Marriage amendment backers to rally at Capitol

DES MOINES – Red-clad backers of traditional one-man, one-woman marriage plan to flood the Capitol Thursday in support of a constitutional change that overrides a court ruling legalizing same-sex unions.

Chuck Hurley, president of the Iowa Family Policy Center, issued a call to “all Christians and liberty-minded Iowans” to rally at the Statehouse for a “pro-marriage amendment” that backers hope to force to the House floor for a vote Thursday using a long-shot procedural move.

Virtually all efforts to counter last week's Iowa Supreme Court ruling striking down Iowa's 1998 Defense of Marriage Act by trying to place a constitutional amendment before voters have hit dead ends in the House, Senate and the governor's office.

Undaunted, Iowans are continuing to pressure lawmakers and Gov. Chet Culver for action yet during the 2009 session.

“I've never seen anything like it,” said Sen. Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale. “I've been down here for five years and I've never gotten as many emails as I'm getting right now. I'm probably getting four, six or 10 emails per minute during waking hours.”

Zaun said the controversy of the Iowa Lottery's TouchPlay game was the only other issue that came close to generating the kind of public response engendered by the same-sex marriage issue. “I feel sorry for the (Capitol switchboard) operator.”

Sen. David Johnson, R-Ocheyedan, said a petition of discharge he has circulated among senators to move the resolution for a constitutional marriage amendment to the Senate floor garnered 18 GOP signatures but no Democratic support. He expected he would fall short of the minimum 26 votes needed to force the issue.

“Iowans handed the keys to the Legislature and the governor's office to the Democrats and now Iowans have found themselves locked out of their own government,” he said, noting that 28 U.S. states define marriage as between one man and one woman in their constitutions and another 13 states do so by statute.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, has said the court ruled Iowa's civil marriage law violated equal protection guarantees for all people and he opposes a followup attempt to amend discrimination into the Iowa Constitution.

Amendment proponents say it's an issue the people of Iowa should be allowed to decide by direct ballot. To change the Iowa Constitution requires a resolution to be adopted in the exact same form by the House and the Senate of two consecutive General Assemblies before the issue would go before voters for ratification. The earliest such a resolution would clear that process would be the 2011 session.

Another option that has emerged would be for voters to agree to convene a wide-ranging constitutional convention when the issue comes before them on the November 2010 ballot – an issue that by law appears on the ballot every 10 years.

On Wednesday, Culver said the court ruling validated his religious view that churches in Iowa are free to define marriage as solely between one man and one woman. But the justices unanimously decided the Iowa Constitution demands equal protection for all citizens who wish to be married under civil law regardless of gender, he said.

For that reason, Culver said he would be reluctant to support a constitutional amendment that would effectively bar same-sex marriage because the court ruled such action would be unlawful and discriminatory.

House GOP Leader Kraig Paulsen of Hiawatha said GOP representatives will attempt to use a House procedural rule Thursday to bring the stalled House Joint Resolution 6 to the House floor for a vote.

House Speaker Pat Murphy, D-Dubuque, has indicated he would consider any attempt to offer the resolution for a constitutional amendment to be out of order procedurally this year.

Contact the writer: (515) 243-7220 or rod.boshart@gazcomm.com