US state Iowa passes gay rights bill
Iowa’s state Senate passed a bill Monday to extend civil rights protections to gay, lesbian and transgender people in the state, despite opposition from business interests.
The bill adds the words “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to a list of protected characteristics under Iowa’s Civil Rights Act. Democrats have long supported expanded protections, and they now control the Senate, the House and the governor’s office.
The chamber passed Senate File 427 on a bipartisan 32-17 vote. It moves now to the state House of Representatives, where Iowa Equality board president Sandy Vopalka expects it to have a tougher time.
Among the civil rights bill’s opponents of record were the Iowa Association of Business and Industry and the Meredith Corp., the Des Moines-based owner of 12 TV stations and publisher of 26 subscription magazines including Family Circle, Ladies’ Home Journal and Better Homes and Gardens.
Meredith lobbyist Jim Carney told Gay.com on Tuesday that that stance was “a mistake” arising from miscommunication, and that Meredith, going forward, will take a “monitoring or neutral” stance on the bill.
“We traditionally take a neutral statement on these types of bills, these social-action bills,” said Art Sluzark, Meredith’s VP of corporate communications and government relations. “In any case, I think it’s moving along pretty well.”
Meredith includes sexual orientation in its own corporate nondiscrimination policy.
“We don’t discriminate,” Sluzark said.
The Iowa Association of Business and Industry’s board has “unanimous feeling” that firms should take the lead in not discriminating, but is concerned about liability in case of lawsuits, association president Mike Ralston told the Des Moines Register.
“That’s a poor excuse for failing to stand up for fairness. It’s shortsighted, too,” the Register said Sunday in an editorial favoring the rights bill. Iowa needs nondiscriminatory policies to attract talent and money to the state, the editorial said.
Vopalka is already lobbying House members on what now advances as House File 603.
“We have 14 districts we’re working on,” she said. “I’ve been up there for the past four years as a volunteer to push this thing.”
If it passes, Iowa would become the 19th state to ban workplace bias against gays and the 10th to extend protections based on gender identity, according to Lambda Legal. The legislation has passed each chamber, but in different years.
In favor were the Iowa League of Cities, the ACLU and various labor unions including the United Steel Workers of America.
Source: uk.gay.com