Gay Marriage/Civil Unions in 10 years

[Husker]

I could see several state legislatures giving some form of domestic partnerships and I believe many will have protections for GLBT workers. The latter nearly passed here in NE a few years ago and only didn't because of rural conservatives in the western part of our state.

I also think Civil Unions could be expanded greatly over the next several years. Hell, even many republicans I know don't have a problem with CU's. As long as it is doesn't contain the word marriage I think it could pass in many states that you wouldn't think it would pass in.

Unfortunately, gay marriage is another beast, which is silly imo, but I digress. The vast majority of the public is not willing to accept this yet and I don't think too many legislatures would be willing to take a gamble on this. If it were up to a majority vote of the people, there are about 3-4 states in this country where I think gay marriage could pass. I'll put it this way: There is not a single state outside the northeast where a majority of the voting public is ready to accept this yet in my opinion.  In 10 years that could be up to 6-8 states, but my point is that there are still enough and likely will still be enough people in 10 years to vigorously fight this and we'll end up with a mess like Proposition 8 somewhere else. That might be a very different story in 20-30 years however.

Eventually, I believe gay people will get the rights that they deserve. The younger generation, even in states like mine, are far more open minded to things like civil unions and gay rights than our parents generation, so as time goes on I believe we will see barriers fall.

One other point.. Keep in mind that in rural areas and smaller towns, a large majority of citizens have never been exposed to gay people. So most of the opposition to gay rights in rural and small town America is simply a matter of fear of what they don't know and don't understand. Fear unfortunately drives too many of our decisions in society, even if many of them are quite irrational. In places like SF and NYC, there are many gay people present and the citizens of those places just get used to it and it doesn't bother them after a while. So, my point is that you shouldn't totally condemn the non-mega urban areas for opposition to gay rights. Many of them simply have no comprehension of this topic because they've never been exposed to it.

[Husker]

Map of gay marriage licenses issued by county in Iowa.

http://data.desmoinesregister.com/samesexmarriage/iowa-gay-marriage-map.php

Sorry guys, no same-sex couples getting their license in Sioux County!

Thanks for finding this. I know one of the Pottawatomie County IA ones was a same-sex female couple from Lincoln that made the front page of our newspaper the next day. From today's paper talking about stories that were commented on most in the last week, this was tops.

Victoria Ayotte writes: "Gay marriage is always a hot topic here in Nebraska. The story “Lincoln couple among many receiving marriage licenses in Iowa” garnered 164 published comments. The Journal Star finally had to stop approving comments because the story page had trouble loading. The positive gay marriage comments  outnumbered the negative ones more than 2-to-1.

“I’m happy for all these couples. Hopefully Nebraskans will see that this move by our more-enlightened neighbors to the East is a good one. Equality for all,” finally wrote.

Galen said: “Another shining example of how low we, as a society, have sunk.”

And R. SCOTT commented: “I think gay couples should be allowed to (be) as miserable as everyone else. Let them get married.”

I must say that I have been pleasantly surprised by how many people on the other side of the Missouri have been supportive of this. Kind of shows that a) people are definitely becoming more open minded on this issue and b) we aren't all a bunch of intolerant hicks here in the Midwest.