Iowa City rally to support transgender community about more than bathrooms

IOWA CITY - Wearing a T-shirt featuring a fist-in-the-air logo and the words, 'I stand with trans students,” Amanda Green explained that Sunday's rally at the Ped Mall in Iowa City was about more than school bathrooms.

'This is not about bathrooms just like it was not about drinking fountains in the '60s,” said Green, 36, of Hiawatha, who serves as chair of the Pride Employee Resource Group at Rockwell Collins. 'This is a larger issue about saying equality is equality. That's as simple as it gets.”

Green helped coordinate the rally, which drew more than 100 people, in response to a Feb. 22 decision by President Donald Trump's administration to revoke landmark guidance to public schools letting transgender students use the bathrooms of their choice. The move reversed a signature initiative of former Democratic President Barack Obama.

Obama, last May, instructed public schools to let transgender students use the bathrooms matching their chosen gender identity and not the gender listed on their birth certificate. The transgender community hailed the step as a civil rights victory.

'When we heard this legislation coming out against protections for children we thought, ‘No, no more,' ” said Green of the Trump Administration decision. 'We are taking a stand against that and we're going to do anything we can to make it publicly visible that this is not OK. We will not go backward and we will not take protections away from children.”

Sunday's rally included several speakers, many of whom said the next step for those who support the transgender community is to stay involved and educated.

'We must remain vigilant and active,” said Avi Deol, director of Transformative Healing, an Iowa City-based nonprofit that works with survivors of sexual violence. 'This is a human civil rights issue and so we must work to keep changing hearts and minds.”

Deol said having conversations with family members and friends, in places of worship and with lawmakers is critical.

'It has to be a daily effort,” she said.

State Rep. Liz Bennett, D-Cedar Rapids, said it's also important for citizens to attend school board meetings and pay attention to school board elections.

'We need to make sure the protections we've had in Iowa's state code for the past 10 years are not rescinded,” she said. 'We must continue to think about the transgender community and remember they want to work, go to school, live in communities and live a life like anyone else.”

Brynn Bogert, 22, of Iowa City, and Amy Pedersen, 21, of Marion, were among those gathered on the Ped Mall Sunday in front of the Sheridan Hotel. They held a rainbow American flag that read, 'Trans Rights are Human Rights.”

Both said they feel there is support for the transgender community at a local level, but Bogert, who came out last summer, had a simple message: 'There's always room for improvement.”

Organizers of Sunday's event circulated a petition they plan to send to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos demanding 'you reinstate the guidelines protecting transgender students in schools.”

Following the speeches, those gathered marched through the downtown area, holding signs and chanting 'This is what Democracy looks like” and 'The people united will never be defeated.”

Green said she believes Sunday's rally provided resources for those supporting the transgender community and she encourages people to stay involved with the cause.

'I hope that people will continue the action and the passion they felt today and continue supporting not only grass roots community organizations but … getting involved, talking to people, attending meetings, getting yourself on a board, getting yourself on the PTA at your school, going to your city council meetings, getting involved with political parties and getting this information out there ... and supporting those who need it.”

- Reuters contributed to this report.