AOL News has a new home! The Huffington Post.

Click here to visit the new home of AOL News!

Hot on HuffPost:

See More Stories

Surge Desk

Zach Wahls' Iowa Speech for Gay Marriage Goes Viral [VIDEO]

Feb 2, 2011 – 3:05 PM
Text Size
Steven Hoffer

Steven Hoffer Contributor

The Iowa House of Representatives approved a resolution on Tuesday that proposes a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in the state.

Hundreds of people packed the Iowa State House to debate the issue -- known as House Joint Resolution 6 -- which passed by a 62-37 vote.

One of the individuals who spoke was Zach Wahls, a University of Iowa engineering student and the child of a same-sex couple. His three-minute speech against the resolution is going viral across the Internet, much like Fort Worth, Texas, City Councilman Joel Burns' "It Gets Better" speech did during October.

During his statement, the 19-year-old equates his family to any other in Iowa and mentions that he owns a small business, is an Eagle Scout and scored in the 99th percentile on the ACT college aptitude test, and he even manages to not so subtly tell the House chairman that he'd be "very proud" to have a son like himself.

Check out footage of Wahls' inspired address:


Follow Surge Desk on Twitter.
Filed under: Nation, Surge Desk, Gay Rights

ON FACEBOOK