LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce launches in Eastern Iowa

NORTH LIBERTY — With every letter of its acronym represented, a new coalition as diverse as its rainbow insignia came out for the first time in Eastern Iowa.

Hosting its launch in the Corridor, LGBTQ business owners of every stripe brought new color to an environment in Iowa that has, for many, turned gray in recent years.

The Iowa LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce, first started as an affiliate of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce in Des Moines in October, is organizing business owners into a new coalition to protect the interests of a community targeted by state legislators in recent years.

“With our diversity, which is largely invisible, our power comes from being visible,” board member Chad Johnston said at the Eastern Iowa launch Dec. 7 in North Liberty. “To our naysayers, we are coming out together.”

What it will do

The organization, a first of its kind in Iowa, fills a gap in the Midwest that has become apparent in recent years with the growth of affiliate chambers in neighboring Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin.

With opportunities for education, networking and advocacy, the resource for LGBTQ business owners first provides much-needed visibility throughout the state.

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The chamber — launched to cover the entire state instead of only Des Moines — will highlight business owners even in the rural Iowa who have persevered with little support for their needs and challenges.

As new state laws prompt the removal of LGBTQ authors from library shelves, restrict education on LGBTQ topics in schools and ban gender-affirming care for youth, the business-forward group underscores a new urgency for finding ways to bridge connections for a population being pushed to the margins.

Dan Jansen of Des Moines, chair of the board for the new chamber, hopes it helps bolster an image of a welcoming Iowa, after a couple of difficult years for LGBTQ Iowans in the Iowa Legislature.

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“It helps people understand that being LGBTQ isn’t that much different than not being LGBTQ. We have common interests and goals — we just ask to be treated as such,” he said. “(Visibility) is so important because it’s very easy to demonize something that you don’t know.

“Any opportunity we have to give people knowledge and information is an effective way to build bridges, but it has to start somewhere.”

Jansen hopes educational conversations, done on a daily basis in non-confrontational ways, will help the LGBTQ business community play offense rather than defense.

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The chamber plans to build connections through statewide events, catalyze economic development in a post-COVID era of business challenges, encourage entrepreneurs and provide training and certifications.

Through its affiliation with the national chamber, it will provide Iowa businesses with the ability to attain LGBTQ-owned certification, bringing opportunities with national companies like Principal Financial and Wells Fargo that seek supplier diversity.

“People call us ‘Iowa nice’ for a reason. It’s within most of us to find connections,” Jansen said. “If we’re only having conversations during the legislative session, then we’re not reaching people of the state.”

The chamber, which has membership levels for individuals, corporate members and businesses of any size, hopes to gain 200 to 300 members in its first two years.

Why it’s necessary

After facing difficult and divisive rhetoric, the chamber puts a new face on the LQBTQ community that distinguishes it from the language used by legislators to describe them.

“It’s important to remember we’re people, we’re neighbors, we’re part of your community all throughout the state,” said Hiawatha City Council member Aime Wichtendahl, Iowa’s first transgender elected official who is now running for the Iowa House. “I don’t think most Iowans are on board with this demonization. They value hard work and honesty.”

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But as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender business owners choose where to root themselves with short- and long-term investments, the recognition is not just about their humanity — it boils down to dollars and cents.

With near historic unemployment-lows and widespread hiring difficulties, the values Iowa embraces will help decide who chooses to stay, as well as the talent that companies can attract to the state.

Ben Black, a Coralville Realtor for Keller Williams Legacy Group and member of the chamber, said he’s personally watched three families with trans members leave Iowa due to its current political climate — the opposite of what drew him to Iowa in 2007.

Wichtendahl added, “My son is 19 and just started college. I asked him recently … ‘Would you stay in Iowa?’ His response was ‘God, no.’ ”

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But with a business focus, she believes the new coalition can break through to legislators in ways that other advocates can’t. In a year of bad news for the LGBTQ community, the new chamber of commerce is “a very good thing,” she said.

“Many have looked for greener pastures in other states. But that’s why the LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce is so important,” she told attendees at the launch event. “We need to show legislators we aren’t going anywhere.”

Finding community

No matter what’s happening at the state level, some say the new organization brings a sense of a belonging to a group with as many commonalities as differences.

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“I think people can find hope in finding a community where they can feel welcome and get whatever they need to enhance their skill sets,” said Mayor Bruce Teague, the first openly gay mayor in Iowa City. “It will not be a turnkey to change the legislation, but I think it will continue to help solidify that LGBTQ individuals have human rights.”

Teague, who owns Caring Hands & More in Iowa City, said business owners wear the hats of administration, human resources, payroll and tax professionals. Connecting with like-minded allies can help provide the advice that business owners can’t get within their own circles.

For Barb Hanson, co-founder of consulting firm Shared Existence in Cedar Rapids, access to a community that allows business owners to be who they are “is huge.”

“I want to help give a light to others to be part of the LGBTQ community, showing up as themselves and being successful in whatever pursuits they have,” Hanson said. “It’s more critical than ever to have a sense of community where we can lift each other up and empower one another.”

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After struggling with her identity growing up in conservative northwestern Iowa, Hanson’s business became the first in Iowa to be certified as women and LGBTQ-owned with the chamber via the NGLCC this month. With her partner, Selenthia Jeffers, she helps other businesses and corporations manage diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

“Iowa used to be on the right side of history,” Jeffers said. “This could be another time where we write our names in the history book.”

Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.