Hunter
03/02/23
Hundreds of students across the state staged a walk out Wednesday to protest state legislature proposals to bar physicians from providing gender-affirming care to Iowans under age 18 even with parental consent.
Wavery Zhao, co-founder of IowaWTF, told the Des Moines Register the “We Say Gay” walkout was a play on the “Don’t Say Gay” bills they’re protesting.
The bills prohibit things like puberty blockers, testosterone or estrogen treatments, and gender-affirming surgeries.
The Gazette reports the Linn-Mar Community School District has been a target of Republican leaders — including former Vice President Mike Pence and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds — after adopting new policies last year to protect transgender students from discrimination. These policies make official the practices already established in the district — and other districts in Iowa — to follow federal and state law.
Earlier this week, both the Iowa House and Senate advanced proposals that would prevent transgender students from using school restrooms for the gender they identify with. Another piece of legislation introduced this week would add an amendment to the state constitution outlawing same-sex marriages.
Locally, about 100 students from City High and South East Junior High School walked to the Pentacrest on the University of Iowa campus to protest. City High junior Puck Carlson told the Gazette that the bills won’t stop queer people from existing. Ne said they, quote, “just won’t have any knowledge, and that can only lead to suffering and hardship.”
Other students said the bills are not only stripping the rights from the students, but the parents as well.