DES MOINES -- A Polk County, Iowa judge on Wednesday ruled that the Iowa Department of Public Health must issue a new birth certificate in the names of a lesbian couple who are the parents of a now 2-year-old girl.

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A lesbian couple in Iowa -- where gay marriage is legal -- was caught off guard when the baker they approached for their wedding cake told them that she is Christian, and because of her convictions couldn't bake their cake.

Iowa Democrat Liz Mathis was victorious in a special Iowa state Senate race on Tuesday, allowing her party to retain control of the chamber, blocking Republican efforts to overturn the state's gay marriage law.

Iowa’s Republican Governor Terry Branstad on Monday said “there’s no connection at all between Iowa’s debate over gay marriage rights and the death of Waterloo teen Marcellus Andrews.”

Police have confirmed the death of a 19-year-old college student in Waterloo, Iowa, who was brutally beaten in the early morning hours on Friday, and whose attackers shouted anti-gay slurs and kicked him in the face.

The National Organization for Marriage, the Family Research Council, and the Susan B. Anthony List have launched the 2011 Values Bus Iowa Tour.

In a sharply worded email, Iowa House Republican Speaker Pro-Tempore Jeff Kaufmann rebuked former gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats, asserting that he quickly losing political credibility.

In a short video clip released Tuesday by independent watch-dog group Think Progress, the homophobic president of the anti-gay, conservative christian group "The Family Leader" is seen erupting in laughter at after being told a joke about "fags."

An Iowa-based Christian conservative group, The Family Leader, on Thursday unveiled a pledge asking Republican presidential candidates to be faithful to their spouses, and work tirelessly to oppose same-sex marriage.

Zach Wahls wishes his moms, and all moms, a very Happy Mother's Day.

Five Iowa GOP lawmakers filed resolutions in the state House on Thursday seeking to impeach the remaining four Iowa Supreme Court justices who issued an April 2009 ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, but their efforts were squashed on Friday by the House Speaker.

Iowa's social conservative groups are working to overturn the state's marriage equality law, and that includes former gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats, head of the Iowa Family Leader, who has called homosexuality "a public health risk."

Marriage equality has been an intensely debated social issue in Iowa ever since the state Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2009, but a new poll suggests many Iowans are either conflicted or just aren't interested in the debate.

GOP lawmakers in Iowa's House are putting forward a bill that would prohibit the state's county recorders from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples until a public vote on a constitutional amendment is passed.

Zach Wahls, a 19-year-old University of Iowa student who spoke about the strength of his family during a public forum over an amendment that seeks to repeal the state’s marriage equality law, appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres show today.