Stories

In a major victory for opponents of the military’s ban on open homosexual service, Defense Secretary Robert Gates significantly revised how the Pentagon will implement the so-called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law, effectively making it difficult to remove a soldier, sailor, airman or marine who does not out himself or herself as gay.

U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., didn’t mince words Thursday in calling for the repeal of the long-standing ban on gay men donating blood.
“Not a single piece of scientific evidence supports the ban,” Kerry wrote today in Bay Windows, a New England-based gay and lesbian newspaper.

UPDATED: Nine Iowa congregations have joined a new sect of Lutheran churches, signaling that they could leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the largest Lutheran denomination in the world.

An automated call featuring one of Terry Branstad’s former lieutenant governors asking Republicans to support same-sex marriage has drawn the ire of social conservatives.

Chuck Swaggerty and Jason Morgan may not be a typical Iowa family, if there is such a thing, but they feel more satisfied with their lives.
In an interview with Bret Hayworth of the Sioux City Journal, the men, who were plaintiffs in the case before the Iowa Supreme Court that made same-sex marriages legal in [...]

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) has brought 52 fellow Republicans together on a letter demanding the resignation of Kevin Jennings, the White House’s “safe schools czar.” Greg Sargent looks at the text of the letter, and how it maintains (wrongly) that Jennings covered up child sexual abuse. Here are the other Republicans:

Representatives from three Iowa regional tourism bureaus flew to California to let same-sex couples attending Gay Days at the Disneyland Resort know that they are welcome in the Hawkeye State.
The annual Anaheim event, which is neither sponsored nor discouraged by Disney, hosts roughly 30,000 attendees.

An attorney for the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) says their group is in complete compliance with Iowa campaign finance law in spite of allegations to the contrary.
In a letter to Charlie Smithson, executive director of the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, the New Jersey-based organization that opposes same-sex marriage said some groups continute [...]

The state’s largest gay rights organization and a progressive religious group have filed a formal complaint against the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board.
One Iowa and the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa filed the complaint Monday alleging that NOM, a New Jersey-based group that opposes same-sex marriage, violated Iowa [...]

An Iowa-based political action committee that supports marriage rights for same-sex couples is working to raise $10,000 by midnight Friday in the hopes of countering the huge investment made by an anti-gay marriage organization in the special election in House District 90.