It’s time for Sue Gilbert to come clean. At least, that’s what she told me in an email leading up to this interview. Gilbert played a supporting role in the growth of Iowa City’s drag and Gay Pride scene in the ’70s — and, thanks to a bizarre and surely predestined string of circumstances, planted […]
LGBTQ
Posted inCommunity/News
‘Shouldn’t we be working on something more important in education?’: Republicans in House ed committee fast-track Gov. Reynolds’ bill targeting trans Iowans’ ID
Just a few days after Gov. Kim Reynolds introduced a sweeping bill targeting transgender and nonbinary Iowans, that bill is now eligible for a floor vote in the Iowa House. HSB 649, which the governor filed last Thursday, was approved by the House Education Committee on Tuesday on a party-line vote. All of the committee’s […]
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A bill protecting ‘teachers of faith’ from having to respect students’ or parents’ preferred pronouns advances as LGBTQ rights advocates rally
“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 […]
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‘It’s a matter of principle’: Tara McGovern prepares for trial as the only JoCo7 protester to not take a plea deal
Since coming to Iowa City in 1995 to attend the University of Iowa, Tara McGovern has made a name in the arts: a professional musician, well known as an accomplished fiddler, a music therapist, an arts instructor. At the same time, McGovern has also carved out a place as an activist for social justice causes, […]
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One day after bill undermining transgender rights is defeated, Gov. Reynolds introduces new bill targeting IDs for trans and nonbinary Iowans
One day after a bill that would have stripped legal protections for transgender people out of the Iowa Civil Rights Act was rejected in the Iowa House, Gov. Kim Reynolds introduced a new bill targeting transgender Iowans. Reynolds’ submitted HSB 649 to lawmakers a few hours after Iowa Capitol Dispatch reported on the existence of […]
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Bill to remove protection against gender identity discrimination from Iowa Civil Rights Act gets a scheduled hearing
Since taking control of both chambers of the Iowa Legislature in 2017, Republicans have repeatedly passed discriminatory legislation targeting transgender Iowans with the full support of Gov. Kim Reynolds, who has signed those bills and other anti-LGBTQ legislation into law. But even when pushing through those bills almost exclusively on party-line votes, Republicans still understood […]
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Books pulled from Iowa City schools are being returned after judge issues injunction against SF 496
The Iowa City Community School District is returning the books it removed from school libraries because of a book ban in the sweeping education bill pushed through the Iowa Legislature by Republicans last year. Superintendent Matt Degner told district families and staff in an email on Friday that following a federal judge’s injunction stopping enforcement […]
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Along with banning books and targeting LGBTQ students, SF 496 also cut requirement for schools to provide information on HIV/AIDS and HPV
It’s World AIDS Day. Since 1988, the first day of December has been recognized as a day on which to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and remember those who died because of the disease. Around the same time World AIDS Day was first commemorated, Iowa began requiring public schools to provide age-appropriate information about HIV/AIDS to […]
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Teachers union joins lawsuit with bestselling authors, largest U.S. publisher to challenge Iowa book restrictions
The Iowa State Education Association and Penguin Random House filed a lawsuit in federal court Thursday challenging parts of a state law prohibiting books that depict sex acts from being available in Iowa K-12 school libraries. It’s the second lawsuit filed against Senate File 496 this week. On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of […]
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‘I am not shameful’: Iowa Safe Schools, seven students sue the state over anti-LGBTQ law SF 496
On Tuesday, the ACLU of Iowa and Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a nationwide civil rights organization dedicated to defending and advocating for LGBTQ people, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Des Moines challenging SF 496, the education bill signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds in May. “This is a federal civil […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Book Review: ‘Monologues by LGBTQIA+ Writers for LGBTQIA+ Actors’ edited by Alyssa Cokinis
The phrase “representation is important” has become ubiquitous, so commonplace that it’s easy to lose sight of its meaning. On Twitter, or “X,” the phrase is used memetically to accompany pictures of cute, lazy animals, representing a user’s mental state or level of comfort. What does a joke about the importance of reputation obscure? In […]
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‘I want to keep the freedom to read alive and well’: Little Free Library’s Margret Aldrich reflects on the massive growth — and growing importance — of the nonprofit
Margret Aldrich’s childhood was spent on a farm west of Ames reading books, often to her dog. “I lived in a very rural community, but my dad always took time to take me to our small-town public library once a week so I could stock up on books,” Aldrich recalled. As an adult, she works […]
