The recent moves by Iowa's Supreme Court and Vermont's legislature to allow same-sex unions sparked an acquaintance of mine to post the following Facebook status: "[I have] no feelings on the spate of gay marriage developments. It is an issue of luxury salient only for an exercise in rhetorical flourish." For him, marriage is some distant frontier, less prescient than the health care crisis, the economy, and the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would prohibit discrimination of employees based on sexual orientation. But while he prefers not to celebrate what is, for him, simply an abstraction (the issues of hospital visitation, inheritance, and the various other rights enjoyed by legally married couples seemed lost on him), the recent moves by Iowa and Vermont, the first state to pass legislation legalizing same-sex unions, symbolize two steps forward in the fight for civil rights following the crushing blow of the passage of Proposition 8 in California last fall. The recent developments have renewed the debate in the Golden State. Gay marriage supporters are hoping the Iowa Supreme Court's ruling will set a prescedent that might lead to the California courts overruling the ballot initiative that passed with 52 percent with overwhelming support of the Mormon Church last November. The California Supreme Court's decision to legalize gay marriage last May led to the passage of Prop 8 and was also cited by the Iowa court in their recent decision. States may be sovereign, but the recent developments prove that what happens in one state can, and does, affect the entire nation. And of course, the oppression of one group is the oppression of all.