GLBT Youth In Iowa Schools Taskforce (Iowa Safe Schools), an organization that receives taxpayer money, is encouraging Iowa State Patrol troopers involved in an incident Thursday at the Capitol to be fired. The group is also trying to fundraise off the situation.
“(Thursday) was our annual Student Day at the Capitol, an event for LGBTQ youth to come and meet with lawmakers about issues impacting the LGBTQ community,” they posted on Facebook. “We had incredible progress (Thursday) with over 250 LGBTQ youth advocating for the issues important to them. In the afternoon, the Iowa State Troopers and Capitol Security began to harass and bully LGBTQ youth because of the restrooms they were using.”
The group claims that the civil rights of these students were violated because gender identity is a protected class in the Iowa Civil Rights Code. There was a bill introduced in the legislature earlier this year to remove gender identity from that Code, but it did not receive a subcommittee hearing.
“The Iowa Civil Rights Act is clear – gender identity is a protected class and so is public accommodation,” the group said. “The troopers and security forced students from the restrooms. In the end, the state troopers forced every LGBTQ youth out of the Capitol for no reason other than transphobia. This is a violation law. This is a violation of students’ rights. There must be consequences for the troopers and capitol security for harming children.”
GLBT Youth In Iowa Schools Taskforce said they will be visiting every gay-straight alliance to inform students of their legal rights moving forward.
“What happened (Thursday) was not OK,” they wrote.
The group finished its post by asking people to donate.
GLBT Youth In Iowa Schools Taskforce hosts an annual event called the Governor’s Conference on LGBTQ Youth. In 2015, there were many vulgar aspects of the conference, which prompted an investigation by the state. You can read about that here.
Some video from the incident up at the Iowa Statehouse today where state troopers removed a group of LGBTQ students from the Capitol after some used the restroom of the gender they identify withhttps://t.co/9B2umrpylE pic.twitter.com/DmRALcPmsO
— Iowa Starting Line (@IAStartingLine) March 13, 2020
