We’ve said it before; we’ll say it again: Because of a 2009 Iowa Supreme Court ruling, marriage means marriage in Iowa — whether the couple is gay, lesbian or straight.
• That means lawmakers shouldn’t freak out when the Iowa Natural Resource Commission last year expanded its definition of “family members” from referring exclusively to “husband, wife and children” to include “domestic partners,” “spouses” and “legal guardians.”
• That means neither the Iowa Department of Corrections nor any other state agency should be making any distinctions between gay, lesbian and straight employees when deciding whether to grant extended leave under the provisions of the Family and Medical Leave Act.
• And that means — when issuing birth certificates to children born to a married couple — the Iowa Department of Public Health should start offering married same-sex couples the same options for being listed as parents as the department offers to married heterosexual couples and adopting couples of either sexual orientation.
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Complete article at Press-Citizen : http://icp-c.com/txrBxS
