The headline says it all. Short and to the point.
Gender identity and sexual orientation must be stripped out of the Iowa Civil Rights Code. Simple as that. And it is time the Republican Party of Iowa rally around the idea with some sense of urgency.
This summer a teenaged biological female was allowed to use the Pella Aquatic Center essentially topless because she identifies as a male. Another person used the opposite gender’s changing room at the Sioux Center pool due to how they identified. Jefferson hosted a “gender-inclusive” pool party.
A sixth-grade boy in West Des Moines was offered to be accommodated because he felt uncomfortable using the boys’ bathroom with a sixth-grade girl in it. The girl identifies as a boy.
If there is no appetite for Republicans to right this wrong, then the GOP needs to take a long, hard look in the mirror and ask itself if it is willing to fight the Leftist agenda or just slow it down.
In 2007, when sexual orientation and gender identity were added to the Iowa Civil Rights Code, Republicans were already caving. The law passed due to Democrats, but it garnered support from Republican legislators as well.
The bill passed in the Senate, 34-16, with five Republicans voting for it.
This list includes WHO Radio host Jeff Angelo. He was joined by E. Thurman Gaskill, Mary Lundby, James Seymour and Pat Ward as the Republicans who supported throwing in gender identity and sexual orientation to the Iowa Civil Rights Code.
Democrat Tom Hancock voted against it.
In the House, it passed 59-37. Nine Republicans voted for it:
Dan Clute, Greg Forristall, Clarence Hoffman, Libby Jacobs, Linda Miller, Scott Raecker, William Schickel, Doug Struyk and Tami Wiencek.
Two Democrats voted no — Dolores Mertz and Brian Quirk.
That’s 14 Republican legislators who supported a bill that has led to biological boys using girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms in Iowa schools and at Iowa pools.
And that was in 2007 — 14 years ago. Perhaps the GOP has been ineffective and dead longer than some realize.
Nonetheless, the mess remains.
Thankfully, Republican Rep. Dean Fisher has filed legislation to remove gender identity and sexual orientation from the Iowa Civil Rights Code in the past. Most recently, House File 272 would remove only gender identity.
Currently, Iowa schools, cities and counties feel handcuffed due to gender identity being in the Civil Rights Code. They are obligated by law to allow biological boys to use the bathroom stall next to a 6-year-old little girl. They must allow grown men who think they’re women to change in the same locker room as little girls at the town pool.
But Republicans cannot and should not be content to just remove gender identity. Sexual orientation must also be stripped.
Why?
I’m not going to tell you why, I’m going to allow others to tell you why:
To be clear, this is not MY comparison — this is what has been out there for years. There is a movement to declare pedophilia a sexual orientation.
So, if these activists are successful in convincing the right people that pedophilia is a sexual orientation, and if sexual orientation is protected in the Iowa Civil Rights Code, what does society look like in that case?
Some will read that and believe it’ll never happen.
Find someone who died in 2000 and tell them 20 years later grown men who think they’re women would be allowed to use the bathroom stall next to a 6-year-old little girl.
Let me know if they saw that coming.
I’ve seen and heard a lot of outcry from mothers about this policy. But at some point, it will take men — fathers and husbands who are supposed to be the protector of their families — to rise up and demand something change.
I know, I know. Men are busy with work and then housework and don’t have time for trivial things — but this is something with generational impact. It must be addressed. It must be corrected.
Yet I watched video of a city council forum in Jefferson and heard three current councilmen essentially say “well, the law is the law. Nothing we can do about it.”
To them I ask, is there any law the state of Iowa could pass that they would refuse to enforce in their city? Let’s say the state of Iowa went the way of China and limited families to two babies. After two kids, babies needed to be aborted. Would these “leaders” just throw their hands in the air and say, “sorry, the law is the law?”
No. Leaders wouldn’t do that. Everyone has a line somewhere. And when a law is wrong, it is wrong and you do everything in your power to fight it, stand against it and get it changed.
One of the guys in Jefferson said his opinion didn’t really matter because of what the law says. That’s bull.
If you believe it is wrong, you fight it. If you wouldn’t be comfortable with your 6-year-old daughter, granddaughter, niece in the bathroom stall next to a 40-year-old man who thinks he’s a woman, then you’d better fight for all 6-year-old daughters, granddaughters and nieces to not be in that situation.
And if you’re not willing to have that fight, that’s fine, but just be honest about it. You don’t have that big of a problem with it if you’re not willing to take a stand.
What will they do? Sue the city?
Perhaps. And sometimes there’s a price for standing up and doing the right thing.
But I can assure you, it will never be as costly as standing down and doing the wrong thing.
Republicans have controlled the Iowa legislature and Terrace Hill for five years. They have 60 members in the House now, 32 in the Senate and Kim Reynolds is still governor.
This must be a priority for 2022.
Currently, only two states who voted for President Donald J. Trump have gender identity and sexual orientation in their Civil Rights codes — Iowa and Utah.
California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Minnesota, Illinois, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Hawaii all have these protections.
Is this really the company a “red state” should be keeping? California? Oregon? Washington? Minnesota? Illinois? New York?
I get it. This could come at a political cost. It could hurt the GOP in an election year.
But what is it doing to the future generations of our state?
It is not good enough to pause the perversion, we need to start working our way back toward sanity, normalcy and basic biology.
We need to “trust the science.”
Remember, what’s right is not always popular and what’s popular is not always right. The Republican Party of Iowa and the Republicans in the legislature and the Republican in Terrace Hill need to correct this in 2022.
If they do not, things will only get worse.
