The House Education Committee moved forward Wednesday with legislation that would prohibit instruction and materials on gender identity and sexual orientation for all K-12 students. HF 2121, approved 14-9, is an expansion of the 2023 ban on programs, material, instruction, surveys and questionnaires and “promotion” related to gender identity and sexual orientation for K-6 students. […]
Elinor Levin
Posted inCommunity/News
‘Today it’s our family. Tomorrow it can be another’: Hundreds rally to demand release of man violently seized by ICE in Iowa City
Hundreds of people crowded around the stage on the Ped Mall late on Friday morning to rally in support of Jorge Elieser González Ochoa, the Iowa City resident violently seized by ICE agents as he was working at the nearby Bread Garden Market on Thursday morning, a little over 24 hours earlier. He requires medical attention, […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa House Republicans advance bill making it a crime to allow minors to ‘view a drag show’
Over 100 protesters gathered in the hallways of the Iowa State Capitol on Tuesday, chanting, “Trans rights are human rights” and “Hey hey, ho ho transphobia has got to go,” as lawmakers on an Iowa House subcommittee considered the latest bill targeting transgender Iowans. According to the explanatory section of HSB 158, the bill is […]
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Iowa’s abortion law is dangerously vague, Iowa health providers, advocates and Democrats warn
University of Iowa student Aubrey Stark remembers coming home from elementary school to see her usually lively pregnant mother, Mandy Stark, ill and bedridden. “She was in so much pain,” Stark said. “[Her condition] was not safe for her at all.” Mandy Stark was suffering from a molar pregnancy, defined by the National Cancer Institute […]
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Iowa House Republicans advance bill to extend ban on LGBTQ topics in elementary schools to middle and high schools
The ban on classroom discussions or lessons acknowledging the identity of anyone except straight, cisgendered individuals, imposed by Gov. Reynolds on K-6 Iowa schools in 2023, would be extended to cover all school instruction through the end of high school under a bill advanced by an Iowa House subcommittee on Wednesday. “This bill prohibits school […]
Posted inLetters
Letter from Sen. Elinor Levin: Voting YES on the conservation bond is a small ask for a big win
By Iowa Sen. Elinor A. Levin, Iowa City I’ve only lived in Johnson County since the year after its voters approved the first Conservation Bond in 2008, which means I’ve had the pleasure and benefit of seeing all of the good that has been done with the funds that were raised, natural areas that were […]
