Wedding-Day Wait Ends For Same-Sex Couples

Written by Tony Leys Tuesday, 28 April 2009 05:42

More than 380 same-sex couples ushered in a new chapter of Iowa history Monday when they applied for marriage licenses under a state Supreme Court ruling that gave them marital rights equal to those of heterosexuals.

Dozens of applicants were granted waivers of Iowa’s three-day waiting period and were wed at hastily planned ceremonies, with the guest lists including national and local media.

In many cases, the happy couples were also joined at county courthouses by protesters bearing petitions boasting more than 17,000 signatures and a message that many Iowans, no matter the law, still oppose gay marriage.

Same-sex couples applied for licenses in at least 47 counties across the state, according to The Des Moines Register’s survey of county recorders’ offices. No state agency keeps track of marriage license applications day to day. Register reporters were in or called each of Iowa’s 99 recorders’ offices Monday to compile data.

More than 25 applicants were from border states such as Minnesota and Nebraska. Those couples, like their Iowa counterparts, had waited 24 days since the Supreme Court’s historic ruling that redefined marriage in Iowa.

gallery Photo gallery: Iowa begins issuing same-sex marriage licenses.

Shelley Wolfe, 38, and Melisa Keeton, 31, both of Des Moines, were the first gay couple in Polk County to marry under the new ruling. Judge Karen Romano quickly agreed to waive the waiting period.

The women wanted to get married Monday, they said, because Keeton is six months pregnant. They have been together nearly three years.

The couple, who also have toddler son, Baxter, shared a religious ceremony in 2007.
“I’ve had a lot of medical issues. To me, it’ll be a lot less stressful because we’ll have legal rights,” Keeton said. “Really, today is about making it legal.”

Gay couples also applied for licenses in several other counties, including Dubuque, Pottawattamie, Harrison, Mills, Fremont and Woodbury.

Range of protests occur across the state

Opponents Monday delivered petitions that asked county recorders to withhold applications from same-sex couples “until such conflict between the Supreme Court’s opinion and the law is addressed by a vote of the people of Iowa.”

Such a vote probably would not take place until at least 2012, under rules specifying how the Constitution can be amended.

No recorders refused to issue licenses Monday, but some had misgivings, and one has threatened to resign, said the state’s most prominent anti-gay-marriage activist, Chuck Hurley, a former legislator who is head of the Iowa Family Policy Center.

“I told them we would defend them all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court,” he said.

He would not identify the recorder threatening to quit.

Hurley turned in a stack of petitions to Polk County Recorder Julie Haggerty. Similar documents were presented around the state. Protests were low-key, Hurley said, because most supporters of traditional marriage were “probably raising children, going to work.”

The Jefferson County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution Monday that asked lawmakers to move against gay marriage.

“We expect the Iowa Legislature to resolve the issue,” said Stephen Burgmeier, chairman of the three-member, all-Republican board. “We hope it either leads to a public vote or to a constitutional amendment.”

Gay-marriage opponents have no legal options because they were not a part of the lawsuit and no federal issues were raised in the case.

Their only recourse appears to be a push for a constitutional amendment, which could be on the ballot in 2012 at the earliest. The Iowa Legislature did not address the issue before lawmakers adjourned the 2009 session Sunday.

“They ran right out of town,” said Bryan English, a spokesman for Hurley’s group.

Click here to view the petitions for traditional marriage.

Some couples marry; others denied waivers

Wolfe and Keeton of Des Moines ran out and got a pastor, the Rev. Peg Esperanza of the Church of the Holy Spirit, who officiated at the ceremony on the courthouse steps about two hours after the high court’s order became official.

About 20 news cameras were at the five-minute ceremony.

“Your lives, girls, have already been entwined as a loving unit. The contract of marriage is most solemn and is not to be entered into lightly but thoughtfully and seriously, with a deep realization of its obligations and its responsibility,” Esperanza said. “No other human ties are more tender, and no other vows more important than those that you are about to make today.”

The ceremony will have to wait for the first couple to seek to marry in Scott County, Tearese Bomar, 22, and Shamera Page, 27. Their request for a waiver was turned down by Judge James Kelley, who would not comment on the decision, except to say the couple lacked the necessary emergency reason.

Bomar left dejected but said that she and Page would try another judge.
“I don’t believe he wanted us to get married today,” she said. “Why do we have to keep waiting when we’ve already waited long enough?”

Denny Schrock and Patrick Phillips-Schrock wore tuxedos to the recorder’s office in Des Moines. They have been together five years, and they shared a commitment ceremony three years ago at First Unitarian Church.

“I didn’t think this would happen in my lifetime,” said Phillips-Schrock, 58, a retired high school French teacher from Urbandale. “It’s incredible. In Iowa, of all places.”

Iowa is the third state to allow same-sex marriage, along with Massachusetts and Connecticut. California allowed gay marriage for six months last year until the state’s high court banned it in November. Vermont passed a law that will take effect in September.

Four couples were wed in Dubuque on Monday after Judge Monica Ackley granted them waivers.

Ackley said she rarely denies the requests.

“I pretty much knew I was OK with it,” she said. “This is a kind of circumstance of hope. When we can present that kind of atmosphere to the general public, I’m all for that.”

Ready to officiate, but no one to marry

Monday was a bit of a letdown for the Rev. Susan Millett of Burlington, who had expected to marry some same-sex couples.

“I was ready for it. I was in my rock ’n’ roll clothes,” said Millett, 53, who was dressed in a red blazer, black pants and a polka-dot boutonniere.

Millett has six same-sex weddings scheduled through June. They include a Kansas City couple who thought they were calling Des Moines when they reached the Des Moines County recorder’s office. The couple decided to drive the extra distance.

“I guess they liked me and they liked how open the recorder … was about the process,” Millett said. “I don’t think it should be an issue, even here in the Midwest.”

As television cameras surrounded dozens of couples in line in Des Moines, Lori Blachford talked about how life with her partner of 25 years, Karen Utke, was about to change.

Blachford first introduced Utke as “my friend,” then stuttered and settled on “my Karen.” They have two sons, age 13 and 17, conceived with an anonymous sperm donor.

“They’ve grown up with us just acting like a married couple and in a normal family,” Blachford said. “But they understand the legal issues. They realize the inequity. They don’t understand why we should be treated any different.”

The couple plan to marry in the summer.

“It’s a little anti-climactic to us,” Blachford said. “Twenty-five years of married life, it kind of seems silly to organize a ceremony. But we’re thrilled to be able to do it.”

Some people were less than thrilled Monday in Orange City, where a dozen opponents of gay marriage shivered on the steps of the Sioux County Courthouse and waited to hand over their petition.

“We just feel this type of judicial decision not only doesn’t reflect what most Iowans believe, but it’s also harmful to our state and to our country,” said Kurt Korver, 42, an Orange City doctor. “If a neighborhood is filled with homosexual couples, you wouldn’t want to have kids in that neighborhood. The purpose of government is to restrain bad behavior for the good of society.”

Ramona Brown, 27, and Neva Stewart, 28, waited until late afternoon to file for a marriage license at the Pottawattamie County recorder’s office in Council Bluffs. Of the 28 same-sex couples who applied there, they were the 11th from Nebraska. But they were the only African-Americans.

“I don’t feel any different,” Stewart, said. “We’re in love and wanted to do this for a while.”

The Omaha couple with four children will marry in June. They hope to adopt another child and maybe move to Des Moines.

“We’ve got a lot of big plans,” Stewart said.