Lawmakers report receiving threats on gay marriage issue

DES MOINES - Legislative leaders and an openly gay member of the Legislature have been the target of threats or harassing phone calls in the wake of an Iowa Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in the state.

Lt. Mark Logsdon of the Iowa State Patrol confirmed Monday that Sen. Matt McCoy, an openly gay lawmaker and Des Moines Democrat, has reported being the target of a death threat.

McCoy was seen emerging from a meeting with law enforcement officials at the Capitol late Monday afternoon.

"That's all I can say, I've been threatened," McCoy said when asked what the meeting was about, but confirming it was a death threat.

Logsdon said the threat came to McCoy's Des Moines office at the Greater Des Moines Partnership.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, and House Speaker Pat Murphy, D-Dubuque, also have been the target of "troublesome phone calls," Logsdon said.

"At the very least, it's certainly a harassment of a public official," Logsdon said.

Opponents of the same-sex marriage ruling rallied at the Capitol again Monday, promising to turn up the heat on state officials to get them to start the process of amending Iowa's Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

The state patrol has stepped its presence at the Capitol, not only for the protection of legislators, but for other people visiting the Statehouse, Logsdon said.

"We're doing all we can to try to make sure that the environment is safe in the Capitol, and not only for these legislators but for these people that come to visit," Logsdon said.

Gronstal, who has praised the Supreme Court's ruling, said one of his staff members received a call that included a physical threat.

"I think the state patrol has appropriately - without us asking - has appropriately raised the level of presence at the Capitol," Gronstal said. "I think they're keeping an eye on it and doing a good thing that way."

Gronstal said he won't be deterred by the threat.

"We don't respond to that kind of stuff," Gronstal said.

Murphy was away from the Capitol Monday and unavailable for comment.

Republicans haven't been immune from receiving phone calls or e-mails on the issue, Logsdon said.

"I've received word that several legislators ... Republicans and Democrats, numerous ones that received rather troubling e-mails and phone calls, not only to the Capitol, but also to their home residences, and they were obviously coming from both sides of the same-sex marriage issue," Logsdon said.

Not all of the letters and e-mails were threatening.

"Not all of them are death threats," Logsdon said. "Some of them are just a little bothersome and a little troubling."

Rep. McKinley Bailey, D-Webster City, estimates he's received 15,000 emails, some of which were "not friendly."

"I know that some of them have been unusually harsh," Bailey said.