Iowa
A wedding venue in Grimes, Iowa, closed after losing a legal battle over anti-LGBT discrimination earlier this year, and now the owners say they are launching 1,000 anti-LGBT billboards across America, the Blaze reports:

They unveiled their first billboard in Durant, Oklahoma, on July 24 — a 14-foot-by-48-foot placard with a message that reads, “Marriage =” and then an image of a man, a plus sign and a picture of a woman. A quote under those images is attributed to God and says, “Please…I need your help with this.”

The Odgaards hope to raise enough money to be able to place 999 additional messages across America.

“It has become very obvious that many people of faith have wondered from the word, and/or are deeply confused with this issue,” Betty Odgaard told TheBlaze on Wednesday. “With that, the primary objective our mission with these billboards is to spark ‘drive-time epiphanies.” In other words, to remind the faithful of the truth.”

One of Iowa’s Boy Scouts councils says the change allowing gay scout leaders won’t impact them much, the Des Moines Register reports:

The leader of Mid-Iowa Council of Boy Scouts said he wasn’t surprised by the national organization’s decision Monday to lift its ban on gay adult leaders.
“We certainly were anticipating the decision would be made this way today,” said Mid-Iowa Council Executive Director Bob Hopper…
“Our local board, mid Iowa council, has discussed this,” Hopper said. “So we are now looking forward to moving on. We want to continue to the good work we think we do.”

Hopper said he expects that some of the 5,000 adult leaders in the 27 counties the council oversees have been gay, but haven’t identified as such.

The new policy doesn’t change the application process for leaders, though, as Hopper said that at no point in the application process is someone asked their sexual orientation.

“It never has been a question,” Hopper said. “None of our material that we’ve ever had have ever said anything about sexuality at all. It never said homosexuality is right or wrong.”

The Daily Nonpareil, a newspaper serving southwest Iowa, applauded the Boy Scouts’ decision:

We applaud the Boy Scouts’ decision to respect the rights of individuals hoping to help foster community and good works, even in the face of a religious backlash. The exemptions on religious grounds are concessions made in what we hope will be a gradual move to ending discrimination all together.
Likewise, we hope leaders in all religions and religious denominations will one day take a clear-eyed look at the issue and reconsider.

A Newton, Iowa, newspaper editor who was fired after a LGBT-bashing screed has settled a discrimination lawsuit with his former employer, the Associated Press reports:

Liberty Institute, a nonprofit legal group, says Monday that its client, Bob Eschliman, and Dixon, Illinois-based Shaw Media Inc. reached a confidential settlement over Eschliman’s termination in May 2014 from the Newton Daily News.
Eschliman was editor when he posted online that gay organizations are trying to reword the Bible “to make their sinful nature ‘right with God.'” Eschliman was fired and Shaw Media said in a column that the posting did not reflect the opinion of the newspaper or company. Eschliman filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Two former Des Moines Register journalists have written a book about the 2009 Iowa Supreme Court decision that made the state the third in the United States to offer same-sex marriage, the Register reports. The book is called “Equal Before the Law: How Iowa Led Americans to Marriage Equality.”

Rep. Steve King, who represents western Iowa, told an audience last week that the U.S. Supreme Court decision on marriage equality means people can marry his lawnmower. As Think Progress notes, it’s a line that King has been using at times this year.

This, however, was not even the first time King had contemplated lawnmower marriage. He’s actually been making the remark since just after the ruling came down. In late June, he was quoted as saying, “Their ruling really says anybody can marry anybody — and eventually it will be in any combination. I had a strong, Christian lawyer tell me yesterday that, under this decision that he has read, what it brings about is: It only requires one human being in this relationship — that you could marry your lawnmower with this decision. I think he’s right.”

The “Gay & Gray” Iowa Senior Summit was held over the weekend, the Des Moines Register reports:

LGBT activism group One Iowa hosted its first-ever “Gay & Gray” Iowa Senior Summit at Grand View University on Saturday — focusing on issues the elderly population uniquely face, such as finding accepting senior living housing.

“They’re afraid, they’re vulnerable, they may not have the physical stamina they used to,” said Donna Red Wing, executive director of One Iowa. “If they’re in assisted care or nursing facilities, they’re going back into the closet, and these are the people that pioneered the movement.”

Wisconsin
Gov. Scott Walker, who is running for president, softened his tone slightly on marriage equality at a stop in Iowa, the Washington Post reports:

Scott Walker still supports amending the U.S. Constitution to allow states to ban gay marriage, but he said on Friday afternoon that making such a change would be difficult and not the best use of a president’s influence.

“To me, I think the most appropriate and timely focus for the next president is to focus on defending religious liberties,” Walker said during a town hall attended by about 60 people in this small town in southwest Iowa.

South Dakota
The Associated Press notes that 40 same-sex couples have married in South Dakota:
“In Pennington County, which includes Rapid City, there were 20 issued; in Minnehaha County, which includes Sioux Falls, there were five. All other counties issued no more than three licenses.”

North Dakota
North Dakota’s Boy Scouts councils are welcoming the new policy allowing gay scout leaders, the Fargo Forum reports

The council that oversees Boy Scout troops in North Dakota and northwest Minnesota reported almost no backlash from parents, sponsors or members a day after the national organization lifted its ban on gay leaders.

Northern Lights Council Executive Director Roger Hoyt said Monday’s vote from Boy Scouts of America formalized a practice that the council had already been using.
“We’ve had gay leaders in our councils for years,” Hoyt said. “It’s almost that national policy is now in line with the practice we’ve had (for) a few years now.”