Cowardly Iowa Lawmakers Should Be Ashamed Of Themselves
We're Going To Have to Find a New State Motto
Iowa is going to have to find a new state motto
“Is it not the role of government to affirm rather than to deny law-abiding citizens their inalienable rights?” Fixmer-Oraiz said. “The people of Iowa deserve better.”
“Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.” This no longer works very well does it?
How about this one:
“Our liberties we prize (except for women and transgender people), and our rights we will maintain (except for women and transgender people).”
Next week…who will be added to the list? Gay people? Brown people? Black people? Or…non-Christian people?
Yes, this week, the cowardly and brazenly arrogant GOP lawmakers have taken away the rights of transgender people. It is unprecedented and unnecessary…and did I mention, cowardly.
The legislation would remove “gender identity” protections from the civil rights protection so that discrimination in housing, employment, wages and public accommodations would be allowable in the state’s civil rights code.
It is open season on transgender people! Welcome to the state of Iowa!
Kristian Maul, a small business owner in Iowa, said during subcommittee hearings, “the ability to function as an adult is going to be impacted for every single trans Iowan” if the bill is passed into law. As a transgender man, Maul said he could be kicked out of leased spaces, denied business loans or fired from a job because of his gender.
Welcome to the new Christian Nationalist, MAGA Iowa!
The new law would also remove transgender Iowans’ ability to change their sex designation on a birth certificate after receiving medical transition care. Imagine undergoing expensive and difficult treatment or surgery only to discover, the state of Iowa doesn’t recognize your new identity. You do not exist according to the Christian Nationalists. You have been erased!
In a move that makes a complete mockery of Iowa’s motto and history of expanding rights, the Christian Nationalist driven representatives are taking away the rights of a whole group of human beings (albeit a small group).
This is not what we do in America.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
All means All…not just some. All includes those who identify their gender differently than their “sex” assignment at birth.
Iowa is home to an estimated 7,100 transgender people. Out of a population of 3.2 million people, this is less than 1% of the population (.29 to be exact). Yet, the MAGA-mad crowd have labeled them a “threat” to the state. Under the guise of “protecting women” they want to remove transgender people from a protected class.
Hyprocrisy 101
Let’s talk about the hypocrisy of it all. They hypocritically never present evidence to show that somehow transgender people are a threat, have been a threat, or will be a threat to the women and children of Iowa. Where is the evidence? Where are the horror stories of transgender women molesting a woman?
Hint: there are none….nada, it doesn’t exist.
The truth is transgender people are more likely to be victimized by crime than to ever commit a crime. Transgender people are over four times more likely than cisgender people to experience violent victimization, including rape, sexual assault, and aggravated or simple assault, according to a new study by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law. (2022) In addition, households with a transgender person had higher rates of property victimization than cisgender households.
Yeah, so I don’t think transgender people are any kind of threat to anyone. It appears to me that transgender people just want to live their lives, be left alone and enjoy the same rights and protection of law that everyone else enjoys. You know, like the state motto proclaims.
American Exceptionalism Is Related to Expanding Rights
The history of the United States is one of continuing and expanding rights for more and more people. The MAGA crowd has it backward, and since 2016, the United States has been moving in the wrong direction. They want to restrict the rights of people, contrary to the trajectory of our nation’s heritage.
The United States is NOT an exceptional nation any longer. We no longer expand rights, but restrict rights.
Women have lost their right to bodily autonomy, and now transgender people will loose their right to define their own identity. Think about this for a minute. We are taking rights away from people at lightening speed, not expanding rights. Who is next?
There is nothing “exceptional” about taking rights away from groups of people. If the United States is to be considered an “exceptional” country, it is because over the centuries, even with all its flaws and mistakes, the United States has expanded freedom and rights to more and more people.
Until 2016.
A Thin Red Line
Iowa has now crossed a thin red line. GOP MAGA-mad lawmakers are pulling back what were once considered to be “sacred rights,” “unalienable rights,” and rights granted by “Nature’s God.” Rights are no longer endowed by a Creator, but only given by the Christian Nationalists who want to delve into everyone’s private lives.
