How Iowa was won
It's easy for those of us (including me) who weren't paying close attention to Iowa to conclude that the same-sex marriage decision there came completely out of the blue.
But in fact, according to a recent article in the Washington Post, that decision was the end result of seven years of hard work by a lot of people, including the Lambda Legal people.
And especially including a pair of lawyers: Camilla Taylor from Chicago, working with Lambda Legal, who spearheaded the whole thing, and Dennis Johnson, a former Iowa Solicitor General from Des Moines:
[...Taylor] had never met [Johnson] and was taking a risk by calling him, because her plan to file a lawsuit was a secret.
"I had never heard of Lambda Legal, or her," Johnson said. "I had never been involved in gay rights at all."
[...]
Now Johnson says, "I've never felt so strongly about a case in my entire career."
Good article, and a good reminder of how important it is to lay the groundwork for this kind of thing.
