three cheers for equality!

The past few days have seen three incredibly important victories in the struggle around gay marriage.

On April 3, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously struck down a ten-year-old ban on gay marriage in that state. Just days later, the Vermont legislature overturned a gubernatorial veto on a bill legalizing gay marriage in that state. And in the District of Columbia, legislators voted unanimously to recognize gay marriages performed in other states.

Each of these victories would be significant enough on their own, but together they show the breadth and diversity of the growing gay marriage movement. A victory in crunchy Vermont, a northeastern state that was the first to recognize civil unions in 2000, might not seem that surprising. But who would have thought that cornfed, middle-America Iowa, of all places, would be the state currently putting California to shame when it comes to civil rights? And while the residents of the District of Columbia tend to vote overwhelmingly Democratic, they are (unlike the politicians, who live in Alexandria, Georgetown or other white-flight enclaves) predominantly poor and African-American. Remember--the kind of people who supposedly gave Prop 8 the margin of victory in California, right?

There is something special worth noting about each of these victories. Ironically, the toughest battle was fought in liberal Vermont, where governor Jim Douglas vetoed the bill, before his decision was overridden (just barely) by a two-thirds majority of the state legislature. But the Vermont victory is crucial because it marks the first time that marriage equality has been mandated by a state legislature, not by the courts.

The Iowa decision is of potentially monumental importance for California--a fact of which the Iowa Supreme Court was most decidedly aware. By grounding their unanimous 69-page decision so firmly in the rhetoric of equal protection and civil rights, the Iowa court set a bold and important precedent. The Iowa decision cited the pending California case eight times and argued strongly that LGBT people are a historically oppressed minority worthy of judicial protection. And while the Iowa decision was made by a court, Iowa state House and Senate leaders released a pretty amazing statement in support of the decision. (Although, in an ironic postscript, the start of the gay marriage season in Iowa will be delayed several days due to state budget cuts.)

The DC decision is still in limbo, since residents of DC (remember, majority poor and Black?) do not have full suffrage rights like everyone else in the country. Their municipal legislation must be approved by Congress before it can become law. But whether the DC decision will be approved or struck down will be an important gauge of things to come.

As some commentators are pointing out, the challenge for gay rights activists in states with constitutional bans is still significant. But with these victories, and important decisions potentially on the horizon in at least nine other states, including New York, Maine, New Jersey and New Hampshire, it's impossible not to feel that momentum is building on our side.