Unless you meet their narrow, religious ideological definition of binary gender, you do not have the same rights as the rest of us. Apparently Nature’s God dosen’t approve of non-binary people. Only if you conform to their preconceived, non-scientific notion of male-female sexuality with no deviations, are you then deserving of the same rights and the protection of law.
This is not how America works.
The transgender community has historically been discriminated against in the areas of employment, marriage, medicine, incarceration, and the military, along with many other aspects of life considered normal for cisgender, or non-transgender, people. In other words, transgender people have had less access to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Transgender people are many times more likely to experience homelessness, unemployment, and mental illness than their cisgender counterparts. Consequently, transgender people are many times more likely to commit suicide than their peers.
In the name of humanity, why can’t we offer these folks the same Constitutional protections that all people automatically receive?
This is a group who need the protection of civil rights law in order to ensure their equal status in the workplace, marriage, education, healthcare and all of those areas where cisgender people take protections for granted.
Reality Check: transgender people have always lived in the United States. The MAGA Christian Nationalists seem to think this is a recent phenomenon that somehow now needs their assistance to correct. Oh, the arrogance.
This is a question of personal identity, and who gets to decide a person’s identity. It isn’t about sex, it is about identity. But even the issue of “sex” can be confusing and unclear…read on.
The Story Of Thomas(ine) Hall
Let me tell you the story of Thomas(ine) Hall who was born in England in 1600. This will illustrate how disasterous it can be for the “community” to be involved in someone’s personal gender identification.
I’ll be using the pronoun “them, they, their” since Thomas(ine’s) identity was never clearly established.
Their parents named them Thomasine and raised them as a girl. When they turned twelve, they were sent to live with their aunt in London, where they “went clothed in women’s apparel.” When Thomas(ine) was around twenty-four years old, their brother was drafted into the English army. Thomas(ine) decided to go with him. Thomas(ine) cut their hair, put on men’s clothing, and joined the army using the name Thomas. Thomas served in the army for a year. When their service was done they went back to wearing woman’s clothing.
Thomas(ine) was interested in the opportunity for a new life in the English colonies of North America. They decided to take their chances in the colonies as an indentured servant. So, in late 1627 they put on men’s clothing and signed a contract with the name Thomas before setting out across the Atlantic Ocean.
When Thomas(ine) arrived in the colony of Virginia, they went to work for John Tyos on a small tobacco plantation. At first, Thomas(ine) continued to dress as, and perform the work of a man. But at some point, they started to dress as a woman and take on traditional women’s labor.
John appears to have had no problem with this switch, as he later swore to the community at large that Thomas(ine) was a woman. But other members of the community were less comfortable with the change. There were rumors that Thomas(ine) had sex with a maid from another household. If Thomas(ine) was a man, this act was the crime of fornication, and they would have to stand trial. But if Thomas(ine) was a woman, there was no crime.
Three respected married women from the community took it upon themselves to inspect Thomas(ine)’s body to determine their sex. They decided that Thomas(ine) was definitely male but John Tyos disagreed. The situation got more complicated when John Atkins, another member of the community, proposed buying Thomas(ine)’s indenture contract from John Tyos.
John Atkins did not feel comfortable making the purchase unless he was sure of Thomas(ine)’s gender because that would determine the kind of work they could perform. Their gender would also affect the price of their contract. John Atkins appealed to a plantation owner in the community and the plantation owner interviewed Thomas(ine), who confessed that they had “a piece of flesh growing at the . . . belly as big as the top of [their] little finger,” but that they “had not the use of the man’s parts.”
Thomas(ine)’s testimony indicates that they were likely an intersex person. An intersex person is born with a combination of male and female genitalia. Thomas(ine) testified that they did not have full use of their penis. The plantation owner thought Thomas(ine)’s report was reasonable. He ordered Thomas(ine) to wear women’s clothing. John Atkins purchased Thomas(ine)’s labor contract, and they took up a position in his home as a woman laborer.
The women who first inspected Thomas(ine) were unhappy with this decision. They conducted a second examination of Thomas(ine)’s body while Thomas(ine) was asleep. The women then invited John Atkins to inspect Thomas(ine)’s body as well. During this third examination, Thomas(ine) said they had “a piece of a hole.” This was their first reference to female genitalia. Their wording implies that, like their penis, their vagina was not fully functional. John Atkins and the three women searched Thomas(ine) for evidence of a vagina. When they could not find it, they went back to the plantation owner. The plantation owner reversed his decision and declared Thomas(ine) was a man and must wear men’s clothing.
