Today Iowa officially becomes 3rd state where gays can legally wed

Iowa becomes the third state where same-sex couples can legally wed, following Massachusetts and Iowa. Vermont has legalized gay marriage effective Sept. 1. Gay marriage was legal in California for five months, until a state referendum to ban it passed last fall.

Volunteers were expected to be handing out bouquets to newly married couples Monday in five of Iowa’s larger cities.

Maryfrances Evans, 46, and Stephanie McFarland, 39, plan to hold their ceremony Friday, performed by the same judge who finalized the adoptions of their two daughters, now 5 and 3.

"It’s all about me having the legal right to protect my family, and it’s about my daughters being able to grow up knowing that their family is absolutely as valid as any other family," said Evans, who lives in the Des Moines suburb of Urbandale.

The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law estimated Iowa had 5,800 same-sex couples in 2005, and said U.S. Census figures reported about 19 percent of gay and lesbian couples in Iowa were raising children.