Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal Determined To Deny Any And All Efforts To Vote On Gay Marriage

The Des Moines Register reports that despite Republican gains Tuesday during mid-term elections – there is a Republican governor, and the GOP will take control of the Iowa House - Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, a Democrat, says he will continue to deny any and all attempts to allow Iowans a vote on gay marriage and a possible amendment to the state’s constitution. In April, 2009, the Iowa Supreme Court allowed same sex marriage and recent polls appear to indicate that Iowans are almost neatly divided on the issue, however there are some, like anti-gay Chuck Hurley, a former Republican legislator and now head of the Iowa Family Policy Center, which helped (with out-of-state funding) remove three justices Tuesday from the bench who voted to allow gay marriage, who want that law repealed, saying “It’s a self-evident truth that marriage was designed to perpetuate the race. And so when this court showed they’re incapable of recognising seventh-grade biology, they showed that this court had lost it. They didn’t recognise the laws of nature and of God, which our founders founded the country on, and that’s really the core issue.” State Republicans appear determined to try and force a vote on gay marriage, but Gronstal Wednesday reiterated he intends to defend and protect the rights of gays and lesbians and will not be pressured, saying “The easy political thing for me to years ago would have been to say, ‘Oh, let’s let this thing go. It’s just too political and too messy.’ What’s ugly is giving up what you believe in, that everybody has the same rights. Giving up on that? That’s ugly.”