HEATHEN OF THE CORN
House File 187, by Shipley, is a bill designed to increase human papillomavirus infections which is known to cause increased risk of cervical cancer in women. This bill strips information on the availability of HPV vaccines from health and human development curricula in public schools.
House File 190 seeks to remove gender identity as a protected class under the Iowa Civil Rights Act. If passed it will legalize anti-trans discrimination in employment, wages, public accommodations, housing, education, and credit practices.
This is a cruel, heartless bill being pushed by cruel heartless people. We cannot let it be signed into Iowa law. Contact your legislators immediately and tell them to vote this down.
For purposes of Code chapter 216, the bill removes gender identity as a protected class and defines “sex” to mean a person’s biological sex as either male or female.
More bills of interest filed today and yesterday. Until the first funnel on February 10 (nine days from now), it is a struggle to keep up. To get the information out to you quickly, I’m going to just list each bill with a link, a sentence or two of my own commentary, and a brief description from the legislature website.
House File 182, by the House Education Committee.
An Act relating to institutions of higher education governed by the state board of regents, including requiring the institutions to submit reports to the general assembly related to terms associated with courses offered by the institutions’ colleges of education and establishing an interim study committee to evaluate practitioner preparation programs offered by the institutions…
This bill allows the General Assembly to micromanage education-related classes at the state universities. The list of terms is basically everything conservatives like to call ‘woke.” If it passes, Christian Nationalists will have a convenient list of everyone they need to purge to make sure Iowa children are only taught GOP-approved ideas and beliefs.
House File 188, by Boulton and Knox.
1 An Act relating to hate crimes, and providing penalties.
This bill defines “hate crime” and requires that any hate crime be punished one degree higher than the underlying crime. I’m all for this one and hope it passes.
House File 180 by the Committee on Education
This bill prohibits school districts and charter schools from facilitating any accommodation that is intended to affirm a student’s gender identity, if that gender identity is different than the sex listed on the student’s official birth certificate, without the written consent of the student’s parent or guardian; encouraging or coercing any student to withhold information from the student’s parent or guardian related to the student’s gender identity;
This bill is just fine if a student’s parents are accepting and supportive. But this bill would out the students to parents who are not accepting and supportive. That is one reason why so many LGBTQ students consider suicide and make up the majority of all homeless children.
House File 169, by Golding.
The bill requires absentee ballots to be received in the office of the county commissioner of elections before the close of business on the day before the election…The bill prohibits the special precinct election board from tabulating absentee ballots in excess of the number reported received by the commissioner as of the close of business on the day before the election…
This bill makes it harder to vote for no good reason. It just means more people who vote by mail must return their ballots the day before the polls open or their votes won’t be counted. Conservatives know that their base is tightly motivated. If they can prevent a few percent of everybody else’s votes from counting they will keep winning at the majority’s expense.
House File 166by Golding.
An Act relating to vaccines, including modifying provisions related to a minor’s legal capacity to give consent to the provision of vaccines and provisions related to the instruction provided to students enrolled in school districts, accredited nonpublic schools, and charter schools related to the human papilloma virus
This bill strips students of their legal capacity to act and give consent for the Human Papillomavirus vaccine and similar medical treatments and related services. It deletes all related information from their public school curricula . Apparently, ignorance and anti-vax science denial are preferable to cancer and disease free adults.
An Act relating to voter registration activities at schools.
This bill provides two opportunities for seventeen year old students to register to vote if they will be eighteen by election day. It is their right and duty and if we want a functioning democracy we must encourage them to do so.
A Resolution regarding foundational principles of theAmerican form of government.
This resolution leans hard into Christian privilege and nationalism. Read the whole thing. It’s authors don’t understand the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, or American history.
Currently the Iowa legislature is considering a bill spearheaded by Gov. Reynolds that would allow for a voucher-style program that sets aside public tax dollars to be used to pay tuition and fees at private educational institutions. The republican majority has taken to calling this policy “school choice” and “providing more options for parents”, but this choice of education does not seem to reflect the situation in the state.
