NOM: Mission Overturn Iowa Marriage

“NOM has boldly and consistently refused to disclose its donors, so much
so that they challenged campaign disclosure laws in several states,”
said Fred Sainz, HRC’s vice-president of communications. “You don't
fight laws that everyone else has to follow unless you're hiding
something.”

For a constitutional amendment to be passed in
Iowa, both the state house and senate have to approve the measure by a
simple majority in two consecutive general assemblies, followed by a
simple majority of voters.

But Democratic state senate majority
leader Mike Gronstal remains steadfast in blocking such a vote. Though
Republicans may even the 50-seat senate makeup to a 25-25 split,
Gronstal said he would still have the power to render the issue a
stalemate.

“It’s an anachronism,” Gronstal said of the
backlash against marriage equality in his state. “I’m not going to
insert discrimination into the constitution of Iowa. It’s as simple as
that. My father taught me, and his father taught him, that everyone’s
equal before the law.”

Gronstal successfully fought attempts for a
senate vote this year and argued that Tuesday’s judicial retention vote
wasn’t indicative of the people’s dissatisfaction with marriage rights
for same-sex couples.

“Judges are always going to have 20% to
30% of voters against them regardless,” Gronstal said. “Maybe a third of
Iowans voted against them because of the [marriage] issue, and a
quarter voted against them because they always vote against judges. I’m
not sure it’s the clear mandate that some are trying to sell it as.”