Gender Identity Remains a Protected Class in Iowa
For now...
The assembled crowd roared when they learned last Wednesday that a bill that would eliminate gender identity protection under Iowa’s Civil Rights Act and declare that people with gender dysphoria are disabled died in a House subcommittee.
But not everyone under the golden dome was pleased. The left half of the above photo shows approximately 60 people of apparent Christian dominionists who were concerned about the issue and were also there to protest abortion rights, calling abortion murder, and demanding punishment for the murder of the unborn. I’m not sure who is to be punished. The woman/girl? The father? The doctor? The person who drove the woman/girl to the clinic? I suspect all would be considered accessories to murder. Below is a view from the ground floor of the pastor speaking.
Below is a clip. The speaker is the pastor on the far right in a gray jacket.
The opening few sentences lay bare the rationale of why at least a part of the Christian right is seeking to impose their will on the rest of us, irrespective of the costs. Below is a transcript of the first part.
The gospel is more than the message of the forgiveness of our sins. The Gospel is the proclamation that Jesus Christ is the ruler of all the kings of the Earth. He possesses all authority in heaven and earth. The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever. The church's mission is to call all nations, the people, and their governments to repent and to pledge allegiance to King Jesus and obey his teachings. The great commission includes the work of guiding the authorities to rule for the temporal good of the land... according to God's law.
There it is, laid out plain and simple. To them, they are doing the work of God as they seek to bend all governments, and us all, to their will. There is no compromise and no quarter will be taken. They are right-wing “Christian” soldiers doing spiritual battles against all who resist, and theirs is a powerful voice driving Republican authoritarianism in Iowa and beyond. It permeates the Reynolds administration and the Republican-led legislature. Fully operationalized, it would crush our pluralistic society, possibly leading to punishments for those who don’t comply.
It’s a prophecy based on Revelation 11:15. Here’s the King James version: And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
Or, as one member of that faith community puts it, “Our God Wins.
There were several children in the audience listening to the preachers. I worried about them. They looked puzzled—some even seemed frightened. Maybe because of the hellfire and brimstone lesson they were being fed, or the loud crowd behind them chanting “separation of church and state” and “Trans rights are human rights.”
What if as they grow older, they discover they are LGBTQ+, or want an abortion? Will their families still love them? Let’s hope so, but I know Iowa families who have exiled their LGBTQ+ children, something unfathomable to me.
And yes, please spare me the passive-aggressive, arrogant “hate the sin, love the sinner” crap.
While the dominionists had approximately 60 people in attendance, the pro-LGBTQ+ crowd numbered in the hundreds, and they won the day.
Above is the room where the hearing took place about 45 minutes before it was to begin. The room had exceeded capacity, and people were milling about in the hallway. Since I didn’t want to take the place of either a reporter on deadline or someone who wanted to speak, I left and went into the hallway.
The left photo above is looking south, the right photo to the north.
In the center photo above, the guy in red with the LGBTQ+ crowd was having a “discussion” about banned books with the guy on the right in the black or gray jacket, who was with the group protesting abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. The guy in red was listing books that had been pulled from his public library, and when he said one of the books pulled was “The Grapes of Wrath,” the guy on the right asked something like, “what’s that?” Maybe I misheard, but it seemed like the guy had never heard of the book before.
I didn’t understand who J-Dog was, or the toe-sucking reference. The person holding the sign explained to me that J-Dog refers to Republican Legislator Jeff Shipley (who had sponsored the bill) and that he had previously expressed the desire to suck the toes of unvaccinated women. I presume he would ask for consent before undertaking that endeavor.
The Iowa Starting Line provides some context below.
While constitutional protection remains after Wednesday’s defeat in the legislature, Governor Reynolds wasted no time in continuing to try to punish trans Iowans again, as the next day she introduced House Study Bill 649, which would define “sex,” “man,” and “woman.” This is even though science says sex isn’t binary, and the idea of only two sexes is too “simplistic.” Anthropologists and biologists have known this for well over 100 years.
According to the Iowa Capital Dispatch, the passage of the bill also “would prevent transgender Iowans who have had gender reassignment surgery from simply changing their sex on their birth certificate or driver’s license…would require a person’s sex at birth to be listed along with any sex reassignment for people seeking to change their birth certificate. The bill would also create a record of any sex changes on the Iowa driver’s license for people who apply to update the document after a reassignment surgery.”
For what possible reason? As an invitation for someone to discriminate against them every time they have to show their driver’s license?
My friend Eric Palmer, an attorney in Oskaloosa and former Democratic state representative, and I were talking about this on Saturday at Smokey Row in Osky.
He looked me in the eye and said, “Wouldn’t it be easier if Governor Reynolds just ordered them to wear yellow stars?”
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It seems hard to stay current with all of the abominable coming out of governor’s office. Thank you Bob for keeping us so well informed.
Today we need to be at the Capitol at 2:00 to register our displeasure with their efforts to dismantle the library system. One day at a time.
This effort to create a record for any changes attests to their weakness, which arises from the fear of someone "passing" and thereby demonstrating how pointless their whole enterprise is. It also reminds me of some foolishness on my Iowa birth certificate, which is at pains to specify that I am "white."