Update: 260+ same-sex couples apply for marriage licenses; most in Polk Co.

Update: 260+ same-sex couples apply for marriage licenses; most in Polk Co.
BY TONY LEYS, REID FORGRAVE AND GRANT SCHULTE • TLEYS@DMREG.COM
Copyright by The Des Moines Register
APRIL 27, 2009
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090427/NEWS/90427003


At least 261 same-sex couples have applied for marriage licenses in Iowa so far today, with the heaviest concentrations in Linn, Polk, Scott and Johnson counties, according to information collected by The Des Moines Register. The tally so far includes 20 out-of-state couples, according to a survey of county recorders. The Register is still gathering its data, but afternoon figures show that the greatest number of applications so far is in Polk County, which has logged 82. Johnson County has seen 40 applications so far, Scott County has seen 23, and 22 couples have applied for marriage licenses in Linn County. Today was the first day same-sex couples could since the April 3 Iowa Supreme Court opinion that struck down a state law that said marriage was only between a man and a woman.

Shelley Wolfe, 38, and Melisa Keeton, 31, were the first gay couple in Polk County to marry under the new ruling.

They applied for their marriage license this morning then immediately got a judge to waive the standard three-day waiting period. They wanted to get married quickly, because Keeton is 25 weeks pregnant. They’ve been together nearly three years.

“For us, while I’m only 25 weeks pregnant, already into the third trimester, I’ve had a lot of medical issues,” said Keeton, who was waiting in line to have their marriage license notarized. “To me it’ll be a lot less stressful because we’ll have legal rights. Really, today is about making it legal.”

They have one son, Baxter, who’ll turn 3 in June. The women had a religious ceremony in 2007, but it lacked legal standing.

On the steps just south of the Polk County building, their pastor, Rev. Peg Esperanza of the Church of the Holy Spirit, stood between the two women. A half-moon of 20 news cameras surrounded them. It was just past 10 a.m.

The pastor cleared her throat. “We are gathered here in the presence of witnesses for the purposes of uniting in matrimony Shelley and Melisa,” she began, as camera shutters fired. “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. No other human ties are more tender and no other vows more important than those that you are about to make today.

“Many couples give up on their marriages because they do not understand how to stand against the enemies of marriage, of which pride and selfish self-centeredness are two of the worst enemies.”

Wolfe and Keeton grabbed each other’s hands.

“Melisa, repeat after me,” Esperanza said.

“I take you, Shelley, to be my lawfully wedded eternal companion,” Keeton said, following the pastor’s lead. “I promise to love and comfort you, honor and keep you, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse, and to be faithful to you as long as we both shall live.”

They exchanged rings. They smiled and laughed. Esperanza made the sign of the cross.

“By the power vested in me by God and the state of Iowa, I now pronounce that you are legally married. What God has joined together, let no one come between. Congratulations!”

They kissed. Wolfe’s twin brother signed the marriage license. The whole ceremony took less than five minutes.

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

In Council Bluffs, a lesbian couple from Nebraska were married this morning by Magistrate Stephen Rosman. Toni Heard and Michelle McBride received a waiver because of medical issues. The two were married at 10:45 a.m.

Gay couples also applied for marriage licenses in numerous other counties. Opponents around the state delivered petitions urging county recorders not to issue licenses to gay 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 wouldn’t take place until at least 2012, under rules on how the constitution can be amended. There were no reports of recorders refusing to issue licenses.

Protesters speak out

The state’s most prominent anti-gay-marriage activist, Chuck Hurley, said at least one county recorder has threatened to resign over the issue, but he wouldn’t say who.

“I told them we would defend them all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. If they exercise their right of conscience and if the attorney general and or others in Iowa, county attorneys or others, have a heavy hand and they try to force a county recorder to do something against their right of conscience, that is an offense against the U.S. Constitution and that will put this matter into federal court. We are not telling county recorders what to do, we are giving them their constitutional options.”

Hurley spoke to reporters at the Polk County building this morning. Hurley, a former legislator who is head of the Iowa Family Policy Center, said his group planned no dramatic protests. “People I associate with are very much law-abiding people. They’re not going to chain themselves to their recorders’ offices,” he said. He added: “But there may be some of that.”

Hurley turned in a stack of petitions to Polk County Recorder Julie Haggerty, and he said similar documents were being presented around the state.

