Reynolds should have protected civil rights

I have lived in Iowa for almost 50 years. I have been extremely proud of how Iowans historically stand up for the protection of civil rights for all citizens. So I am particularly appalled to have seen that our elected officials sent a bill to the governor to remove civil rights protections from transgender Iowans. These protections have been enshrined as settled law for almost two decades and are consistent with Iowa tradition and federal law.

1. I believe that all human beings are made in the image and likeness of God. Period.

2. LGBTQ+ citizens are often victimized; they are not, statistically, perpetrators of harassment and violence. So the argument that they are criminals preying on women in restrooms is specious at best and shameless bigotry in fact.

3) The law as written will open up LGBTQ+ citizens to potential discrimination in housing, finances, and employment. Women and minorities have fought these battles: in 1973, I fought to get a credit card from a national department store chain issued in my own name! Why should Iowa return to the days of legal unequal treatment?

The governor should have vetoed this bill. We should not set up a "separate but equal" (1896, Plessy v. Ferguson) system in Iowa, for we all know that will be "inherently unequal." (1954, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka KS) We Iowans should be ashamed that such a bill even got this far.

Kathleen Van Steenhuyse

Vinton