Thousands protest anti LGBTQ legislation
Hunter
03/06/23
Thousands of LGBTQ+ individuals and supporters gathered in Des Moines on the grounds of the state capitol Sunday to protest proposed legislation they say is discriminatory and homophobic.
Jemma Bullock of Ankeny High School is one of the students who helped found the advocacy group IOWA WTF, which helped organize last Wednesday’s walkout at over a dozen Iowa junior high and high schools. She called the bills “mean.”
Around 30 bills were introduced this session that targeted LGBTQ rights in Iowa. Iowa Starting Line reports that 12 of those are still alive. Last year, legislation was passed that banned trans girls from competing on girls’ school teams.
Aime Wichtendahl, a city councilor in Hiawatha is the first openly-trans elected official in Iowa. She says state Republicans introducing these bills “hate what they see because what they see are people that don’t look like them, people who don’t pray like them, people who don’t love like them.”
Iowa WTF plans another rally Wednesday, marching to the Capitol Building on the first floor Rotunda between 11am and 1pm.