Iowa sees its first same-sex newlyweds

DES MOINES, Iowa - Gay and lesbian couples in Iowa began holding hastily planned weddings yesterday as the state became the third to allow same-sex marriage - a leap that even some supporters find hard to grasp in the nation's heartland.

Within hours of when a state Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage took effect, several couples had exchanged vows on the steps of the Polk County Administrative Building.

"It's not very romantic, is it?" Melisa Keeton joked, referring to the location of the ceremony and the media attention, before she married Shelley Wolfe.

The couple were allowed to wed after getting a judge to waive the state's three-day waiting period. The waiver was granted after the couple contended that the wait was stressful on Keeton, who is pregnant and due in August.

The couple, who will use the last name Keeton, were married by the Rev. Peg Esperanza of the Church of the Holy Spirit. She later officiated at the wedding of at least two other couples, all at no charge.

"God sent me here today, and I've said OK," said Esperanza, a lesbian who plans to marry her partner in October.

On April 3, the Iowa justices upheld a lower-court ruling that rejected a state law restricting marriage to a union between a man and woman. The decision made Iowa the third state where same-sex marriage is legal, joining Massachusetts and Connecticut. A Vermont law allowing it will take effect in September.

Officials said that by 4 p.m. yesterday, the Polk County recorder's office received 82 marriage applications from same-sex couples.

One of those couples, Alicia Zacher, 24, and Jessica Roach, 22, waited in a misting rain to enter the office and file their application. They later got a waiver and planned to marry as soon as possible after seeing how California voters last year reinstated a ban on same-sex marriage.

"You just never know when they'll try to take it away," Roach said.

A poll by the University of Iowa taken just before the high court's ruling showed that 26 percent of Iowans supported same-sex marriage. That number rose to more than 50 percent when people were asked whether they supported either same-sex marriage or civil unions.

"If they want to marry, I don't see a reason not to let them," said Joe Biase, 31, of Des Moines. "For a state in the heartland, it's come a long way."

Still, the issue is far from settled.

Bryan English of the Iowa Family Policy Center, which opposes same-sex marriage, said the legislature and Gov. Chet Culver had put some "poor county recorders in an awfully tough position today" by not working to block the ruling from taking effect. The center wants the state to begin the multiyear process of amending Iowa's constitution to overturn the court decision.