Culver signs bill for
civil right for gays, lesbians
JASON CLAYWORTH,
DesMoinesRegister.com from the Web, May 25,2007
Gay and lesbians now have civil
rights protections in Iowa.
Gov. Chet Culver this morning signed a bill that makes it illegal to
discriminate in employment, public accommodation, credit, housing or education
based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Iowa is now one of 18 states, plus the District of Columbia, to have such
protection for gay and lesbians.
Today “we send a message that Iowa is a welcoming place that values each of its
citizens whether it’s in the neighborhood or the workplace,” Culver said.
“We send a message that intolerance and discrimination have no place in our
state.”
The law will apply most directly to landlords and employers. It won’t
change life for most people, but advocates say it will represent an important
advance in civil rights in Iowa.
Specifically, the law gives the state’s civil rights commission the ability to
investigate complaints of discrimination based on sexual orientation.
In previous years, those complaints were dismissed without investigation because
gays and lesbians were not protected under state law. When applicable,
state officials directed the complaints to one of the nine Iowa cities that had
previously passed their own civil rights protections for gay and lesbian
residents.
Advocates who attended the signing event Friday at Principal Financial Group in
downtown Des Moines said the new law is an important step in the state’s civil
rights movement.
Critics, such as Chuck Hurley, president of the Iowa Family Policy Center,
earlier in the week said the protection is unnecessary, will give more power to
a building gay marriage movement and will spawn lawsuits against businesses.
Iowa and national leaders of the Boy Scouts of America, for example, believe the
law could push them into more costly litigation.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that the Boy Scouts have a right to exclude
gay members. Lawmakers declined to add a provision in the bill that would have
specifically recognized the Supreme Court’s earlier ruling.
“It’s potentially there” that the Boy Scouts will face more legal challenges,
Ely Brewer, chief executive officer of the Mid-Iowa Council of the Boy Scouts,
said Thursday. “It was our hope to just enter an amendment that would
recognize the Supreme Court decision.”
|
