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There is no excuse for the Iowa Republican trifecta not to strip gender identity and sexual orientation out of the Civil Rights Act. None. In fact, there is only one reason they would not do so — and we’ll get to that later.

But in breaking the story regarding the Pella Aquatic Center, the facility believes not allowing a biological female who identifies as a male to walk around topless and use the men’s facilities would violate state law. They’re probably right.

That’s because the Iowa Civil Rights Act provides a “protected class” essentially when it comes to gender identity and sexual orientation.

The fact that in Iowa biological men are allowed to use the female restroom in every public school can be traced back to including gender identity in the Iowa Civil Rights Act. It was the Iowa Civil Rights Act that opponents of a bill restoring sanity — and biology — to our school bathrooms continued to trumpet.

Radical LGBTQ activists will continue to use the Democrat Party and the Iowa Civil Rights Act to shove such insane policies and ideas down the throats of every public institution.

But Republicans have the power to fix the Iowa Civil Rights Act. The question is do they have the courage to restore sanity?

If Republicans made it a priority to strip gender identity and sexual orientation out of the Iowa Civil Rights Act, there is not a single thing Democrats could do to stop them.

And indeed it should be a priority for the Republican Party. Just look at the GOP platform in 2018:

“We call for the repeal of sexual orientation as a protected class in the Iowa Civil Rights Code and reject any additional similar legislation to Local, State or National Code.”

Heck, four years ago it looked like Republicans weren’t even aware that gender identity was a protected class in the Iowa Civil Rights Code. Now, look where we are today. If you’re uncomfortable with your 5-year-old seeing a teenage biological girl topless at the pool — you are the bigot. You are backward. You are on the wrong side of history.

None of that is true. The truth is simply you’re sane. And you know, there is something to be said for sanity.

Republicans attempted to strip gender identity and sexual orientation from the Civil Rights Code a couple of years ago — but the bill was killed.

At the time, Holt told The Iowa Standard:

“I’m very concerned about the unintended consequences of this and the message that it might send that is not intended. I don’t think this is the way that we handle it.”

Judiciary chair Rep. Holt kills bill removing gender identity from Iowa Civil Rights Code

Will this incident as well as the use of the Civil Rights Code to justify allowing a 40-year-old man to use the bathroom stall next to your 6-year-old daughter in any Iowa public school be enough to encourage Republicans to resume the fight?

Boy, I hope so.

Because if it doesn’t, nothing will.

Politics isn’t about converting the easy layups — it is about doing the difficult things to fight evil. And while this may seem difficult on the surface, it really isn’t.

Just do the right thing. Do what the people who elect you want you to do. Remove gender identity and sexual orientation from the Civil Rights Code. If we get any further on this slippery slope, it will be way too late.

Author: Jacob Hall

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