GOP animates its constituents’ worst impulses

Enforcing minority rule while trampling minority rights are now governing principles for the Iowa GOP. Senate File 2198 should be called “The Heckler’s Veto” bill. It allows a complainant to sue a public school and its staff if, after following established procedures, they refuse to remove a book considered inappropriate. One person could exercise veto power over public-school course and library content. Minority rule by right-wing Christians is the GOP goal.

The GOP then targets transgender girls, a besieged minority, by forbidding them from competing in high school and college sports as girls. “Fairness” is a smoke screen, especially coming from a party that has never treated LGBTQ people fairly. There is no rush of teenage boys pretending to be girls demanding to compete as girls. Instead, the bill shows how the GOP, having lost its war against LGBTQ civil rights and same-sex marriage rights, tries to find some way to appease aggressive right-wing Christians.

I don’t recognize this state after five years of GOP rule. Iowa Republicans have trashed our reputation as a leader in protecting civil rights. What’s next, a “don’t say gay” bill like the one Florida Republicans are pushing which makes mentioning LGBTQ issues in public-school classrooms illegal? Will Kim Reynolds follow Texas governor Greg Abbott’s lead by declaring that parents of transgender children be considered child abusers so their children can be ripped from them and placed in the state’s care?

Jeff Klinzman

Coralville