Guest Blogger: Mark Denzin

By Mark Denzin on 04/15/2009 @ 01:26 PM

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Today I am very proud to say, “I AM FROM IOWA.”

Being from a Prairie state, if you migrate very far in any direction, automatically sets you up for a lot of ribbing: Isn’t that where they grow all those potatoes?….Is that where the pig is the state bird? Is it true that you didn’t get your first pair of shoes until you were 16?

Well none of those things are true, but over the years, I got asked questions like that so often, that until I truly reached adulthood, I was embarrassed to reveal my historical roots.

But as time passed, I realized that the people who were asking questions like this, truly in half-seriousness, were actually more provincial than I, in most cases, and I began to think of New Yorkers( the hippest of the hip spots of origin when I was a callow youth) as Provincial New Yorkers…and Californians, with whom I finally ended up, as Brainless Surf Bunnies…who knew little cultural history of anywhere beyond the closest big wave.

To the suprise of many, Iowa’s recent high court decision is in many ways consistant with the state’s philosophical and moral history. When I was growing up, Iowa had the highest literacy rate of any state in the Union. It had the lowest unemployment rate. And outstanding, in that area, was the fact that it had, percentage wise, the lowest unemployment rate among African Americans and Native Americans. Iowa had the first interstate highway system, linking its agricultural and industrial production centers to the outside world in a fashion designed to enhance its already flourishing economic growth.

In the area of education, Iowa had one of the earliest and most highly funded and developed statewide university and college sysems, making higher education readily available to almost everyone. As an in-state, full time student, the tuition cost of my college education was $45 a month , bringing the grand total for a bachelor’s degree to something under a whopping $3,000.

The University of Iowa, touted as one of the finest creative writing departments in the country, is still highly regarded in the world of letters, and graduated such well known writers as Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill, among many others. Asprin was invented by its medical school research department, and it is still strong and well known for its physics, engineering, and law schools.

It is for some of the aforementioned reasons that I am not suprised that my beloved home state, the home of my roots, has produced a high court that is gustsy enough to break legal ground with its recent decision to allow gays to marry. And who among us, especially those of us who once upon a time asked if the pig was Iowa’s state bird, would ever have thought that this kind of history would be made there…in Iowa?

California is often touted as being on the cutting edge of legal thought and groundbreaking court decisions. Well, my dears…you black and white berobed and begowned most highly distinguished jurists of my new home state…WHERE ARE YOUR GUTS? Must you look to the hinterlands for some moral stamina to bring you round to the right decision? Are the fly-over states going to lead the way in the hue and cry for civil rights for not just gay people, but for ALL people? For that is surely what is at stake here.

I am fortunate enough to be partnered…with a loving partner of 32 years, under the domestic partnership laws of California. Unfortunately, these laws STILL keep us within the confines of second class citizens. Peter and I have grown up together, and are growing old together. Last year (2008) we planned a Christmas Eve wedding.

I never realized, until the day approached, and then got taken away in the November election by the constitutional changes that were made that fateful day…how very much it meant to me to be joined in a partnership that was truly first class…and how much different even the possibility of such a marriage made me feel.

I felt, for the first time in the history of my gay relatonship, and in the history of my life as a gay man, that marriage would include me in the human family as an equal…in a way that no other experience really quite could.

My heart was broken. I wept hot tears of anger…when the possibility of this glorious adventure was destroyed by the arguments…and the BIG MONEY…of the religious right. And what were these arguments? Mainly, that gay people were morally unfit to be parents. A false argument, to be sure, since research has shown for many years that this simply isn’t true.

I am so proud to be from Iowa. Right now, it has shown itself to be one of gutsiest states in the Union. Because its highest court broke through the argument of the religious right…essentially a religious and moral argument, enshrining religion in law…by pointing out that this whole matter of gay marriage has nothing to do with religion or morality. And to mix the two violates the very foundation of our national constitution, which clearly intended to keep religion and government very separate.

So yes, I am very proud to be from Iowa. And I await the decision of the California Supreme Court, trembling witth anticipation. Surely the courage and jurisprudence of the Iowa decision cannot help but influence future decisions by other high courts in the right direction regarding the matter of same sex unions.

I hope and pray that this will be so. And I hope and pray that the Supreme Court justices of California muster the courage and jurisprudence of a state once thought by some to have the pig as its symbolic state bird. Surely no one in the future could be ignorant enough to ask that question, ever again.

About Mark Denzin:

I am a 64 year old gay man . I have lived in San Francisco for 35 years, and consider it my home. I was born and bred in the Great Corn State: IOWA.