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There’s a really interesting post on MyDD that addresses some of the history in Somalia. It makes it quite clear that the residents of that area have every right to be seriously pissed off. Yet another instance of imperialist thought gone awry, and more dead bodies, the only foreseeable outcome. I wish I had more to comment, other than to say it seems like the current situation is surely going to be repeated.

so here you are: a good and pious metropolitan liberal, holed up in your coastal ivory tower and luxuriating in the smell of your own cinnamon-scented farts, when your 3G mobile device tells you that one of those vowel states (“iowa”…is that the one with the potatoes?) is now one of only three in the nation that recognize same-sex marriage. facebook awaits your input. what to do, what to do? can you suppress the urge to belittle everything and everyone that isn’t within fifteen minutes of an apple store long enough to celebrate a historic achievement for equality and social justice? or do you take the opportunity to reference cow-tipping?

because blogging would be dreary and pointless if there wasn’t always something to bitch about, my jubilation over the varnum decision from this morning has been tempered a little (not much) by the persistent tone of know-nothing urban provincialism on display in the blurted remarks of some (not many) friends-of-friends in online chatter today. by way of illustration, a few comments overheard in the outer realms of facebookistan and twittervania over the last few hours:

“really? iowa??”
“wow, who would have thought Iowa?”
“You find common sense in the strangest places sometimes.”
“I never thought I’d have a reason to say “Go Iowa” – or even *think* about Iowa for that matter…”
“really, have you been to Iowa… besides cow tipping and corn picking – marriage is the most interesting thing to do – now everyone can. yay.”

let’s not even bother trying to plumb the depths of condescension and mock-astonishment among the NY and DC-based national media, who swallowed the red state/blue state kool aid years ago. suffice it to say, at this moment the number of heads exploding in the east village and the castro over the idea that whitebread cornfed little iowa has done what new york and california couldn’t do is at least equal to the number of heads exploding in sioux city and urbandale over the visual of two dudes making out in tuxes.

to help our urban betters wrap their huge enlightened heads around today’s news, here’s a brief history lesson. turns out iowa has a long tradition of progressive action, including but not limited to landmark legislation and court decisions, on civil rights and equality for minorities.

1839 – state supreme court, in one of the first such rulings anywhere, says a fugitive slave becomes free by setting foot on the free soil of iowa
1851 – iowa becomes the second state (after pennsylvania in 1780) to repeal racial anti-miscegenation laws
1868 – racial segregation banned from iowa schools 86 years before Brown and nearly a century ahead of the Civil Rights Act
1869 – first state to allow women to practice law
1873 – supco rules against racially segregated transportation & public accommodations
1948 – first lunch counter sit-ins of the civil rights movement, 12 years before Nashville and 7 years before Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott. Iowa supco rules against the Katz Drug Store in Des Moines, ending its policy of refusing service to blacks

is this whole post an overdetermined reaction to what were admittedly only a handful of off-the-cuff remarks by people i don’t even know? perhaps. am i defensive about this stuff? you’re goddamn right i am. i hear it all the time from people — liberals — who should know better. as far as i’m concerned, today is a victory for the long-maligned flyover as much as for gay couples.

with this morning’s supreme court ruling, iowa becomes the first non-coastal state to recognize same-sex marriage, one of only three in the nation (after prop 8 ) where gay couples enjoy the same rights as straight couples.

Richard Socarides, a former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton on gay civil rights, said today’s decision could set the stage for other states. Socarides was was a senior political assistant for Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin in the early 1990s.

“I think it’s significant because Iowa is considered a Midwest sate in the mainstream of American thought,” Socarides said. “Unlike states on the coasts, there’s nothing more American than Iowa. As they say during the presidential caucuses, ‘As Iowa goes, so goes the nation.’”

i don’t know about “nothing more american,” but judging from the last two elections we seem to be a pretty good bellwether of mainstream political sentiment. it’s worth remembering that this was a judicial ruling and not a legislative or popular movement; iowans as a whole may not be standing up to demand equality, but at the same time i’ll be surprised if the backlash is as loud or as ugly as it would have been ten or even five years ago. at any rate, it’s heartening to think that equal rights can no longer be considered strictly a new england & san francisco thing. not to mention that our tourism industry could use the boost!

oh yeah, and the “varnum” in “varnum v. brien”? that’s my cousin kate and her now-legally-recognized spouse trish. are we proud of them? just a little.