Gay marriage ban bill co-sponsored by Scott, Muscatine County reps

Legislators in Iowa have recently introduced more than two dozen bills aimed at LGBTQ+ residents. The latest is House Joint Resolution 8, which was introduced Tuesday.

It reads, “In accordance with the laws of nature and nature’s God, the state of Iowa recognizes the definition of marriage to be the solemnized union between one human biological male and one human biological female,” in conflict with the Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision and the Defense of Marriage Act, which was passed by Congress last year.

Iowa was one of the first states in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage in 2009. Cosponsors of the legislation include Iowa State Representatives Luana Stoltenberg from Scott County and Rep. Mark Cisneros, from Muscatine County.

Adam Peters, director of operations with Clock Inc. in Rock Island, says the proposed legislation will have a major impact on the state.

“It’s just so disheartening and just upsetting to hear that an area representative would be targeting LGBTQ people to roll back marriage equality,” Peters said. “Honestly, people are not going to stick around Iowa with the continual hate and the 29 different bills that are targeting LGBTQ people. People are going to start moving, people are going to start taking their businesses elsewhere. People aren’t going to want to live a life in a place that is openly targeting Iowans.”

“So many folks have married in the last 10 years that this has been allowed in Iowa,” he said. “This would devastate families, families that have been built over the last decade, and again people will not stand for this. People aren’t going to continue to live in a state that is actively hurting people’s families.”

The legislation hasn’t been assigned to a committee and isn’t expected to advance before Friday’s legislative “funnel” deadline, but it’s already affecting LGBTQ+ residents in the state, according to Peters.

“We have already seen an influx of folks from Iowa come to Clock Inc for services,” Peters said. “We’ve already seen people calling, showing up, asking questions, asking about our eight support groups which are open for our community, asking about mental health services. It’s already starting to get to be such a dire situation, and this is just the beginning.”

That uptick in requests is a strain on the resources at Clock, Inc. “Unfortunately, we can’t keep up with it because there’s just so many individuals in our community who identify as LGBTQ+ people, we don’t have the resources to keep up. We’re trying our best, we are actively taking more donations, actively taking more volunteers for events and outreach but yeah, it’s hard to keep up with such an onslaught of legislation being rammed through.”

Proponents of the legislation have vowed to reintroduce it and Peters says LGBTQ allies can help. “Allies can show up and can advocate with their voices. We need folks to continue to point out that this is just hate, it’s just downright hate. Talk to friends and family on social media, sign the petitions that are happening. There’s a wonderful event happening in VanderVeer Park next Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Show up with your signs, show up with your neighbors, your kids, your friends. It’s just so important, now more than ever to show up with your money donations, to places like Clock Inc, places like The Project of the Quad Cities, just showing up with your time, volunteering at different events with our organizations.”

Peters wonders about the sponsors of this legislation and those who voted for them. “I am so curious to know, for the folks who voted for these people – are they getting what they voted for? These people are supposed to be putting forth things that affect people’s lives positively and actively. They are going forth and putting hate legislation that is tearing people apart. Did you vote for this, did you get what you voted for? That’s my question. I’m wondering, if you know someone like Representative Luana Stoltenberg, does she really know what she’s doing? Does she know the lives she’s tearing apart? Something tells me she does, but I have to wonder if she really gets the magnitude of what she is putting forth.”

Local 4 News reached out to Representative Stoltenberg for a comment but has not yet received a response.