Iowa
*Two Iowa companies scored a perfect 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index: Principal Financial Group and Rockwell Collins Inc.
*A West Des Moines Methodist minister is under fire for marrying a same-sex couple in violation of church law. The Rev. Dr. Larry Sonner married a lesbian couple in October and a complaint against Sonner has been filed.
“It’s an equal rights issue. Why shouldn’t everyone have the same that I have and one of those rights is marriage,” Sonner told KCCI. “I think when you do have any kind of civil disobedience, you are saying, ‘I will take the consequences.'”
Wisconsin
*Six Wisconsin companies scored a perfect 100 on HRC’s corporate equality index: Foley & Lardner LLP, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance, Quarles & Brady, Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Rockwell Automation Inc., and S.C. Johnson & Son Inc.
North Dakota
*North Dakota cities did not fare well on HRC’s Municipal Equality Index which measures cities on their efforts at LGBT inclusion and equity. Fargo scored the highest at 41 (the national average was 59). Grand Forks earned 30 points and Minot earned 17. Bismarck had the lowest score in the state with just 14 points.
Bismarck Mayor Mike Seminary defended his city in an interview with the Bismarck Tribune. “We are a very open employer, we don’t discriminate in any way shape or form,” he said. “We put no barriers in front of anyone that wants to be engaged with the city.”
South Dakota
*The struggle for marriage equality continues in South Dakota. Last week a judge dismissed a motion by the state to have the case thrown out. Fox 9 spoke with Joshua Newville, the attorney representing same-sex couples:
“In Brown v. Board, if the Supreme Court hadn’t stepped in and said, ‘Segregation isn’t constitutional,’ how long would public opinion have taken to change on that issue?” he says. “The South Dakota Attorney General repeats that mantra at every opportunity — that the people of South Dakota should define who has the right to marry, not federal judges, and it riles up the public and it makes the public who doesn’t fully understand the judiciary and the political system, makes them angry at people who have been appointed to a lifetime of defending the constitution, and that’s not okay in my mind.”
“You really need to remember that we live in a country that has written things in the constitution for a reason,” Newville continues. “It’s more than just discrimination against gay people here, it’s also about who we are as a country and who we are as a people and how we treat each other that’s at play here.”
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley told KSFY: “The state’s position being that the voters of South Dakota should pick the definition of marriage, rather than the federal court,” Jackley said.
*The Aberdeen News published an editorial suggesting that the state’s defense in a losing battle would prove costly:
Clearly, it is Jackley’s role as attorney general to defend the state Constitution.
That said, South Dakota is likely swimming against the current in this battle.
Whether this year or five years from now, same-sex marriage will likely be legal in most every state. That’s not a judgment of right or wrong, it’s just the way things seem to be heading.
We hope South Dakota doesn’t find itself in a long, costly, protracted battle that won’t be winnable in the end.
*South Dakota cities fell well below the national average on HRC’s municipal equality index. Brookings scored the highest at 48, Sioux Falls scored 24, Rapid City scored 19, and Pierre and Aberdeen scored 10 points each.
“South Dakota is not necessarily the best place to be LGBT, but what I see in some of those cities is that people are really making an effort to improve,” MEI author Cathryn Oakley told the Argus Leader. “Brookings is not far off from the national average.