Today was a big day in the Iowa House, where Representatives voted 59-37 to pass Senate File 427, which updates Iowa’s civil rights law to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (and perceived sexual orientation).
Until yesterday, few people expected the bill to make it to the floor of the House at all, even though it passed the Iowa Senate last month. Without a guarantee that the bill would pass (or even a guarantee that all of the Democrats would sign on), the leadership was reluctant to force its members to make a vote that could hurt them in their reelection campaigns. Ex-Speaker and current Minority Leader Chris Rants was doing everything he possibly could to prevent any Republican members from supporting the bill (even though some Republicans were definitely interested), and it looked like he might succeed in forcing a stalemate through the end of the legislative session.
In the end, though, the Democratic leadership put civil rights ahead of political concerns, and put the bill up to a vote. The result was a resounding victory. And, although Murphy and McCarthy have been getting a lot of grief about VOICE and a few other issues that have worked up our blogging community, this should earn them back some street cred.
More from Mark’s diary over at BleedingHeartland (partially cross-posted with permission):
Senate File 427 updates Iowa’s Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination in employment, public accommodation, housing, education, or credit practices based on age, race, creed, color, sex, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, or disability.
The discussion on various blogs throughout the state over the past few months has focused on what the Iowa Legislature has FAILED to accomplish - rather than the victories. This bill is truly a victory for progressives and for everyone who would like to call Iowa home. Leadership in both chambers made this bill a priority throughout the session - and now we can separate ourselves from the 33 other states where it’s OK to dismiss employees because of their real or perceived sexual orientation.
In particular, it was leadership from Democrats in cooperation with Iowa businesses and civil rights leaders who pushed this bill through to final passage. Corporate America is rapidly realizing that creating a tolerant atmosphere for everyone to work is an important part of growing a business - and a state. According to an article in Fortune Magazine:
So it’s clear where big business is going. What’s interesting is to watch it pull the rest of the country along. It turns out that the most important factor shaping people’s feelings about gay issues is not their age or even their religion - although those do matter - but whether they have relatives, friends or co-workers who are gay.
“The more out and open people are, the more changed the straight people are all around them,” says Joe Solmonese, the Human Rights Campaign president. HRC began organizing workplaces to secure benefits for gay employees. This has inadvertently become a shrewd political strategy as well. “To move the mindset of the American people, we need to find the places where they congregate,” Solmonese says. “Priority one is corporate America.”
There has been quite a hullabaloo about Alberto Gonzalez and the US Justice Dept. of late. If you haven’t heard about it, check here for a good primer. Here in Iowa, we are dealing with a different scandal involving our US Attorney, but David Yepsen thinks it might be connected to the national scandal.
When (gay) Democratic State Senator Matt McCoy was indicted for allegedly using his elected position to “extort” a $2,000 consulting fee from a company he was working for, it made us look pretty bad. But Yepsen digs deeper and actually comes up with something interesting: it turns out that Matt Whitaker, the US Attorney prosecuting McCoy, is a homophobic Republican crony. Quoth Yepsen:
Whitaker is a Republican. And not just any Republican, but a socially conservative one who ran unsuccessfully for state treasurer in 2002 and could well be a candidate for office again.
He recently was in the news when he was scheduled to emcee an event for the Iowa Christian Alliance, a successor group to the Iowa Christian Coalition.
After first granting him permission to host the event, Whitaker said the Justice Department revoked it after objections from liberal groups. Instead, he just attended the meeting.
So he’s a Republican with ties to the Christian Coalition, which is basically the group that controls the Republican Party of Iowa. US Attorneys are, in a sense, political appointees, so that isn’t surprising. But Whittaker’s partisanship is unusual. Continuing:
Active involvement in ideological political action groups like that is rare for U.S. attorneys in Iowa — and even the Justice Department higher-ups seemed to think better of it. For good reason. McCoy is a Democrat. And not just any Democrat but an openly gay one.
So we now have the specter of a politically ambitious, evangelical Republican with ties to the religious right going after a gay Democrat.
Well, good. If anyone wants an example of the politically charged ‘duties’ of a US Attorney in the Bush administration, this should serve well.
Mike Gronstal and Mary Lundby are calling for a vote on anti-bullying legislation to protect gay students. Pat Murphy spoke to this issue when he came to our Campus Dems meeting last week, and Advocate.com notes the same pesky roadblock to which he alluded: Chris Rants. What does Rants find wrong with protecting GLBT students from verbal and physical harassment in school, you might ask? Here’s a charming quote: “We need to protect fat kids, kids with glasses, kids who are too smart, kids who aren’t too smart…. Schools should be a safe place regardless of whatever sets you apart.”
New York Governor George Pataki is opening an office in Des Moines this week, making him the first presidential hopeful to do so. New York Public Radio even calls it a “campaign office,” and doesn’t mention Freedom PAC, to whom the headquarters technically belongs.
