The bill seeks to amend a 2007 law that was passed to protect students from bullying and discrimination, so that it would no longer be illegal to harass students on the basis of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”

This hateful piece of legislation is, not surprisingly, related to Iowa’s recent legalisation of gay marriage. Because the Iowa Supreme Court invoked the Safe School Law in its decision to legalize same-sex marriage, the bill’s authors, Senators Jason Schultz and Matt Windchitl, hoped their bill could help overturn that decision. By attempting to deny LGBT youth equal protections, Schultz and Windchitl hoped to force lawmakers to debate same-sex marriage.

Right. Telling students, “Go on, beat up the gays,” is really going to instill family values in our children….

Considering that 16 percent of Iowa’s LGBT youth already report having been physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation, and that bullying plays a role in the suicides of many LGBT youth, the Schultz/Windchitl bill is an unconscionable political move that plays with students’ lives.

Fortunately, their ploy did not work, as the Iowa legislature just voted against considering a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage at this time. Hopefully, Schultz and Windchitl will consequently drop their cruel manoeuvre.

Photo: popmatters.com

According to The Tele, the police intelligence analyst – identified only as Sarah – was denied the use of morning and afternoon tea breaks and accumulated leave, after continued requests for hours that suited her childcare needs were rejected.

Reportedly, she was refused a private room and instead instructed to use a toilet cubicle or ‘unclean’ interview room to express milk. Sarah was left little choice but to express milk in her car, but eventually become so embarrassed that she drove home to feed her baby and was forced to make up for the time she was gone.

The Public Service Association claimed in a statement yesterday that Sarah is one of many new mothers in the public service being denied breastfeeding facilities in direct violation of the state Government’s own policy. The association will today launch action in the Industrial Relations Commission in an effort to force government departments to uphold the policy.

Was Sarah unfairly treated? Do you have any horror feeding-at-work stories of your own?

Now the girl's been pulled out of school by her parents, who are suing the Indiana institution for doing nothing to save their daughter from her tormentors. More than two decades after Ryan White, do kids still have to hide their HIV status?

There's a marked difference in the knowledge out there about HIV from the instant fear and massive homophobia of my eighties childhood. Ours was perhaps the first generation to be raised to have safe sex not to ward off unwanted pregnancy but to protect you from disease. We grew up in the time of Ryan White . . . and of Magic Johnson and Arthur Ashe. We were taught to be cautious – perhaps taught too much. I remember the health teachers giving us a blow by blow on what HIV and then AIDS could to do the body. Then they gave us the rundown of every single way we could possibly contract the virus. They terrified us – to the point where a bunch of overactive teenage imaginations were envisioning catching HIV by brushing up against someone walking down the street. 

Too much of the information thrown at us to keep us safe was off base and overblown. Now the generation raised to shake in their boots at the thought of AIDS is charged with raising their own kids. What are they telling them? Because it sounds like the kids in Westlane Middle School are scared. It sounds like they don't understand that a teenage classmate with AIDS does not mean a death sentence for them. In this day and age it doesn't even mean a death sentence for her (thankfully). 

Source: Salon

Related Posts:

Blogging Moms Find a Kidney For Teen on Dialysis

Are Elementary School Thanksgivings Racist Or Just Outdated?

BREAKING NEWS: Judge Overrules Ban on Gays Adopting in Florida

Juno Goes to Washington? Congress' First Unwed Mom

Kindergartners Vote An Autistic Classmate Out of the Class