IA: Four Democratic Senators Join Republicans to Push for Gay Marriage Ban

Four Democratic state senators - Dennis Black of Grinnell, Keith Kreiman of Bloomfield, Rich Olive of Story City and Joe Seng of Davenport - broke with their party and signed on to a Republican petition to force a vote on same-sex marriage. But with last week marking the first self-imposed legislative "funnel week" deadline for bills to clear committee to stay eligible for consideration this year, the marriage amendment is officially dead, at least in this form.

Last week, Republicans attempted to use a procedural move, called a discharge petition, to pull Senate Joint Resolution 2001 out of committee and put it before the full Senate for debate and a vote. The bill would begin the process of amending the state's constitution to ban same-sex marriage. All 18 Senate Republicans were joined by Democratic state Sen. Tom Hancock of Epworth in signing the petition.

A similar attempt was made in the state House that also failed to find enough votes to bring a gay marriage ban up for a vote.

Full Story from the Iowa Independent
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