The article ended with an interesting graph breaking down the percentages of same-sex marriages in Iowa by county during 2011. It should be noted that Johnson County's Recorder Kim Painter believes that this official list is actually lower than the actual number of same-sex marriages, because marking gender on a marriage license is now options and many people tend to leave that spot blank on their marriage license applications.
One might think that liberal Johnson County had the highest numbers of gay marriages last year. But that's not how the numbers bore out. Here is the tally:
Polk County -- 328 marriage -- 25.2%
Scott County -- 154 marriages -- 11.8%
Pottawattamie County -- 123 marriages -- 9.4%
Johnson County -- 106 marriages -- 8.1%
Dubuque County -- 72 marriages -- 5.5%
All Other Iowa Counties -- 519 marriages -- 39.9%
In related news, Iowa's Senate Republicans now have a new minority leader: Bill Dix of Shell Rock, IA. Among Dix's legislative goals during the coming year? His goal is to tackle and eliminate Iowa's gay marriages, despite the fact that Iowa's Senate majority leader Mike Gronstal has no intention of addressing either issue on the Senate floor:
Dix also made it clear that if Republicans find a way to get a statewide vote to ban same-sex marriage or advance abortion restrictions, they’ll pursue it. “There are a number of members of the Senate Republican Caucus who continue to hold expectations that we can find ways to protect the life of the unborn and give people the opportunity vote on marriage,” Dix said.One has to wonder what they will say about Iowa's gays and lesbians to justify amending our state constitution to eliminate our marriages. We have been marrying in this state for nearly four years. Outside of a handful of problems -- including one fraudulent gay marriage license and a handful of arguments between gay grooms, lesbian brides, and anti-gay business owners -- none of the typical slippery-slope incidents have occurred. Kids aren't being taught about gay sex. Pastors aren't being arrested from the pulpit. Churches aren't being forced to officiate at gay weddings. Nothing. Which doesn't mean that they won't try defaming us. It just will be easily apparent for Iowans to realize how far fear resides from reality.
