Local Coverage of Ottumwa Marriage Forum
Last night's One Iowa Marriage Equality public forum in Ottumwa shared diverse perspectives on equality. In addition to the community members in attendance, the forum was covered by the Ottumwa Courier and KTVO, the local TV station in Ottumwa.
From the Ottumwa Courier:
PANEL PUSHES EQUALITY
By PAT SHAVER
Tera Cunningham Erbst and Carey Erbst Cunningham have five children and experience the same joys of any other family.
Except as a same sex couple, they receive far fewer benefits than most other couples. Though they are allowed to marry in Iowa, there are many rights that they still don’t have because of federal laws.
“We believe that every committed couple, regardless of race, gender, religion, should have the right to marry whoever they want and have the responsibilities and protection of civil marriage,” Tera said.
The couple, of Ottumwa, were among the panelists at the Ottumwa Marriage Equality Public Forum hosted by One Iowa Wednesday evening at Indian Hills Community College. The other panelists were: Rev. Elizabeth Colton, with the St. Paul Congregational Church in Oskaloosa; Ian Bartrum, professor of constitutional law at Drake Law School; Sonya Hormann and Jenni Lathan-Hormann, one of the first same-sex couples to receive a marriage license in Wapello County. The event was moderated by Emily Holley with One Iowa.
One audience member asked the panel why not let the voters decide whether to allow same sex-marriages in Iowa?
Continue reading at the Ottumwa Courier website
From KTVO:
Same-sex marriage forum in Iowa
OTTUMWA, IA -- One Iowa, an advocacy group for same-sex marriages in the state, answered questions on the issue in a public forum.
The event, held at Indian Hills community colleges was designed to build support of marriage issues and equality.
The forum featured several panelists, who ranged from legal experts to ministers to same sex couples.
Speakers at the forum said One Iowa's job is to protect the April court decision allowing same-sex marriages in the state, and to protect against efforts to amend the constitution so that same-sex couples could not marry.
"Why should equality be a war between us and them? Why can't equality just be us?" remarked Jenni Latham-Hormann, a panelist at the forum.
Wednesday's forum consisted of both comments from the panelists as well as questions from the audience.
Currently Iowa is one of just [five] states that allow same-sex marriages.
