Iowa Grandmother Defends Gay Marriage
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Liz is a writer based in New York City. She has written for The San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, Pitchfork, New York ... Gay marriage was legalized in Iowa in 2009 by the state’s Supreme Court, but the law is facing a hurdle now that there’s been a significant shift in balance in the House. With the help of the moving image, perhaps this potential ban won’t get anywhere.
People are taking to the Internet in defense of the law, and in the words of this 80-year-old grandmother, a third-generation Iowan, gay people wanting to marry each other is not actually “an issue” — or shouldn’t be anymore. Jean Argus’s own son is gay and married (he married in Massachusetts five years ago), and has been with his husband for 30 years. In this video she tells of how she came to accept her son’s identity despite being raised in a “traditional Irish home.”
Argus says she was inspired by Zach Wahls, a 19-year-old gay man and student at the University of Iowa, who recently spoke in front of legislators in an appeal against the amendment just before the House took a vote on it. “His courage has inspired me to speak out,” she says of Wahls, adding, “My son is not an issue. He’s a person just like you.” Despite Wahls’ efforts, the amendment passed, but it probably won’t get very far in the Senate. 
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