“They are trying to wear us down,” Courtney Reyes of One Iowa Action said about the raft of anti-LGBTQ legislation Republicans have introduced this year in the Iowa Legislature. “We’re not going anywhere.”
Reyes, the executive director of the nonprofit that advocates on behalf of LGBTQ Iowans, was speaking at a rally in the Iowa State Capitol on Monday. The rally was part of LGBTQ Day on Hill, and Reyes and One Iowa Action Director of Policy and Advocacy Keenan Crow were joined at the rally by Democratic leaders from the Iowa House and Senate.
“What the hell are they doing?” House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst asked when she spoke at the rally. “This state’s future only exists when all of you, and all of us, thrive and work together toward making the state more welcoming.”
Reyes noted that the current legislative session, which only started on Jan. 8, has already been “a roller coaster.”
“After that huge win,” she said, referring to a House subcommittee rejecting a bill to strip protection against gender identity discrimination from the Iowa Civil Rights Act last Wednesday, “another piece of harmful legislation was introduced by the governor of our state. We call it the trans erasure bill. It’s harmful and just pure evil.”
The rally was originally scheduled to begin at noon, but started late because of a subcommittee hearing on yet another bill aimed at the rights of transgender and nonbinary Iowans.
HF 2139 would prohibit public school districts and charter schools “from taking disciplinary action against employees, contractors, or students for the use of legal names” instead the name requested by a person or by a student’s parents, “or for the failure to use personal pronouns” that are appropriate. This would apply even in cases where parents have submitted a signed form stating what name to call a child and what pronouns to use, in accordance with a bill signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds last year.
HF 2139 was introduced by Rep. Henry Stone, a Republican from Forest City. Stone was also the chair of the subcommittee that conducted the hearing on the bill on Monday.
Ryan Benn, director of policy for the Family Leader, Iowa’s largest rightwing evangelical political organization, said the bill was necessary to protect “teachers of faith” in public schools.
“We need more teachers, not less,” Benn told the three-person subcommittee during the hearing. “And when there’s teachers of faith that they believe there’s two genders, male and female, and believe you can’t identify something that you’re not and just, you know, simple, common sense beliefs like that … they want to be able to not violate their conscience when dealing with their class and doing their job.”
Benn said a teacher’s personal religious beliefs were more important than a student’s right to be called by their name or a parent’s right to ensure their child’s wishes are respected by a public employee.
Pam Gronau, who spoke in favor of HF 2139, told the subcommittee about an unnamed nonbinary teacher at an unnamed school in an unnamed district who she said required an unnamed student to write a letter of apology after the student addressed the teacher as “Mrs.”
Gronau, who described herself as a concerned parent when testifying, is the legislation chair of the Polk County chapter of Moms for Liberty.
When Melissa Peterson of the Iowa State Education Association, a union representing teachers, addressed the subcommittee she pointed that there is no record of any such situation as the one Gronau described occurring, or other complaints about teachers or students being reprimanded over names or pronouns.
The teachers union has registered in opposition to the bill, as have Rural School Advocates of Iowa, School Administrators of Iowa, the Urban Education Network of Iowa, the Iowa Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, the Iowa Behavioral Health Association and the Iowa Psychological Association, among other groups.
“The bedrock issue is, why would you want to allow this when a parent has clearly communicated to the district this is the name I want you to use, the pronouns I want you to use?” One Iowa’s Keenan Crow asked the subcommittee.
Crow said the bill wasn’t needed to protect a teacher or other school employee who make a one-time mistake, but would instead protect people who use names or pronouns in efforts to harass others.
“What we’re talking about here is intentional, continued ongoing, incorrect usage of a name or a pronoun that can be incredibly damaging to a student,” Crow explained.
Barry Stevens, a 13-year-old student, emphasized the importance of showing respect for students and their parents when addressing the subcommittee. Stevens, who uses they/them pronouns, said their parents had already signed and submitted the form required by last year’s law to ensure they are correctly addressed in school.
“Now you’re saying that doesn’t matter, teachers can now just choose to ignore that.”
“If teachers can’t handle basic dignity for all, then they have no business teaching in public schools,” Stevens said. “Say ‘no’ to this bill and go pick on someone your own size.”
The subcommittee passed HF 2139 on a 2-1 vote. Stone and his fellow Republican, Rep. Bill Gustoff of Des Moines, voted for it. The lone Democrat on the subcommittee, Rep. Monica Kuth of Davenport, a retired teacher, voted against it.
The bill now goes to the House Education Committee for consideration.
