Why I am supporting Ed Fallon for US Congress 3rd District Iowa

It is time for a change and no better place to start than with removing a Bush Democrat with a long time LGBT supporter.

   

By Phyllis Stevens | Contact Phyllis Stevens is the chair of Marriage Equality USA's Iowa chapter. She is also an ardent supporter of One Iowa and nationally NGLTF. She is the current vice chair of the Progressive Coalition of Central Iowa. She and Marla (her wife) try very hard to find candidates that will bring our vision for the future into being.

SIMPLY ED

Ed Fallon is one of those people that you always remember meeting. I had, of course, heard about him before I met him. When I moved to Iowa in early 2004, I went to the Gay and Lesbian Center.

When I said I wanted to work on gay rights, I met the volunteer lobbyist who told me about Ed. She referred to him simply as "Ed" - not "Representative Fallon."

Ed, it seems, not only championed gay rights but was profoundly pro-choice, worked hard on alternative energy bills, had been a leader in the peace movement for almost 20 years, never took PAC money, and was a leader in issues close to Iowa's heart such as corporate hog lots.

She praised his leadership in standing up for equality against a proposed equality marriage ban long before it was the thing to do for a Democrat, especially in Iowa. She said that they had been trying for a good 10 years to pass civil rights in the statehouse and Ed was one of the very first "yes" votes she had recorded back then. Even so, I was sure that on our issues he was not nearly as good as she indicated.

 

THE MEETING

Not too long after that conversation, my wife told me I had to go to a fundraiser for a guy named Fallon who was running for Governor of Iowa. I had to go and meet him to see if we should contribute to his campaign.

Marla and I are very careful about whom we give money to (especially when we decide to max out on a candidate). As a couple, we refuse to max out on a candidate who doesn't support marriage equality. I hated fundraisers - stuffy affairs, meeting people I didn't know, and not conducive to talking with the candidate. Nevertheless, it was my job to meet Ed. I drove up and down the street looking for the venue.

When I saw it, I was sure I had it written down wrong - The Vaudeville Mews Bar. I went in and a friendly volunteer slapped a sticker on me and had me sign my name to a list. "Well, that was normal," I thought to myself, so I decided to stay, have a drink and then leave since the candidate would only show up for the speech.

 

MARRIAGE EQUALITY

A minute or two later, a slender guy in jeans and a sports shirt came up to my table. He sat down across from me and stuck out his hand. "Hi, I'm Ed Fallon." I was immediately tongue-tied. He smiled again.

Then he began talking about why he wanted to be Governor, the issues that were important to him, and how I might help. I stopped him, sure that it was a waste of time because no one from Iowa was going to support marriage equality, so I asked him. He immediately launched into a lengthy explanation of why it is one of the most important civil rights issues of our time.

I found out that in 1996 he addressed the Iowa General Assembly and given a speech about how marriage equality should be the law. He also had addressed Congress when the Defense of Marriage Act was being considered. His eyes were very intense when he talked about the importance of marriage being available to all consenting adults.

He did not talk in a puffed up way but just laid out the facts about how many benefits gay people missed and how it made us less than equal, just as it had racially mixed couples years before when interracial marriages were banned. I called Marla and we maxed out on his campaign right away.

 

TIME FOR ED TO GO TO WASHINGTON

When Ed told me he was running for Congress against the Bush-Democrat Leonard Boswell, I was so excited that I called Marla on the spot and I am sure we could be heard celebrating clear across Iowa! The political experts here say he has a great chance of winning, so soon after we maxed out on the campaign. We knew it was a great investment in our future and Iowa's.

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