The Register leads with both Culver and Nussle encountering a skeptical crowd at a VFW meeting Saturday, but based on the article, it sounds like Nussle had a harder time of it. Culver was asked where he would get the money to fund his proposals to help veterans, and responded with concrete plans to streamline the state budget and utilize the tax surplus. Nussle, on the other hand, was confronted with his anti-veteran congressional voting record, and replied, “My grandmother always taught me growing up that actions speak louder than words. Every opportunity I’ve had, when I’ve been chairman, I’ve increased the budget over what the president, over what the budget … recommended.” I’ll let you insert something snarky of your own here.
A new Register poll shows Hillary Clinton losing Iowa to four Republican potentials. It also finds that 57% of respondents think it is a bad idea for Vilsack to run for president.
Tuesday, Danny Carroll is hosting a fundraiser in a private room on Grinnell College’s campus with John McCain. It’s no secret that McCain has run to the right (Exhibit A), but he has never quite been the hero everyone thinks he is (Exhibit B).
But for anyone who is still attached to the idea of John McCain the “straight-talker” (and the “straight talk” motif kind of outlives its purpose when the attribution is plastered all over his PAC web site, straighttalkamerica.com), know that the candidate he’s shilling for is very much not a straight talker. Here are some of the very un-straight claims Danny Carroll has made:
Grinnell College students should not have the right to vote for their state representative (in this 2004 mailing).
He was the reason why Newton — about 15 minutes away from his house district — got its new speedway and stadium (in the 2006 “Carroll Chronicle”, which Danny sent out in the newspaper in Oskaloosa and Grinnell).
John McCain became popular when he ran against George W. Bush, because he was the Republican everyone wanted to win the primary. Then Bush smeared him, and McCain fell into line. Now it’s McCain’s turn to be front-runner, and he won’t be outflanked (or out-Roved) by anyone this time. For a campaign based on “straight talk,” he seems to spend a little too much time raising money for people like Danny Carroll.
Vilsack signed the bill banning protestors from military funerals yesterday. This comes just in time for the funeral of Daniel Sesker, a soldier killed in Iraq who happened to be homosexual. I think this is a slippery slope on free speech, without which we wouldn’t get to enjoy the irony of quotes like this: “The church issued a statement Monday critical of the Legislature for passing the law, saying protesters also planned to picket the ‘ignominious, Bible-dumb, pandering demagogic Iowa Legislature.’” The First Amendment Center offers a discussion of the legal background.
The Register irritated me with this headline: “GOP’s Lamberti bests Boswell in fundraising.” The fine print/article? Boswell is still way ahead. I have a very love-hate relationship with horse races.
Yepsen blabbers on about taxes. He sure seems to do that a lot.
District superintendent Harrison Cass, Jr. said he’s gotten countless e-mails, letters and phone calls from people weighing in on the proposal to revise the anti-harassment policy.
The controversy is over a proposal to include “sexual orientation” as one of the protected categories along with race, religion, national origin, age, sex, physical or mental disability, creed, color, marital or familial status, socioeconomic status, and physical attributes.
“I think some people are afraid that it implies the school district is condoning homosexuality,” Cass said. “We’re not saying we condone it or don’t condone it. We’re just saying we don’t allow harassment.”
And here’s an update on the Marshalltown immigration protests story, in which 80 students left school for an organized, peaceful march. Apparently, they’re facing disciplinary action:
About 80 Marshalltown middle and high school students face disciplinary action for leaving school to protest federal legislation that would make it a crime to be in the United States illegally or to offer aid to illegal immigrants, school district officials said Thursday.
According to the Waterloo Cedar-Falls Courier, this week doubleplusconservative Focus on the Family ran ads in Iowa newspapers claiming that Senate Democrats are preventing Iowans from voting on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. The bill is currently deadlocked in committee. In typical Republican fashion, the ad didn’t have much to do with reality (coughcoughdannycarrollcoughcough):
Appearing under the headline, “Iraqis Have the Right to Vote, Why Don’t Iowans?” an ad in Monday’s Des Moines Register took aim at Gronstal, of Council Bluffs.
When it comes to marriage, the people of Iowa should be seen and not heard,” the ad reads. “At least that’s the way Sen. Mike Gronstal would have it, as he refuses to let the people of Iowa vote on the Iowa Marriage Amendment.”
The ad includes a black-and-white photo, apparently of an Iraqi woman, holding up a single, ink-stained index finger. The finger, which appears in color, has become synonymous with Iraqi suffrage.
To update an earlier post on the topic, an amendment to the Iowa constitution would have to be approved by 2 consecutive general assemblies and then go on the ballot in the next statewide election.
The Advocate’s site features an AP story on the Iowa Senate’s debate on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, and it produced this fun little quote:
“It saddens me that Republicans have resorted to playing partisan politics with hot-button social issues rather than work to find common ground solutions to move this state forward,” said Senate Democratic Leader Michael Gronstal, of Council Bluffs. Senator David Miller, R-Fairfield, countered by saying Democrats are “stonewalling” debate on same-sex marriages.
I love it when homophobes use the word “Stonewall.” Really, it suits them. Either way, the article says that the Senate is deadlocked, and that if nothing happens now the issue won’t come up again until 2010. I’m not entirely sure why that is, but that sounds good to me. Maybe in 2010 we’ll have flying cars and everyone will be accepting of others’ differences! Maybe…
