Zach Wahls, the 19-year-old son of a lesbian couple from Iowa, has become an internet sensation after speaking in defense of gay marriage.

The engineering student took to the floor of Iowa House on Tuesday, delivering a speech against the proposal to ban same-sex marriage in the US state. Such a ban requires changing Iowa’s state constitution.

The video of Wahls three-minute testimony has been watched by over a million online viewers. In it he asserts that, “the sexual orientation of my parents has had zero effect on the content of my character.” He points to his personal success as a product of a loving, close-knit family upbringing, telling legislators, “I’m not really so different from any of your children. My family really isn’t so different from yours.”

Afterwards, his mother Terry Wahl told MSNBC News that she was very proud: “It still brings tears to my eyes watching the talk, hearing all the praise, the commentary coming from friends and people around the globe. It’s inspiring. It’s really very, very lovely.”

Iowa is one of only five states to allow same-sex couples to marry. The law has come under consistent fire since the state’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously to legalise it two years ago. As a result, Republicans in Iowa House put forward a ballot measure that would ban state recognition of civil unions and domestic partnerships alongside a gay marriage ban.

Despite Wahl’s passionate words and the case put forward by defenders of same-sex unions, the Iowan House voted in favour of amending the constitution to ban same-sex marriage. Three Democrats and the 59 Republicans put the vote at 62-37.

However, the proposal was then voted down in the state Senate, who must pass the amendment, once this year and again in 2013, for it to go to a ballot paper public vote. The decision was split along partisan lines and both sides have vowed to continue fighting the issue.

Watch the video:
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