Iowa GOP lawmakers say focus not on gay marriage

DES MOINES (AP) ? Since Iowa?s legislative session started a month ago, conservative lawmakers have filed bills on school funding, taxes and abortion, but so far they haven?t taken up gay marriage legislation.

Some supporters of gay marriage said that could signal more support of same-sex marriage, but Iowa lawmakers argued it?s more about priorities.

After repeatedly pushing for legislative action to put a constitutional amendment before voters that would overturn the 2009 Iowa Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage, Republicans said they?re now simply focused on other issues.

Still, some like Donna Red Wing, executive director of One Iowa, the state?s largest gay advocacy group, senses a change.

?I was at an event with a bunch of legislators and they were mentioning priorities and they didn?t mention marriage. I think we are seeing a turning,? said Red Wing, who moved to Iowa so that she could marry her longtime partner. ?I think the will is lessening.?

When the court unanimously ruled that Iowa?s ban on gay marriage violated the state constitution?s equal-protection clause, the state became the nation?s third to legalize same-sex unions. Nine states and Washington, D.C., now have legalized gay marriage, and between 2009 and 2011 there were 4,600 gay marriages in Iowa, according to the state department of public health.

Republicans won a majority in the House in 2010 and have tried to begin the multi-step process of referring a proposed amendment to voters, but they have been stopped by Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal. The Council Bluffs Democrat has refused to allow a vote on such legislation, saying he wouldn?t allow debate on a measure that seeks to put discrimination into the state constitution.