Iowa's acclaimed Writer's Workshop or Iowa State University's edge in agriculture, engineering and design studies. I want them to know in my joy the smell of lilacs in the City of Five Seasons.

Most people I encounter at Stanford have little understanding of my state. In a discussion of “Islamophobia,” I struggled to convince West Coast-centric panelists that Muslims have a home in Cedar Rapids, which claims the first mosque in North America. I cherish having attended a high school where Muslim girls felt comfortable in hijab.

“Queer” became a part of lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender vocabulary in my high school before I graduated, the significance of which I did not recognize until I met activists who hadn't even heard the word before arriving at Stanford. The queer community in Cedar Rapids is visible, vibrant. True, I was raised in the fairly liberal “cultural corridor.” Still, I hear friends from more rural, right-wing Iowa towns support marriage equality and acceptance.

So I am sure you know my heartbreak regarding voters' rejection of three Iowa Supreme Court justices. I am confronted with sentiments of betrayal and loss of trust and pride in a state I constantly praise. Although I saw election results linked to “It's over in Iowa,” I know it is not. Iowa has long had a history of progress and equality.

Nearly 30 years before the Civil War ended, Iowa's Supreme Court renounced slavery; 85 years before Brown v Board of Education, the court integrated our schools. Iowa was first to allow women to practice law.

In 2009, our Supreme Court continued this tradition, unanimously overturning 1998 legislation defining marriage as between only a man and a woman. This decision was not political; it was in accordance with a “constitutional duty to ensure equal protection of the law.” Yes, on Nov. 2, swing-state Iowa swung backward. An insult to a Supreme Court ranked one of the fairest and most impartial.

Still, when I look home I see beautiful people doing beautiful things. Teachers who inspired me continue to foster curiosity and critical thinking. Parents who raise children to be compassionate, educated and informed citizens.

Social evolution is a process every moment of each day. There is always hope for a brighter future.

Elizabeth Matus, 18, a Cedar Rapids native and Washington High School graduate, is a freshman at Stanford University. Comments: lizmat@stanford.edu