A prayer vigil was held Friday, Feb. 28, the same day as Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill that stripped civil rights protections for transgender Iowans from Iowa code.
Pastor Lori Wunder of Mount Vernon First Presbyterian Church said the impromptu prayer vigil idea came to her as she was watching the news that morning, and needing to react to what she was seeing.
She contacted fellow pastors Vicki Fisher of Mount Vernon United Methodist Church and Erika Uthe of Seeds of Faith Lutheran Church about holding an event open to the community to vent and build community.
The call went out into the community to show up at the rainbow steps outside Mount Vernon First Presbyterian Church at 5 p.m.
And more than 40 citizens in the area did just that to meet ecumenically and discuss the impact of the bills in the community.
One of the lessons Wunder learned while in Germany was the simple importance of keeping community going during a time of oppression.
“One of the things people told me is that oppressors were ready for people to fight back, to react to them,” Wunder said. “What they weren’t ready for was prayers and candles and non-violent opposition.”
Joe Jennison shared that one of the things that had happened on Wednes- day of this week was a trans individual needing
a safe space to cry after the legislative advanced some of those bills forward.
“May we all be that safe space for individuals moving forward,” Jennison said.
August Tweito spoke about how Mount Vernon was the community that they have felt safe and at home in as a trans man. They attended Cornell College and have worked at a number of local businesses and feel them- selves. They encouraged everyone to embrace the parts of them that aren’t traditional gender roles and champion those parts that make them uniqueinstead of being ashamed of them.
He then sang “Let It Be.”
Mandy Moellering, education director and youth group director at United Methodist Church, told those in attendance that
children, grandchildren or any who attend the youth group activities of the three churches will always be accepted, sacred and celebrated for who they are.
“Your children are safe here,” Moellering said.Uthe said that people need to remember it’s notjust the actions against trans individuals that are advancing in the legislative session. Bills are also reducing Medicaid availability and targeting the books in public libraries.
“The most important thing is you can not lose heart,” Uthe said. “You all give me hope by coming together as a community like now.”
Jan Moore, a Begindergarten teacher at Mount Vernon Community Schools encouraged everyone to recite with her “No matter how big, no matter how small, we can all make a difference in our world.”
Mayor Tom Wieseler explained that the City of Mount Vernon may not take more direct stances than the DEI position and flag ordinances they’ve already passed, noting Gov. Kim Reynolds stance against Winneshiek County Sheriff Office for not participating in ICE activities in their county.
“The city is working on a childcare initiative that might require funding from the governor, and we don’t want to lose out
on those opportunities by taking a forceful stance on this issue,” Wieseler said.
The group set Friday, March 14, at 5 p.m. as a next meeting date for continued discussion for those who missed the Feb.
28 session and need that community.
Governor signs bill stripping civil rights protections into law
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill into law that will strip civil rights protections from transgender Iowans on Friday, making
Iowa the first state in the nation to remove a protected class from its civil rights code.
Her signature comes less than 24 hours after the bill was passed by the Iowa House and Senate and a little over a week after the bill was introduced. It also ends nearly 20 years of civil rights protections for transgender Iowans after a Democratic trifecta enacted those protections in 2007.
The law, Senate File 418, removes gender identity as a protected class from the Iowa Civil Rights Act which would open transgender Iowans up to discrimination in housing, finances, employment, education, and public accommodations.
Reynolds said the bill is about safeguarding the rights of women and the “biological differences between men and women.”
“In fact, it is necessary to secure genuine equal protection for women and girls,” Reynolds said of the bill Friday. “It is about the biological differences, and that is all.”
Republicans in the statehouse argued the bill was necessary to protect laws they’ve enacted in previous legislative
sessions that targeted transgender people. They include a 2023 law banning transgender people from using the bathroom aligning with their gender in public schools and a 2022 law that banned transgender people’s participation in school athletics.
“Unfortunately, these common sense protections were at risk because, before I signed this bill, the Civil Rights Code blurred the biological line between the sexes,”
Reynolds said in a video message on Facebook. “I know this is a sensitive issue for some, many of whom have heard misinformation about what this bill does. The truth is that it simply brings Iowa in line with the federal Civil Rights Code, as well as most states.”
The law will also define sex, gender, male, and female in Iowa code and would require birth certificates to reflect an Iowan’s sex at birth. It would also prohibit Iowa schools from providing instruction related to gender identity and sexual orientation to students in grades kindergarten through grade six.
Reynolds said that despite the change to the civil rights code that all Iowans are “children of God, and no law changes that.”
“We all agree that every Iowan, without exception, deserves respect and dignity,” Reynolds said. “What this bill does accomplish is to strengthen protections for women and girls, and I believe that is the right thing to do.”
With Reynolds’ signature the bill will become law and make Iowa the first in the nation to remove a protected class from their state civil rights code, LGBTQ+ advocates say.
“This isn’t leadership. It’s a shameful display of power used to crush the most vulnerable Iowans,” said Becky Tayler, the executive director of Iowa Safe Schools, an advocacy group focused on LGBTQ+ youth and education, said in a news release Friday. “Governor Reynolds has made it clear — her version of ‘freedom to flourish’ is only for those who fit her narrow, out- dated vision. If there is one message to send to Governor Reynolds, it is this: transgender Iowans have always existed and will always exist.
Gender identity, along with sexual orientation, was added as a protected class to the Iowa Civil Rights Act in 2007 when Democrats controlled the governor’s office and the state legislature.