WATERLOO -- As they signed their marriage license Monday morning, Jennifer Waldron and Brenda Fite chatted with courthouse staff.

"Have you made your wedding plans yet?" Black Hawk County Recorder Judy McCarthy asked the couple.

In a morning filled with cameras and quote-digging questions from the media, the couple seemed to appreciate the simple query.

"We have," replied Waldron, while Fite looped a reassuring arm around her partner of 10 years. "We're renewing our vows at Hartman Reserve � we have all our friends and family coming up."

The exchange humanized the paperwork process and allowed the pair to focus on the significance of their signatures. Waldron and Fite, who celebrated a commitment ceremony in 2003, were one of the first Black Hawk County couples to apply for a marriage license. The Cedar Falls couple plans to marry next month.

For Waldron and Fite, as well as many other same-sex couples in Iowa, applying for a marriage license is both personal and political.

"I'm not going to say this makes me feel more complete, because I already feel that way," said Carrie Bellmyer, a Waterloo woman who is planning a wedding with her partner of one year. "But this gives our relationship recognition and legal rights."

There are 5,833 same-sex pairs in Iowa, according to the Census Bureau. Gay rights organizations expect half of those couples to marry within the next three years.

Those statistics upset same-sex marriage opponents like David Sterner, of Waterloo, who dropped by the courthouse Monday to submit a petition asking McCarthy to deny licenses to same-sex couples. The document is part of a campaign organized by Sen. Merlin Bartz, R-Grafton, and is based on the rationale that the Iowa Legislature -- not the Supreme Court -- should decide the issue.

The Varnum v. Brien decision made Iowa the first Midwest state to grant full legal standing to gay and lesbian couples and only the third state nationally to confer marital status on same-sex partners. Although the ruling could be challenged through a state constitutional amendment, 2012 is the earliest the issue could be brought to a vote.

"The way that it came about, the justices took the power away from the people," said Sterner, one of six people to submit a petition to McCarthy. "This is not something that a bunch of judges should be able to decide."

While eager same-sex pairs lined up in the rain outside Polk County District Court in Des Moines Monday morning, only two lesbian couples had filed for licenses in Waterloo by 8:30 a.m.

Still, partners in both cities voiced a similar hope -- that the extension of marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples would decrease discrimination.

"Hopefully it will make people a little more tolerant, a little more aware," said Nicki Thorn whose partner, Tracy Barbatti, served as a witness for Waldron and Fite's marriage license. "This is a civil rights issue, not a religious issue."

Contact Mary Stegmeir at (319) 291-1482 or mary.stegmeir@wcfcourier.com