Iowa Marriage License Rush

I mentioned two days ago that a state judge in Iowa had ruled that same-sex marriage was constitutionally protected. This led to a short run on the license bureau in that county. From August 31, 2007 Associated Press:

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Same-sex marriage was legal here for less than 24 hours before the county won a stay of a judge's order on Friday, a tiny window of opportunity that allowed two men to make history but left dozens of other couples disappointed after a frantic rush to the altar.

At 2 p.m. Thursday, Judge Robert Hanson ordered Polk County officials to accept marriage license requests from same-sex couples, but he granted the stay at about 12:30 p.m. Friday. By then 27 same-sex couples had filed applications, but only Sean Fritz and Tim McQuillan of Ames had made it official by getting married and returning the signed license to the courthouse in time.

In the front yard of the Rev. Mark Stringer, pastor of the First Unitarian Church of Des Moines, they become the only same-sex couple wed in the U.S. outside of Massachusetts, where some 8,000 such couples have tied the knot.

Stringer concluded the ceremony by saying, "This is a legal document and you are married." The men then kissed and hugged.

I wonder if that "marriage" will be rendered null and void when the Iowa Supreme Court overrules Judge Hanson's legally bizarre ruling. One interesting statement from one lesbian couple that filed for a marriage license:

Lytishya Borglum and partner, Danielle Borglum, drove 2 1/2 hours from Cedar Falls, along with their 13-month-old daughter, Berlyn. They planned to apply in Polk County and told their pastor in Cedar Falls to be ready to marry them when they returned.

"(We) plan to take the application home and pray that things change. Even though it is a setback, it is a step in the right direction," Lytishya Borglum said.


She said they would like to get legal status to gain more rights but added, "As far as we're concerned, our marriage is between us and God. We've been married for three years - if you ask us."

So if they are so convinced, why do they need the state to recognize it? As I pointed out last year, with one or two tax-status related exceptions, everything that a married couple has can be obtained with a little bit of paperwork by a same-sex couple: inheritance; joint ownership; rights of survivorship on property.