Now welcoming the third state where LGBT folks can marry!

While I'm still scanning my damn news ticker for any news of how the Vermont same-sex marriage bill went down in the end (ie. if Gov. Douglas' veto was overruled or not), we all now have something else to celebrate in case you're a troglodyte who's been living under a rock these last few hours: please welcome Iowa as the newest state to allow Gay Marriage! :D

(CNN) -- The Iowa Supreme Court struck down a state law Friday that banned same-sex marriage, plaintiff's attorneys said.

Larry Hoch, left, and David Twombley, one of six couples that filed suit, celebrate Friday at a news conference.

Iowa becomes the third state in the nation to allow same-sex marriage, after Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Friday's decision upheld a 2007 ruling by a lower court that Iowa's 1998 law limiting marriage to heterosexual couples went against the state's constitution. It becomes effective in 21 days.

"This is a great day for civil rights in Iowa," said attorney Dennis Johnson, a co-counsel with Lambda Legal, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of six same-sex couples seeking to marry in Iowa. "Go get married. Live happily ever after," he said at a news conference where there was loud clapping among plaintiffs.

#Ceeelebration time, come on!#

Polk County District Judge Robert Hanson found that the law violated the Iowa Constitution's guarantee of equal protection, and hurt gay and lesbian couples "in numerous tangible and intangible" ways

"Civil marriage in Iowa is the only gateway to an extensive legal structure that protects a married couple's relationship and family in and outside the state," Hanson ruled in Des Moines.

"Iowa reserves an unparalleled array of rights, obligations and benefits to married couples and their families, privileging married couples as a financial and legal unit and stigmatizing same-sex couples."

Damn, that sounds beautiful. *sniffle*

One step closer to a better America ... Now if only Jim Douglas could have a stroke or something and suffer a momentary fit of sanity and pass the Vermont bill that's screaming to be let through into the legislature ... siigh.