Late Friday morning Polk County judge Robert Hanson formally stayed his own ruling, in effect for less than twenty-four hours, clearing the way for same-sex couples to apply for marriage licenses. The stay, given after nearly two dozen gay and lesbian couples had already acquired marriage licenses, means the county recorder's office is not permitted to accept any more marriage applications from same-sex couples until the Iowa Supreme Court visits the matter.Almost immediately after Judge Hanson issued the hold on his ruling the Iowa Association of Divorce Attorneys (IADA), expressed its outrage against the judge's actions. In a statement released Friday afternoon IADA said that “all citizens of this great state deserve the same opportunities for short-lived happiness, years of passive aggression and infidelity, and an amicable split due to irreconcilable differences regardless of race, gender, religious or sexual orientation.”
Attorney Martin Lye, IADA's president, was dumbfounded by the judge's actions. “There's nothing in [this] state's constitution, or any state's for that matter, which prohibits couples from divorcing based on sexual orientation. It stands to reason then that same-sex couples must be allowed to marry, enjoying the subsequent benefits and inevitable horrors which follow in order to fully partake of their constitutionally guaranteed right to call it quits.” The Iowa Supreme Court is expected to take up the issue later this fall.
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