“Love is Love”

Jamie Cook, 31, Cedar Rapids
Annuity Customer Care Representative @ AEGON

Tiana Huovinen, 32, Cedar Rapids
Collections Representative @ Toyota Financial

For many Iowans April 27 was just another Monday.

For Jamie Cook and Tiana Huovinen, that Monday morning was a celebration of life, love and civil rights. April 27 was the first day same-sex couples could apply for marriage licenses after an April 3 unanimous decision by the Iowa Supreme Court to strike down a ban on same-sex marriage.

Jamie and Tiana were among the many couples who filed for a marriage license April 27. They’ll perform the actual ceremony soon.

“There was no question whether we would marry or not,” says Tiana. “We are a family and the legal recognition is important to us. I plan on being with Jamie forever.”

Being able to marry is a legal validation of what they’ve known, and lived, for a long time.

“This doesn’t change the bond I have to Tiana,” says Jamie. “The day we had our commitment ceremony is the day I devoted my life to hers. However, I’m extremely excited about the prospect of people finally realizing that this is a decision that no one else has the right to make for you. We are good for each other. Love is love!”

The couple met while Tiana, who grew up in Cedar Rapids, was living in Arizona. All it took was one date.

“(Jamie) was very honest about who she was and what mattered to her,” Tiana says. “I e-mailed after thinking about her for a week. We had a date and the rest is history.”

After dating for 10 months, the couple moved in together and began focusing on the future. Nearly three years ago, they held a commitment ceremony in Cape Verde, Ariz., surrounded by friends, family and running horses. It wasn’t long after that when they began to think of children.

“Tiana knew when we met that I wanted kids,” Jamie says. “She was uncertain but open to the idea. After being together for a few years, a friend of ours offered to be the donor. We carefully weighed out the pros and cons and decided this was what we both wanted. I conceived just three months after we began trying.”

It was early in her pregnancy when the couple decided to move to Iowa to be closer to Tiana’s family. This meant leaving Jamie’s supportive mother behind in Arizona but also raising the baby around loving grandparents, aunts, uncles and lots of cousins.

After moving back, Tiana got a job at Toyota Financial Services. After their son, Aidan, now 2, was born, Jamie got a job with AEGON. Everything was falling into place but there was one thing that remained out of reach.

“With civil unions, it seems that a government can pick and chose which rights to grant same-sex couples,” Tiana says. “Marriage, on the other hand, is the same in every state, every married couple has the same rights. Why would I want to settle for a consolation prize that doesn’t grant me the same rights?”

Now, for the first time, they feel they are seen as Iowans, not gay Iowans.

- JUSTIN