LGBTQ
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New Pride mural in Des Moines to ‘roll out the welcome mat’ for LGBTQ+ community
A new mural has opened in Des Moines’ East Village to emphasize the city welcomes the LGBTQ+ community. For weeks, four corners at the intersection of Grand Avenue and East Fifth Street in Des Moines’ East Village have been turning rainbow colors. On Tuesday, just days before the beginning of Pride Month, Capital City Pride…
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22 LGBTQ+ Pride events in Iowa (3 brand new!) in 2024
June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. If you’re looking for Pride events in Iowa in 2024, here are 22 of them. The first Pride was in 1970, on the one-year commemoration of the Stonewall Uprising, which happened outside of the Stonewall Inn—a bar in New York City—on June 28, 1969. To be sure, LGBTQ+ activists had…
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Grants for Iowa LGBTQ+ businesses now open; here’s how to apply
Money is now available for LGBTQ+-owned or allied businesses in Iowa. A new grant program to support LGBTQ+ owned restaurants and bars has now opened applications to Iowa. The NGLCC (National LGBT Chamber of Commerce) Community Impact Grant Program is open until June 4, and offering more than $1 million to businesses nationwide. To be…
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Iowa joins lawsuit against feds over protections for LGBTQ students
New Title IX rules clarify that “sex discrimination” applies to discrimination based on gender identity. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and Attorney General Brenna Bird are suing the US Department of Education because of it Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Monday she was directing Attorney General Brenna Bird to sue the US Department of Education because…
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How the LGBTQ+ community benefits from birth control
For decades, birth control has been a cornerstone of freedom. And that freedom doesn’t only apply to straight, cisgender women. Max Mowitz, a gender-affirming care doula who is also training to be a birth and postpartum doula, said birth control does a number of things for LGBTQ+ populations in addition to preventing pregnancy. Dysphoria is…
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Iowa LGBTQ+ youth find community at Safe Schools conference
Being an LGBTQ+ student in Iowa right now is hard. Laws police which names and bathrooms students can use, and what words teachers can say in their classrooms. And yet, many told Starting Line their school experiences got better when they found a community of other LGBTQ+ students and places they could be themselves. A…
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7 Iowa events for Transgender Day of Visibility 2024
Transgender Iowans need joy these days. Eight separate bills have been considered in the latest session of the Iowa Legislature specifically targeting transgender youth, contributing to Iowa Republicans’ 40 anti-LGBTQ bills in total. Fearmongering legislation—like bills banning people from school bathrooms, or erasing LGBTQ history—has led to further stigmatization of the transgender community. That’s contributed…
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Senate Republicans pass bill that could allow discrimination on religious grounds
Sen. Liz Bennett (D-Cedar Rapids)—Iowa’s only out LGBTQ senator—is fed up with seeing queer Iowans continue to be attacked by her Republican colleagues. “I am sick and tired of my community being the target of mean-spirited discriminatory bills written by Republican politicians,” she said during a Tuesday Iowa Senate debate over a bill she and…
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Iowans call Reynolds’ latest anti-trans bill ‘dystopian’ and destructive
Alexandra Gray compared what is happening in Iowa to a dystopian novel during yet another hearing centered on creating new laws that specifically target trans people and pose harm to Iowans in the LGBTQ community. “What dystopian novel are we in this time because I’m finding us slipping and going backward,” she said. “At one…
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‘We will not go back’ protestors chant outside anti-LGBTQ bill hearing
About every two minutes, the crowd would roar, stomp their feet, raise their voices, ring bells, and chant at the top of their lungs: “Separate but equal, that’s really fucking evil.” “We will not go back.” “Trans rights are human rights.” “No LGB with the T.” Hundreds of Iowans gathered in the Capitol Rotunda on…
