Transgender people like my child just want to live their lives

Transgender people like my child just want to live their lives

As the parent of a transgender adult, I cannot adequately express how damaging it would be to remove gender identity as a protected party under the Civil Rights Act.

Transgender humans are experience depression, suicide and homeless much greater than most populations in the United States.

Transgender humans deserve the same civil rights. My child is not some “freak,” just someone who wants to live their authentic life, without extreme prejudice. Most transgender humans are not athletes trying to rob someone else of fair competition. They are not pedophiles or exhibitionist lurking in public restrooms to create fear. And on that topic, passing any bill that would require a person to use a restroom that “matches” their assigned gender at birth would likely create a significantly larger possibility of fear, trauma and assault.

My human does not want or seek special treatment. They just want to live peacefully, have job opportunities and housing opportunities the same as others. They want to be able to receive medical treatment appropriate for their medical and psychological needs. My child doesn’t want to fear using a public restroom either. Should my child’s rights be held of less value than any other person? And why — because others choose to be uneducated, and choose fear over education and compassion?

What a horrible look for “Iowa Nice” to be the first state ever to remove protected status from a marginalized group.Transgender people have always existed and always will exist. We need to let them exist in peace.

Teresa Rader, Jewell

Republicans know removing gender identity won’t protect anybody

I find what’s happening in our state heartbreaking. This version of Iowa’s civil rights code has been in effect for almost 20 years. And now some want to remove part of its protections.

While there may be differences in opinion, I believe we can all agree on one thing: the importance of civil rights. I’m sure there are many Republican representatives and senators here who disagree with removing my transgender friends from protection under the civil rights code, but they are afraid to speak out. We seem to be living in a time when, if you disagree with this governor or president, you will be threatened to be primaried to be removed from office. This is unacceptable.

Many of the people supporting this bill seem to want to portray all my transgender friends as sexual predators. They’re in the restroom or locker room for no good. As I think many of you know, this is a gross misrepresentation, and this legislation would do nothing to stop actual sexual predators from visiting restrooms or locker rooms. It certainly won’t protect our youth struggling to understand who they are.

I have also met a few transgender men who, if they had to use the women’s locker room or restroom, would send the women running out screaming about that man in the room, yet being born female, they are where they are told they have to be.

This proposed change is not about protecting women or our children. This will lead to real discrimination. I have friends who could be denied housing, health care, and other services simply because of who they are. This is not just a policy change; it’s a threat to the well-being of people we care about. I think many of you know this is wrong.

John Sellers, Des Moines

Food restrictions for SNAP recipients would be harmful

The Iowa legislature is about to consider a bill that could negatively affect 260,000 Iowans. House Study Bill 216 would impose sweeping restrictions on the foods that can be purchased by Iowans using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

I understand the goal behind this bill. Promoting healthier eating in Iowa is critical. However, studies have repeatedly shown that restricting the foods SNAP participants can purchase does nothing to improve diet quality.

The number one reason SNAP participants struggle to eat nutritious diets is the high cost of healthy foods. Because of this, programs that incentivize healthy eating by providing additional benefit dollars for the purchase of fresh produce like Double Up Food Bucks have been much more successful in improving diet quality.

Furthermore, implementing these food restrictions would be incredibly costly and complicated. With over 650,000 food products on the market and 20,000 new items introduced annually, monitoring compliance would be a logistical nightmare for grocery stores, potentially pushing some to opt out of the SNAP program. This could have an especially negative impact on rural SNAP users who already struggle to access full-service grocery stores.

Although this bill proposes funding for Double Up Food Bucks, it makes that funding contingent on Iowa being granted a waiver for these harmful food restrictions for SNAP. Luckily there is a bill in the Iowa Senate, Senate File 232, that would give state money to Double Up Food Bucks, without these harmful restrictions. I urge our lawmakers to support that legislation and vote no on House Study Bill 216.

Paige Chickering, West Des Moines

The primary home of obscene material is not the library

If the governor and legislators are concerned about children having access to inappropriate literature, they should be censoring the internet. Children do not read books but live on their cellphones. Are they naive enough to think that they don’t know how to access inappropriate adult sites on the web?

Teddy George, Newton

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Transgender Iowans like my child just want to live their lives | Letters