The White House sent out a statement following the Iowa ruling: "The President respects the decision of the Iowa Supreme Court, and continues to believe that states should make their own decisions when it comes to the issue of marriage. Although President Obama supports civil unions rather than same-sex marriage, he believes that committed gay and lesbian couples should receive equal rights under the law."

The Advocate noted that the statement was revised from its original version, which ended with the phrase: "he believes that committed gay and lesbian couples should receive protection under the law."

Kevin Cathcart, executive director of Lambda Legal, talked about the Iowa decision with the NYT, and why the organization chose to press the case there: "We chose Iowa because Iowa has a history, particularly at the stateSupreme Court level, of taking the state constitution very seriouslyand making independent decisions based on the state constitution. Through analysis and research, we came to believe that Iowa was a place where we had a real chance of convincing the courts…It's particularly important for people in the Midwest who can't travelto the East Coast or who feel that they shouldn't have to. It's a strong statement to the rest of the country."

Unfriendly Fire author Nathaniel Frank writes about how the Iowa decision will impact "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".

Iowa's Catholic Bishops are pissed: "This decision rejects the wisdom of thousands of years of human history. It implements a novel understanding of marriage, which will grievously harm families and children."

The NYT published an editorial on Saturday praising the ruling: "The immediate impact of Iowa's ruling was to make the failure torespect gay people's freedom to marry, by courts and legislatures instates like New York, seem all the more shameful."

The Waterloo and Cedar Falls Courier wrote about the tough road same-sex marriage opponents have ahead of them in attempting to have the ruling reversed.

Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.com takes a fascinating look at efforts to amend state constitutions to ban same-sex marriage using a statistical model and concludes: "The state has roughly average levels ofreligiosity, including a fair number of white evangelicals, and themodel predicts that if Iowans voted on a marriage ban today,it would pass with 56.0 percent of the vote. By 2012, however, themodel projects a toss-up: 50.4 percent of Iowans voting to approve theban, and 49.6 percent opposed. In 2013 and all subsequent years, themodel thinks the marriage ban would fail."

NPR takes a look at where things stand state-by-state on marriage equality.

The Omaha World-Herald took a look at the new 'gay Mecca' next door: "The sudden creation of what would essentially be a gay marriage tourismindustry in Iowa would bring economic benefits, [a] UCLA
study said, estimating total economic impact at more than $50 million a year. The study did not address any economic impact that would result fromsame-sex couples deciding to move to Iowa because of the law, anotherpotential result of their new legal status. GivenOmaha's position as a transportation and entertainment hub for westernIowa, it's likely some of the wedding industry and tourism dollars fromgay nuptials would spill into Nebraska."

Mike Alvear wrote in the Huffington Post about how the Iowa marraige ruling would strengthen heterosexual marriages.

The decision is already stirring debate about the state's role in the 2012 elections: "Even though the next presidential race is more than three years away,prospective Republican presidential candidates have already passedthrough Iowa.If the state retains its traditional position as the first stop on theroad to the White House, the legalization of gay marriage will almostcertainly play a role in the Iowa caucuses.

The AP's video report on the ruling, AFTER THE JUMP…

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