Congrats, Iowa Gays!

Some 380 pairs of you exercised your new marriage rights and tied the knot yesterday. Bliss! Courtesy many waivers the standard three-day waiting period between getting a license and marrying, and despite the false (or altogether made up) threats of some county recorders who said they would quit, and even with the protesters exercising their right to bigotry, we’ve now got more than 760 legally married gay folks. There were even 25 out-of-state couples making use of Iowa’s new brand of equality! Of course, back when marriage was legal in California (for all 141 days), some 18,000 couples took advantage. You might expect Iowa to take a smidge longer than that to reach those numbers. (Photos: Mary Chind, John Gaps III/The Des Moines Register, Lisa Fernandez)