Republicans Push For Ban On Gay Marriage Rejected By Iowa House And Senate

Republicans yesterday attempted to move forward on a resolution that would act to place a ban on gay marriage. Focused on amending the Iowa Constitution so that the state would only recognise marriage as being between a man and a woman, identical resolutions were put forward in both houses, but neither were given the opportunity to progress any further.

Spending almost 30 minutes on a rarely used “call of the House”, the House saw all 100 members, unless previously excused, ordered into the chambers to vote on the issue. The result as expected fell mostly along party lines seeing the proposal fail via a 45-54 result. The Senate did not act to even vote however the 16 Senate Republicans did put together a petition to push it forward, however this fell short by 10 votes.

This move by both the House and Senate to stop any further movement on the issue does appear to be in line with that of the Iowa public with a recent poll showing that 62% didn’t believe gay marriage was deserving of lawmakers time putting it below rating below texting while driving, puppy mill legislation, gun control, payday loans and gambling.

The Iowa Supreme Court ruled in April 2009 that constitutional equal protection require that same-sex couples be allowed to marry, something which have now lead to some Iowans and Republicans to want the Constitution changed to define marriage as between a woman and a man.