I grew up on a Century farm in western Iowa in the 50’s and 60’s. I also experienced Iowa as pretty open. After living in villages all over the world, nearly 40 years ago my family settled in Canada, the place of our last work assignment. This year my oldest son had registered for RAGBRAI to carry on a family tradition. He just cancelled this week for moral reasons, as much to do with the current direction of the US as with Iowa’s current decisions, but they are very similar. His wife is half Chinese-Jamaican, and he did not want to go somewhere where she might be the recipient of hate.
As Dave Busiek aptly put it, the GOP has for years demonized the gay and lesbian population to tap into discrimination hate. Since they still use this hatred but want to appear "more reasonable", they've zeroed in on hatred of the transgendered.
Hang in there. I figure if POC have fought against racial hatred for eons, the least I can do as a white straight man is to not wilt but fight in front of this outrageous, evil hatred.
Thank you for sharing. My heart is aching for you and all those affected by this hateful law. I hope you can find peace in knowing that there are so many of us that support you.
Thank you, Parker. I am appalled and disgusted by the so-called "christians" in the Iowa legislature. Christians are supposed to love people, not hate them.
To me, they are nothing but fake Christians, and always have been. Their self-labelling and identity as Christians, is just dressing up their bigotry in drag as religious belief. They are merely cosplaying as Christians, and I will not respect their religious identity as legit or sincere, since they have sold out their religion's true beliefs for political power and the chance to dominate and hurt others... If Jesus himself came back to earth, they would, themselves, end up crucifying him again, the same as the Romans did.. And Trump is just using them, without most of them even knowing it, while he laughs down his sleeve at them behind their back.
I am so ashamed of my home state. My My oldest daughter and her family had planned to move back to Iowa from Chicago in 2 years. Not anymore. They are staying in a place with great schools and a state government that supports everyone, including her young daughters. I'm sad, angry and infuriated with Iowa.
Is it worth your health, stress & serenity to stay here? I don’t think I would or could stay in Iowa. Iowa is nice but so are other more welcoming places.
how in the devil did we regress to such a neanderthal state of being...continue to strip our education systems and continue the support of evangelical indoctoration and, well, here we are, the disgrace of this nation and the world.
I grew up here in rural Iowa, and in a community that had few if any black people, and the usual amount of off colored jokes about anyone "different". However, when the rubber met the road, most fell back on their religious based upbringing and usually made room for those different than them, especially after they got to know them. Of course, religion often bears a two edged sword and those that drag out the "Old Testement" seem to forget, much that they found in the bible was in the "old" section that condemned people on their sexual orientation. What was in the "New Testiment" that was radically different came at the end of that New part, and came from a man known as Paul who called himself a Deciple of Christ, but had never even met Christ! He was a Roman by birth and some of his views were certainly not Christ like! So the "haters" have always had a place to go to try and convince people they were right! The more Conservative a Church was, the more they align with those who create the problems! A simple, common man, with no religion can easily understand and learn to get along with people who don't want to cause them a problem, and let what they do that is different not bother them, it is none of their business as far as they are concerned! What we have at teh moment could be compared to a Home Owners Association that establishes rules on how a group of people in a housing area are going to take care of things like getting people who live there to take care of their property and the property values they want maintained, except when you get a bunch who want to dictate what they want for themselves and the rest will soon become their targets! You will conform to their desires or you will pay! A little democracy and people talking together can fix these problems in short order, but those who make LAW are sometimes the hardest to get through too! And they can become much like the worst HOA on record! Everyday we witness some of the worst of humanity voice their "opinion" in State houses and the US Government who are not representing their voters, but the dark money who helped them get into office! Tragic, but true. It has to STOP!
I grew up on a Century farm in western Iowa in the 50’s and 60’s. I also experienced Iowa as pretty open. After living in villages all over the world, nearly 40 years ago my family settled in Canada, the place of our last work assignment. This year my oldest son had registered for RAGBRAI to carry on a family tradition. He just cancelled this week for moral reasons, as much to do with the current direction of the US as with Iowa’s current decisions, but they are very similar. His wife is half Chinese-Jamaican, and he did not want to go somewhere where she might be the recipient of hate.
As Dave Busiek aptly put it, the GOP has for years demonized the gay and lesbian population to tap into discrimination hate. Since they still use this hatred but want to appear "more reasonable", they've zeroed in on hatred of the transgendered.
Hang in there. I figure if POC have fought against racial hatred for eons, the least I can do as a white straight man is to not wilt but fight in front of this outrageous, evil hatred.
Thank you for sharing. My heart is aching for you and all those affected by this hateful law. I hope you can find peace in knowing that there are so many of us that support you.
Age old question, why does the Mississippi flow South through Iowa ?, because Iowa Sucks.
Thank you, Parker. I am appalled and disgusted by the so-called "christians" in the Iowa legislature. Christians are supposed to love people, not hate them.
To me, they are nothing but fake Christians, and always have been. Their self-labelling and identity as Christians, is just dressing up their bigotry in drag as religious belief. They are merely cosplaying as Christians, and I will not respect their religious identity as legit or sincere, since they have sold out their religion's true beliefs for political power and the chance to dominate and hurt others... If Jesus himself came back to earth, they would, themselves, end up crucifying him again, the same as the Romans did.. And Trump is just using them, without most of them even knowing it, while he laughs down his sleeve at them behind their back.
I am so ashamed of my home state. My My oldest daughter and her family had planned to move back to Iowa from Chicago in 2 years. Not anymore. They are staying in a place with great schools and a state government that supports everyone, including her young daughters. I'm sad, angry and infuriated with Iowa.
Is it worth your health, stress & serenity to stay here? I don’t think I would or could stay in Iowa. Iowa is nice but so are other more welcoming places.
how in the devil did we regress to such a neanderthal state of being...continue to strip our education systems and continue the support of evangelical indoctoration and, well, here we are, the disgrace of this nation and the world.
I grew up here in rural Iowa, and in a community that had few if any black people, and the usual amount of off colored jokes about anyone "different". However, when the rubber met the road, most fell back on their religious based upbringing and usually made room for those different than them, especially after they got to know them. Of course, religion often bears a two edged sword and those that drag out the "Old Testement" seem to forget, much that they found in the bible was in the "old" section that condemned people on their sexual orientation. What was in the "New Testiment" that was radically different came at the end of that New part, and came from a man known as Paul who called himself a Deciple of Christ, but had never even met Christ! He was a Roman by birth and some of his views were certainly not Christ like! So the "haters" have always had a place to go to try and convince people they were right! The more Conservative a Church was, the more they align with those who create the problems! A simple, common man, with no religion can easily understand and learn to get along with people who don't want to cause them a problem, and let what they do that is different not bother them, it is none of their business as far as they are concerned! What we have at teh moment could be compared to a Home Owners Association that establishes rules on how a group of people in a housing area are going to take care of things like getting people who live there to take care of their property and the property values they want maintained, except when you get a bunch who want to dictate what they want for themselves and the rest will soon become their targets! You will conform to their desires or you will pay! A little democracy and people talking together can fix these problems in short order, but those who make LAW are sometimes the hardest to get through too! And they can become much like the worst HOA on record! Everyday we witness some of the worst of humanity voice their "opinion" in State houses and the US Government who are not representing their voters, but the dark money who helped them get into office! Tragic, but true. It has to STOP!
I am so sorry this is happening to you!
(And am doing everything I can to protect all people from this misguided and harmful cruelty).
M
Oh Parker. Sta md
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Bravo! May I forward this piece to my senator and representative?
Yes, of course. Thanks for reading.