Septuagenarians among LBGT Minnesotans getting hitched in Iowa

(Lavverrue, Flickr)

In the five months since the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that gay and lesbian couples could legally marry in that state, 676 same-sex couples have married there as of July 27, according to a report by the Des Moines Register. Of those, 36 couples were from Minnesota.

On Sunday, that number jumped by nine as a busload of Minnesotans left St. Paul for ceremonies in the Hawkeye State. Among them were Judith Weir, 73, and Olly Staneslow, 75, who were married at the First Unitarian Church in Des Moines.

“To actually be legally married is a dream come true,” Weir told the Register. “It’s like maybe we can stop being treated as second-class citizens. You can’t choose who you fall in love with.”

Just under half of all same-sex marriages in Iowa have involved out-of-state residents: 57 from Illinois, 38 from Nebraska, 37 from Missouri and 36 from Minnesota.

But there are some outside groups bent on stopping gay marriage in Iowa. The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) has begun a campaign in Iowa to bring a constitutional amendment before the voters and to help elect anti-same-sex marriage legislators. NOM is the same group that pushed for California’s Prop 8, which ended same-sex marriage in that state.

NOM came under fire last week when it was revealed that Iowa authorities were investigating the group for violations of campaign contribution disclosures. The group failed to file as a political action committee, prompting Iowa’s Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board to send a letter (pdf) to the group which stated, “The independent expenditure process in Iowa is not a vehicle to shield political contributions.”