Anti-Gay Lawmakers Target Vulnerable Segment of LGBT Youth

Bill Would Require Parental Consent to Attend Annual Anti-Bullying Conference

LGBT youth who suffer family rejection are more prone to depression, substance abuse and suicide, studies have shown. 

However, many, including the most vulnerable among this already vulnerable population, would effectively be barred from accessing a vital support mechanism through Iowa public schools under a bill introduced in the state’s House of Representatives this week. 

House Study Bill 647, from GOP state Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, would require students to obtain parental consent before attending the annual Governor’s Conference on LGBTQ Youth, an educational and anti-bulllying event that drew more than 1,000 people last year, The Des Moines Register reports.  

“The bill is designed, frankly, to make sure that LGBTQ kids continue to be isolated, alone, discriminated against and afraid to be themselves,” said Nate Monson, executive director of Iowa Safe Schools, which organizes the conference. “It’s meant to ensure some of these kids can’t make it to the conference.”

Kaufmann chairs the House Committee on Government Oversight, which recently investigated allegations from Bob Vander Plaats‘ anti-gay Family Leader group that last year’s conference included “X-rated” content. 

The conference is privately funded through donations, and doesn’t directly receive taxpayer monies. But that hasn’t stopped Kaufmann and other GOP legislators from waging a hateful two-year campaign against the event. 

“We don’t have the authority to regulate the content (of the conference),” Kaufmann told the Register. “We have the authority to make sure that parents can sign off on their kids being there. I’m irritated whenever I hear the word ‘private.’ Because it’s not Monopoly money that they use to bus the kids there, to pay for the registration, teacher salaries for the day, lack of time in the classroom. Those are tax dollars.”

Democratic Rep. Ruth Ann Gaines, the ranking Democrat on the committee, called the bill “totally unnecessary,” since individual schools already require students to get parental consent before attending the conference, even though they’re not required to. Gaines also said the bill clearly targets the LGBT community. 

A similar amendment passed the House last year but died after the Senate failed to take it up. GOP Rep. Greg Heartsill, who authored the 2015 amendment, infamously acknowledged during debate over the measure that he didn’t know what “LGBTQ” stood for. 

Heartsill, who serves as vice chair of Government Oversitght, recently threatened to subpoena Monson as part of lawmakers’ investigation of the conference after he refused to voluntarily testify. 

Monson said although time is running out in this year’s session, he’s concerned that Kaufmann’s legislation could be attached to a last minute “standings” bill. 

 

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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license