Same Sex Marriage Becomes Legal in Iowa Monday

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OMAHA (KPTM) - It's a day many gay and lesbian couples have spent years waiting for. Monday Iowa counties begin processing same sex marriage applications. The first weddings could take place within hours.

It wasn't the Supreme Court decision 50-year-old Eric Strom expected. "I literally jumped off the sofa and I just had to call someone, so I called Scott you know because I didn't know who else to contact. I was just so happy, so thrilled that this is happening," he said.

The ruling effectively opened the door for Strom and his partner of more than 13 years to be legally married in Iowa. "We can finally take on the same responsibilities as the rest of the world does with marriage," said partner Scott Hays.

Monday the Council Bluffs couple plan to join other gay and lesbian couples in applying for marriage licenses at the Pottawattamie County Courthouse. "This is one of those rare opportunities where you know exactly what's going on and you have a chance to write what people are going to read in history books years from now," Hays said.

Couples won't actually be able to get married Monday unless a judge agrees to waive the three-day waiting period. "Many people are excited that they can finally have equal rights. However, some are waiting until later on in the year, I have ceremonies scheduled as late as August so far," said Pastor Tom Emmett of Metropolitan Community Church of Omaha.

Emmett has already agreed to officiate more than a dozen ceremonies and he's received at least that many inquiries. "We'll be performing them at private places like bed and breakfasts, performing them in parks," he said.

All so gays and lesbians can enjoy the same rights they say heterosexual couples take for granted. "It's only a matter of time until God's love for equality translates into equal rights for everybody regardless of who you are," Emmett said.

Strom hopes time will also ease the opposition of critics. "When they can witness the fact that our love is as deep for each other as anybody else's is for their wife or husband, they become less willing to play a role in relinquishing that right," he said.

Opponents want voters to weigh in on a constitutional amendment that would limit marriage to between one man and one woman.

Strom and Hays plan to get married in August on the same day they exchanged vows during a holy union in 1997. It's also the same day they got married in Canada ten years later.

Both men expect the court decision to ease the financial burden on couples. In the past, many have paid for legal documentation to ensure certain rights should one of them die or be injured.