New definition of family camping irks lawmaker

DES MOINES – State natural resources administrators say they are more concerned about how many people try to cram into relatively limited camp sites at state parks rather than what their familial relationship is. But one state legislator thought otherwise Monday.

For some time, the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) specified that state park campers could only have a second tent at a site occupied by up to six people if the extra shelter was occupied by dependent children of the same family, said Kevin Szcodronski, head of the DNR state parks division.

However, DNR officials have proposed to revamp the camping rules with a new definition of family that includes parents, spouse, legal guardians and domestic partners and remove the restriction specifying that occupants of a second tent must be dependent children.

The proposed rule change raised red flags for Sen. Merlin Bartz, R-Grafton, who viewed the new definition as part of “an insidious pattern” by executive branch agencies to revise rules to incorporate a 2009 Iowa Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriages into the Iowa code even though no statutory language has been approved by the Legislature to recognize civil marriages involving people of the same gender.

“Philosophically, I view a pattern that I'm not pleased with,” Bartz told members of the Legislature's Administrative Rules Review Committee during a special review he requested to discuss the proposed rule with department officials and legislative colleagues.

But DNR officials noted the proposed change under consideration was based upon a 2007 law passed by the Legislature expanding Iowa's civil rights law to include sexual orientation among classified protections in the provision of public accommodations – not the 2009 Iowa Supreme Court ruling that declared unconstitutional a state law that defined marriage as only between one man and one woman.

Regardless of the legal basis, Senate President Jack Kibbie, D-Emmetsburg, called Monday's discussion “baloney” because there was absolutely no relationship between same-sex couples and rules governing camping activities at state parks.

“If it's controlled and the right number, then who the hell cares about their relationships?” Kibbie said. “To me, it's a non-issue.”

Rep. Linda Upmeyer, R-Garner, said she didn't understand why state government wanted to be so prescriptive by defining who can and cannot camp at a state park, saying “this is about letting people recreate.”

The state Natural Resources Commission was slated to take up the camping rules at its Thursday meeting, but Szcodronski said he was uncertain what might be the future direction after the rules committee's discussion.

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