This week Iowa Republican lawmakers against same-sex marriage failed, in both the Iowa House and Senate, to force a vote on the issue in an attempt to amend the Iowa Constitution with a ban on same-sex marriage.

In order to become a constitutional amendment in Iowa, a bill must pass two General Assemblies and then be put on the ballot for a public vote, and efforts to pull the resolutions out of the committees and place them on the debate calendar were aimed to beat a legislative deadline to get the bills on the floor this week.

On Tuesday of this week a procedural move to pull a bill out of committee in the House required a 51-vote majority, but that effort failed in a 45-54 vote, mostly along party lines. No vote was taken on a similar Senate Resolution.

Back on April 3, 2009, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously upheld the District Court’s ruling holding that there was no important governmental interest in denying citizens marriage licenses based on their sexual orientation, and that denying such rights was unconstituational. This overturned Iowa’s Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defined marriage as between one man and one woman. Since last year’s ruling, Iowa Republicans have made several attempts to bring a measure similar to DOMA to the floor, but this weeks efforts marked the first formal attempt to overturn the Court’s ruling in this years legislative session.

The failure of this week’s procedural maneuvering means that Iowa voters will likely not see the issue on a ballot until 2014 at the earliest.

According to a poll conducted for the Des Moines Register, a majority of Iowans think the issue of gay marriage doesn’t deserver lawmakers’ attention. 62 percent of Iowans think the issue of same-sex marriage doesn’t deserve lawmakers’ time, rating it below texting while driving, puppy mill legislation, gun control, payday loans and gambling.

My opinion: 62 percent of Iowans are on the right path. I would argue that in two decades we will look back on the issue of same-sex marriage in the same we we look back on women’s suffrage or the civil rights movement.

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