Civil Rights for Gays and Lesbians:   "The Moral Barometer of Our Time"
The following piece by Dave Leshtz, Chair of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission,  was a guest opinion in Saturday's Cedar Rapids Gazette.

I have three grown daughters.  When they were kids, their best baby-sitters were gays and lesbians.

These gay and lesbian baby-sitters - friends who were born and raised in Iowa - were the most nurturing, most competent, and most trustworthy of anyone who looked after my daughters.  All three daughters are now healthy, successful adults with families of their own.  All of them have maintained close ties with those baby-sitting friends.  None of them would hesitate to entrust any of their four children to the care and attention of gays or lesbians.  

So I have a personal agenda that matches my role as an Iowa Civil Rights Commissioner.  I do not want to see good people suffer simply because of their sexual orientation.  I do not want the pain of discrimination to be felt by any Iowan.  I do not want children to be punished because of their parents' sexual orientation.

Hundreds of children in Iowa are being raised right now by loving, capable parents who happen to be of the same sex.  By depriving gay and lesbian couples of the social and financial benefits and rights that non-gays and lesbians have been granted, we penalize their children, too.  Policymakers and elected officials who are truly pro-family should encourage stability and security for all of our children.

The great civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, who organized the March on Washington in 1963, said that civil rights for gays and lesbians has become the moral barometer of our time.  We are seeing some of the same kinds of resistance to gay and lesbian civil rights as we saw to civil rights for black Americans.  Change will eventually come, no matter how much resistance, no matter how much fear, no matter how much bigotry remains.  National polls consistently show a clear trajectory: younger people - like my daughters - have far less discriminatory attitudes than their parents' and grandparents' generations. These younger people will soon become our legislators, our policymakers, and our judges.
 
Nineteen states ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.  Iowa is not one of them.  However, six Iowa cities - Ames, Bettendorf, Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Des Moines, & Iowa City - and numerous school boards, colleges, and businesses have adopted non-discrimination language in their employment policies and local ordinances.  The city of Clinton includes sexual orientation in its affirmative action policy, and last year the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors voted to add sexual orientation to its discrimination policy.

Civil rights for gays and lesbians is an economic issue as well as a moral one.  All of those baby-sitting friends of my family have moved away from Iowa.  They live in Chicago, California, and Minnesota, where they are responsible taxpayers and useful members of their communities.  Why would the state of Iowa want to discourage productive citizens from living and working here?  If we are to revive our economic base, we need to ensure a vibrant and diverse workforce.  Promoting discriminatory amendments to the Constitution tells prospective employers and employees that Iowa is a land of intolerance.

Let's listen to companies like Wells Fargo and Principal.  They understand that Iowa's fiscal future depends on being inclusive, fair, and non-discriminatory.

In each of the last four years, the Iowa Civil Rights Commission has formally recommended to the Iowa Legislature that sexual orientation be added to the list of protected classes in the Iowa Civil Rights Act.   Now more than ever, expanding the law is in Iowa’s self-interest.  Let’s proclaim loudly and clearly that we won’t allow anyone in our state to be treated as a second-class citizen.

And let's thank those forty-four members of the Iowa House – including Republicans Jeff Elgin, Doug Struyck, and Chuck Gipp – for their principled votes against a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage rights (Des Moines Register, March 15).  Regardless of their feelings about marriage, they refused to go along with a mean-spirited, divisive, and costly diversion.

Action:  Contact your legislator to let them know you want sexual orientation added to state law.
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