Words to be proud of

Of the billions of words being spent in Iowa's debate about same-sex marriage in Iowa, only a few will be recorded in history.

Most - heartfelt words about the meaning of love and family, about values and tradition, about sin and righteousness - will be lost to time. They will be cataloged, at best, in some dusty archive.

But something amazing happened last week when 19-year-old Zach Wahls stood before state legislators to speak against a resolution supporting a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

“I'm a sixth generation Iowan and an engineering student at the University of Iowa, and I was raised by two women,” he told them and hundreds of Iowans who packed the House chambers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSQQK2Vuf9Q&feature=player_embedded

“The point is, our family isn't really so different from any other Iowa family,” he said.

By Wednesday, Facebook friends from all over the world had shared Wahl's three-minute testimony:

“When I'm home, we go to church together, we eat dinner, we go on vacations,” he said. “But, you know, we have our hard times too.”

Twenty-four hours later, Wahls' speech was YouTube's most watched news video.

“What you're voting on here isn't to change us,” he said. “It's not to change our families, it's to change how the law views us, how the law treats us.”

By week's-end, Wahls' words had been posted and reposted, played and replayed hundreds of thousands of times on computer monitors and TV screens around the world. They started popping up offline, in newspapers and on TV.

“You are voting for the first time in the history of our state to codify discrimination into our constitution,” Wahls told legislators.

And then, they did.

That part will go down in history, too.

Despite Wahls' passionate and reasoned appeal, despite testimony from same-sex families and other Iowans urging lawmakers to reject the resolution, legislators passed it anyway: 62-37.

But though Wahls' words fell on deaf ears in the House, they continue to resonate outside the chamber walls.

“We're Iowans,” he says. “We don't expect anyone to solve our problems for us. ... We just hope for equal and fair treatment from our government.”

Amid a flood of words about same-sex marriage, and a flood of words to come, Wahls' message is more than elegant. It's historic.

“If I was your son, Mr. Chairman, I believe I'd make you very proud,” he says.

As Iowa's son, he makes us all proud.

Comments: (319) 339-3154; jennifer.hemmingsen@sourcemedia.net