What is it with this time in history that we have such a hard push by one political party to remove rights and remove protections from individuals. For most of this country’s history, we moved toward expanding rights, to removing barriers and expanding opportunities for oppressed people. Now the right / republicans are all about denying healthcare rights for women and trans people, denying the right to equal treatment in services, public spaces, housing, and even in expressing publicly support for the oppressed. For example, taking away reproductive rights from women, and making illegal medically approved gender affirming best practices promoted by all the major medical associations. Allowing public businesses to refuse services to anyone they think is gay or trans or has a religion the businesses disagree with, such as wedding planners, restaurants, home renters, adoption services, and even restricting movies / books based on dislike for LGBTQIA characters or plots. Why do the republicans need to promote hate, why not just live and let live? Hugs. Scottie
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Stephen Gruber-Miller
Des Moines RegisterIowa Republican lawmakers have again proposed removing protections against discrimination for transgender people from the Iowa Civil Rights Act — and this time a key committee chair says he’s open to the conversation.
GOP lawmakers, who hold majorities in the Iowa House and Senate, have filed several bills over the past few years seeking to remove gender identity as one of the protected classes in the state’s civil rights law. But those bills have not received hearings.
This year, Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, has scheduled a subcommittee hearing on House File 2082, which would remove gender identity protections from the civil rights law and add gender dysphoria “or any condition related to a gender identity disorder” to the definition of a disability that would be protected under the law.
“I just want to hear a conversation about it,” Holt said. “I want to have a subcommittee and hear a conversation about it.”
In 2020, Holt used his position as Judiciary Committee chair to kill a similar bill that would have removed gender identity protections from the civil rights law.
The hearing, where the public can speak to lawmakers about the bill, will be held Wednesday at noon in room 102 of the Iowa State Capitol.
Keenan Crow, the policy and advocacy director for One Iowa, a group that advocates for LGBTQ rights, called Holt’s position “alarming.”
“Whenever you have somebody who’s willing to have a conversation about removing the civil rights of an entire class of people, that’s not a good conversation to be having,” Crow said. “Those rights should not be up for debate. Transgender people should be able to rent houses, get credit cards, get loans, go buy a sandwich, rent a hotel room, just like anybody else should be able to.”
More:Gender-affirming care ban for kids, trans bathroom bill are now Iowa law. What they do:
The Iowa Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, ancestry, disability and gender identity. Lawmakers added the protections for gender identity in 2007 when Democrats held the Iowa Legislature and governor’s office.
People who fall under one of the protected classes in the civil rights law are protected from discrimination in employment, wages, public accommodations, housing, education and credit practices.
Holt said he believes transgender people would still have protections under Iowa and federal law even if lawmakers stripped gender identity out of the civil rights act.
“I think there’s plenty of other places in federal and in state law that would prevent discrimination,” he said. “Because I think we should all be opposed to discrimination based upon someone’s skin color or gender identity or whatever the case may be.”
Holt called it “an interesting concept” to look at specifying that gender dysphoria could qualify as a disability that merits protection. He pointed to a U.S. Supreme Court decision last summer that found people with gender dysphoria are protected under the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Crow said because that court decision is already on the books, adding gender dysphoria as a disability wouldn’t provide any additional protections. But it could harm low-income transgender Iowans who can’t afford to go to the doctor to receive a diagnosis, they said.
More:Iowa’s gender-affirming care ban is chasing transgender kids out of state for medical care
“Now they don’t have any housing protections and a landlord can literally just say, ‘no, I don’t want you in my space, you’re transgender,'” they said. “And there’s nothing that that person can do about it. So this is an extremely dangerous, extremely harmful bill.”
Holt didn’t guarantee that the bill would advance beyond the subcommittee hearing, but said he believes it’s time to have a conversation.
“I still have concerns about this, but I at least want to have the conversation and see where it goes,” Holt said.
Iowa Republicans in recent years have passed a flurry of laws impacting transgender Iowans, including banning transgender youth under 18 from receiving gender-affirming medical care, restricting transgender students from using school bathrooms that align with their gender identity and banning transgender women and girls from competing in female sports.
Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.
The hate.
It never ends…
There are some really awful people in this country, aren’t there?
More than I ever knew.
Same here. Ever since a black man became president I’ve seen nothing but an escalation in hate in this country. It’s like a huge swath of this country decided that anyone who is not white, straight, male and Christian is subhuman and need to have their rights taken away. I am disgusted with my country.
It’s getting worse
Theofascist monsters (the core of today’s Republican Party) are as we speak working furiously to devise their challenge to Obergefell.
Their war against the trans community is a warm-up act for them.
Merely practice.
They came for the blacks. I said nothing i wasn’t black Then they came for the jews, I said nothing I wasn’t jewish. Then the came for……..
““I just want to hear a conversation about it,” Holt said.”
People’s basic rights aren’t (or shouldn’t be) up for conversation.
We never have had a discussion about his Rights, have we?
Maybe the People of Iowa need to gather in the public square and begin that discussion…
It’s another distraction from poor governance…
Scottie's Playtime 
Scotty…I have to admit, even though it shames me to do so, that I absolutely HATE the far right and their disgusting behaviors. I never truly hated anyone before and was amazed when others said they “hated”. It always felt like just plain bigotry. Unfortunately I now understand it is not bigotry but learned through experience.
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Hi Suze. I personally have to be very careful of hate, the emotion of hate. I have to make myself not hate. The reason is due to my childhood. The story of one of my rapes as a child and why I don’t dare let hate in my life is here https://scottiesplaytime.com/2022/10/24/ethan-crumbley-admits-guilt-to-murder-in-oxford-high-school-shooting/ Plus this comment https://scottiesplaytime.com/2022/10/24/ethan-crumbley-admits-guilt-to-murder-in-oxford-high-school-shooting/#comment-8801
So while I get angry, I might rage and rant, I can not let myself hate because I fear it will consume me, make me the very thing I find disgusting in them. While many people use hate in small letters to signify dislike, I grew up with people knew HATE, serious emotional rage against people and others.
That said, I do agree with you on the actions of the right, they are disgusting, despicable, horrible human beings. The things they want, and like, are harmful to others. No redeeming value in that or it seems in them. I like you I don’t understand why some people have to be that way. I find it so much more fulfilling / enjoyable to be kind, helpful, and caring to others. Hugs. Scottie
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