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April is shaping up to be a real watershed for the gay-marriage issue. First came the heartland win on April 3 from the Iowa Supreme Court. Then on Tuesday, Vermont's lawmakers defied Governor Jim Douglas with a veto override heard round the world, making their state the nation's first to establish gay marriage by a vote rather than by judicial decree. That same day in Washington, D.C., the city council chose to give legal recognition to gay and lesbian residents who have been married elsewhere...
...sense that something big is happening has been felt by the other side of the battle too. "The momentum seems to be now on the side of those pushing for the legalization of same-sex marriage," the Rev. Albert Mohler told TIME on Wednesday. "The Vermont and Iowa developments seem to signal the fact that, as many of us have sensed for some time, the legalization of same-sex marriage is taking on a sense of inevitability." Mohler is president of the nation's flagship Southern Baptist seminary in Louisville, Ky., and one of America's most respected Evangelical thinkers...
...those votes - if they even occur - is uncertain. And there is plenty of reason for gay-marriage hopefuls to temper their expectations. Despite the big steps of the past week, gay marriage remains unpopular in nearly every state (California's Prop. 8 vote being one example). Even in Iowa, last week's unanimous state supreme court decision would likely be overturned were it possible to put the issue to voters anytime soon. And with a federal judiciary - and especially the Supreme Court - dominated by conservative judges appointed by President George W. Bush, a national victory for marriage-equality advocates seems...
...Religious opponents to gay marriage were not convinced. "We, the Roman Catholic Bishops of Iowa, strongly disagree with the decision of the Iowa Supreme Court which strikes down Iowa's law defining marriage as a union of one man and one woman," the bishops said in a statement issued Friday. "This decision rejects the wisdom of thousands of years of human history. It implements a novel understanding of marriage, which will grievously harm families and children...
...spokesman for the conservative family group, said he's already begun lobbying for an amendment campaign to outlaw gay marriage again. "The first thing we did after internalizing the decision was to walk across the street and begin the process of lobbying our legislators to let the people of Iowa vote," he said...