Lot of disinformation spread at council meetingThere was much disinformation and vitriol voiced at the Mount Vernon City Council meeting June 19. Our State Representative Cindy Golding came along with a number of speakers. While I wish I could address all the hurtful comments, I feel Representative Golding’s remarks and conduct cannot be left unaddressed.
Golding attended the meeting via Zoom to defend “misrepresentation” of legislation she supported that placed limits on the lives of LGBTQ+ students and families. She claimed criticism of this legislation was unfounded, emphasizing her concern for children and the LGBTQ+ community. This is unfair.
In the 2023 legislative session, 28 bills were introduced which actively damage the human rights of LGBTQ+ Iowans, a dramatic increase from five bills in 2019. The Human Rights Commission recently issued a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ citizens due to the spike of these bills and laws nationwide. Several pieces of legislation Golding supports rely on cherry-picked “independent” research instead of findings from the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, and American Psychological Association, which unanimously state gender affirming care is best practice and lifesaving. While lawmakers who support this legislation claim they are protecting children and promoting parental rights, they are ignoring the desperate pleas from trans youth, parents, medical providers and educators whose rights have been taken away.
Finally, I am deeply offended by Representative Golding’s immature conduct toward my child. My brave 13-year-old spoke to a room full of adults, some of whom had just grouped kids and adults like them with pedophiles. As my child rose to speak proudly dressed in their Pride gear, Representative Golding, having forgotten to mute herself, mockingly scoffed “Oh dear Lord.” This is clearly audible around minute 35 of the video of this meeting available on YouTube. The remark was painfully heard in the room and clearly contradicted her earlier statements that she cared deeply for LGBTQ+ youth.
Representative Golding, you owe my child a public apology. And you owe just action for all LGBTQ+ Iowans to create a state that is safe for them to call home.
Megan Jones
Mount Vernon
Reflections on
June 19 meetingThe following are impressions and reflections of my experience attending the June 19 City Council meeting. I attended to support our LGBTQ+ Mount Vernon community. I didn’t bring prepared notes and I didn’t take notes. I sat next to two people who were opposed to supporting LGBTQ+ individuals and their families. I heard statements whispered that I won’t repeat but that reflect a negative attitude. I listened to a speaker from Mechanicsville and two from Ely, and I question why people from outside Mount Vernon are speaking publicly to the Mount Vernon City Council. Halfway through the public comment period, I realized I couldn’t sit silently, but I came to the podium unprepared. First, I forgot my own address: I gave my former address in another city. I spoke to the fact that I have a sticker in my car window that says Mount Vernon loves LGBTQ+, a sticker offered to me by Megan Jones, which I gladly accepted, as a way to show that I’m a business that supports our LGBTQ+ community. But I forgot to identify my business, Pet Nanny. My only defense is I was in a daze from what the previous speakers had said. One speaker said “read your history.” And that history tells of all kinds of ways people have been attacked, silenced, imprisoned, punished, lynched, denied, excluded, and more, by American people in positions of power against people deemed unworthy. That’s history.
One speaker had pictures he gave to the council. None of the rest of us had any idea what the pictures depicted. One speaker said something about mutilation of bodies, which if he believes, is perpetuating false information. No one goes to a health care provider to be mutilated. I support gender affirming health care just as I support any other health care. Health care improves year after year as humans learn more and more about how to care for ourselves. The people sitting next to me do not get to decide any of my healthcare, so why should they get to decide anyone else’s?
Lastly, I was disappointed no Mount Vernon business person spoke to show support for our LGBTQ+ community. I encourage other Mount Vernon businesses to speak up, to be present, to show our entire Mount Vernon LGBTQ+ community that we respectfully support one another.
Sincerely,
Gretchen Reeh-Robinson
Mount Vernon