The reason more Iowans who oppose gay marriage aren’t making a more visible stand this morning is because they’re “probably raising children, going to work,” Hurley told reporters at the Polk County administration building.

Hurley offered bottled water to gay couples (three accepted), spoke to reporters about his deep sadness, then intended to head home. He promised his wife, Chris, that after this morning he’d be home more with her and their 10 children.

To the disappointment of traditional-marriage advocates, the Iowa Legislature adjourned Sunday morning without taking steps to allow a vote of the people on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

“They ran right out of town,” said Bryan English, a spokesman for the Iowa Family Policy Center.

Polk County Sheriff Bill McCarthy said he had no reports of problems. He said about eight sheriff’s deputies were assigned to the Polk County administration building this morning. “Just to keep order,” he said. “And everything looks orderly.”

A more strident anti-gay activist, Fred Phelps of Kansas, alerted the Polk County sheriff that his group was canceling a planned protest today, McCarthy said.

“Typically they are very cooperative because they are so vile in their remarks and comments and protests that they use law enforcement to protect themselves, not the other way around,” the sheriff said.

Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church intended to protest at Polk County public buildings, as well as Des Moines’ Lincoln High School, today, according to their Web site. McCarthy said he expects them in Iowa later in the week.

Click here to view the petitions for traditional marriage.

Couples show up early for licenses

Dozens of gay couples showed up first thing this morning at recorders’ offices in Polk County and elsewhere around the state, looking to sign up for marriage licenses.

In Des Moines, Lori Blachford was among the people applying for marriage licenses. As television cameras surrounded the dozens of couples in line, she talked about how life with her partner of 25 years, Karen Utke, is going to change.

“We’re living the married life, same as our parents did, painfully and traditionally boring,” said Blachford, who is 45.

But even though they’ve been together so long, the concept of marriage didn’t seem to have fully set in. Blachford first introduced her partner 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’re 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 get married 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.”

Denny Schrock and Patrick Phillips-Schrock wore tuxedos to the recorder’s office. They’ve been together five years, and had a commitment ceremony three years ago at the Unitarian Universalist church in Des Moines.

“I didn’t think this would happen in my lifetime,” the 58-year-old Phillips-Schrock, a retired high school French teacher who is originally from Jefferson but now lives in Urbandale, said. “It’s incredible. In Iowa, of all places!”

In general, county recorders reported a calm morning.

Emmet County Recorder Sue Snyder said no marriage licenses had been issued this morning. There was one protestor of the marriage licenses to same-sex couples, a friend of Snyder’s, who brought in a petition for Snyder to have, Snyder said.

“They’re asking that we refuse to issue these licenses,” Snyder said. “My response is that I’m governed by the state of Iowa to follow the laws and serve the people and that’s what I will do. We just agreed that it would not cause any friction between our friendship, then we left it at that.”

No one – gay or straight – has applied for marriage licenses this morning in southeastern Iowa’s Muscatine County. “We haven’t had anything,” said Recorder Cindy Gray. Unlike many other recorders, she hadn’t received any opponents’ petitions.

Gray said she received a phone call on Friday from a minister wishing her luck and giving her his blessing to refuse to grant marriage applications to gay couples. “I just said, 'Thank you,’” Gray said. She intends to follow the law and grant licenses to same-sex couples. “I have no problem with the law.”

In Orange City, a dozen opponents of gay marriage stood shivering on the steps of the Sioux County Courthouse.

“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 ear, nose and throat doctor in Orange City. “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.”

Gary Vander Hart, 71, of Sioux Center agreed. “I hope that those of the homosexual agenda at least have the logic to see that the maker of a car has the knowledge to tell you how to run that car,” he said. “So God has the right to tell us how to run the creation he made.”

National gay-rights advocates hailed the day as a benchmark for Iowa and the country.

“We are thrilled to extend our congratulations and warmest wishes to the couples and their families, who can celebrate today and in the future because their relationships will now be honored and treated equally under the law,” Kevin Cathcart, executive director of the gay and lesbian rights group Lambda Legal, said in a statement.

Lambda Legal helped file and argue the Polk County case that led to the ruling. “When the Iowa Supreme Court issued its unanimous decision in Lambda Legal’s marriage equality case, history was made not only for Iowans, but for the entire nation,” Cathcart wrote. “Within days, the Vermont legislature enacted a marriage equality bill and proposed bills are now pending in other states. Equality is taking root and growing strong from coast to coast and in the heart of our country.”