I'm originally from Iowa, so my eyes and ears perked when I heard about the recent lift on the gay marriage ban in Iowa.  Since I'm working on a handful of m/m and f/f pieces at the moment, I thought I'd share a few tidbits of info.  Lots of the national news agencies are reporting through the AP on different angles of the story.  What I'd like to share are some links of my hometown newspaper (The Telegraph Herald) and the newspaper of the most recent town in Iowa where I lived prior to moving to Tennessee (The Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier). The Des Moines Register has recently run enough stories on the issue that they now have a quick link at the top of their home page devoted to the gay marriage issue.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=NEWS&template=keywords&keyword=iagaymarriage

I especially like this article and the picture :)

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090410/NEWS/904100376/1001/NEWS

http://www.thonline.com/forums/Comments.cfm?BlogID=274&MainSection=User%20Blogs&THBlogID=5#post274

The whole issue is a heated one on both sides.  To be honest, I was surprised the court lifted the ban, because Iowa is a fairly conservative state.  The more articles I've read on the issue, the more I've also appreciated that Iowa is a fairly liberal state as well in terms of civil rights.  Iowa was the first state to allow women to take the bar exam and practice law, the first state to desegregate schools, and one of the first states to strike down slavery laws.

As a part of my research, I have also recently discovered that gay marriage is totally legal in Spain, giving gay couples exactly the same rights as straight couples.  I studied in Santiago de Compostela, Spain (in the autonomous region of Galicia) in 2001.  I also have a B.A. in Spanish, so I'm not sure how I missed the news in 2005 when gay marriage was legalized in Spain.  I'm currently working on a m/m BDSM pirate short story set in Galicia between newlyweds.  :)

Tags: law | Galicia | Spain | Short story | civil rights | gay | lesbian | f/f | m/m | works in progress | news | newlyweds | BDSM | Pirates | Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier | Associated Press | Des Moines Register | Telegraph Herald | Iowa | Gay Marriage | LGBT | Jen Bluekissed

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