(Are you confused yet?)
At this point, the entire community was aware of Thomas(ine)’s story. Two more men examined Thomas(ine) on a public road. The men stripped Thomas(ine) of their clothing, pulled out their genitalia, and decided that Thomas(ine) was “a perfect man.” As far as the community was concerned, Thomas(ine)’s gender was settled. They decided to punish Thomas(ine) for pretending to be a woman.
Thomas(ine) appeared before the Quarter Court of Virginia in 1629. They shared their life story, explaining that they had lived as a man and as a woman. There was no understanding of gender fluidity or intersex identity in the colonial era, but something about Thomas(ine)’s testimony convinced the court that they were being genuine.
The governor decided on an extraordinary verdict. Thomas(ine) was declared to be both a man and a woman. They would be required to wear the clothing of both genders: the breeches and shirt of a man, with the cap and apron of a woman. This was so “all the Inhabitants there may take notice” of Thomas(ine)’s unusual status.
(This just keeps getting better and better.)
The new clothing meant that Thomas(ine) would forever be marked as different in their community. But the court did not clear up any of the questions the community had about what work Thomas(ine) could do.
At this point, Thomas(ine) seems to disappear from the official records, and there is no information on how their story ended. It is most likely that they moved to another community in the colonies, where they took on a new name and lived as either a man or a woman. Thomas(ine)’s story is an important case study in how sex, gender, and identity were expressed and policed in the English colonies.
(printed from: “Women and the American Story website)
When the broader community decides they are going to define someone’s gender identity, it never ends well. How many transgender people will be fleeing Iowa for the same reason as Thomas(ine)? It is a small number, but can Iowa afford to lose 7100 working, law-abiding citizens who open businesses and develop professional careers?
Two Reasons To Be Concerned
There are two reasons why Thomas(ine’s) story is important: first, transgender and gender non-conforming people have been with us forever. This isn’t new. In Ancient Jewish writings, there are six to eight different sexes/genders, depending on who reports. To suggest that there are two and only two genders defies all historical reports, religious tradition, and personal accounts.
I’m sorry Mr. or Mrs. MAGA, transgender people are not going away simply because you don’t want to recognize them and legislate them out of existence. You can strip their rights away, but they will still be there. Your bigoted religious ideology will not change their identity.
Second, when the “community” gets involved in trying to determine what gender a person “ought” to be, it results in confusion, descrimination, oppression, and poor outcomes for the non-conforming person. Colonial Virginia felt it had a great stake in controling the sexuality and gender identity of its workers and citizens and therefore a non-conforming, non-binary individual was considered a threat. That is the likely reason Thomas(ine) moved on to another community.
The Cynicism of the Religious Right
But the reason the MAGA Christian Nationalists have targeted transgender people is much more cynical and appalling…it is about votes. It isn’t about some grand religious-theological-principle. I’m not buying the “moral outrage” argument. It is simply and ultimately about votes.
How do you energize the religious right? You foment and create supposed moral outrages for them to get excited and agitated about so that they show up at the polls to vote for your MAGA political candidate. Abortion was the original motivator for several decades…now that they seem to have won that battle there needs to be a new windmill to joust at….it is transgender people.
Transgender people are defenseless…they have few lobbying groups, little money and few groups argue their needs in legislatures or courts. They are an easy target for the religious right so that they can enrage their religious constituents to come out to vote for them time after time. That is why we are being ruled by a religious minority cabal. They do not have support from the majority of Iowans, but they know how to energize their base with baseless and crude appeals to bigorty.
So here we are…the Iowa motto is a laughing stock…it is meaningless, and Iowans are being hurt and oppressed.
Let’s call it what it is…Iowa fascism.
I am a proud member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Click here to see our updated roster of writers.
New State Motto of Iowa "You Are Not Welcome Here". The thing about Christian Nationals is that they always tell you who to hate but can't seem to remember who we as Christians are supposed to love. I could suggest a book for them to find the answer, but I doubt they would read it.
Our liberties, once prized, is fright now maintained...