Iowa Supreme Court Upholds Gay Marriage

Iowa’s Supreme Court unanimously struck down a statute limiting marriage to a union between a man and a woman, the Des Moines Register reports. The ruling upholds a lower court decision allowing six gay couples to wed. Iowa becomes the first Midwestern state to allow gay marriage, and the fourth state to do so nationwide.

The court ruled that the marriage-defining law violated the equal protection clause of the Iowa constitution. State legislators have tried to introduce an amendment to that constitution, but that process would take until at least 2012. In the meantime, weddings can occur, though it’s probable governments will be given two to three months to put the change into place. (More gay marriage stories.)