HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-07-2025 Human Rights Commission - Special Meeting - Cancelled No QuorumHuman Rights Commission
April 7, 2025
Special Meeting — 10:00 AM
Emma J. Harvat Hall, City Hall
The Human Rights Commission intends to offer the opportunity to watch the meeting
remotely. If you wish to comment on an agenda item, you must do so in person. To
view the meeting via Zoom, go to the link below.
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN 8SkkgyKgRuC9S 66mrVO3g
Visit the Zoom meeting's registration page and submit the required information. Once
approved, you will receive an email message with a link to join the meeting. If you are
asked for a meeting ID or webinar ID, enter the ID number found in the email. If you have
no computer or smartphone, or a computer without a microphone, you may call in by
telephone by dialing (312) 626-6799. When prompted, enter the meeting ID or webinar
ID. The ID number for this meeting is: 849 4168 9430.
Agenda:
Canceied due to lack of a quorum.
2. Discuss and vote on issuing a statement regarding the removal of gender
identity as a protected characteristic under the Iowa Civil Rights Act.
Only in -person comments will be allowed for public comment.
3. Adjournment
Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all City of Iowa City -
sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable
accommodation in order to participate in this meeting, please contact the Office
of Human Rights at 319-356-5022 or email humanrights(a)-iowa-
city.org. Early requests are strongly encouraged to allow sufficient time to meet
your access needs.
On Thursday, February 27, 2025, the state of Iowa took a giant leap onto the wrong side of
history by becoming the first state in the nation to remove a protected class from the state
civil rights code. At a time when discrimination and violence against our transgender
neighbors is on the rise, Republican lawmakers in Des Moines made it their priority to
enable further discrimination against a small, marginalized, and vulnerable group of our
fellow Iowans. Rather than proposing solutions to more pressing problems and trying to
improve the lives of all Iowans, Steve Holt, Pat Grassley, and the rest of Iowa Republican
legislators focused all of their time and energy in pushing this hateful legislation through in
just one week.
Human rights should be a non -partisan issue. The founding principle of our nation is that
all are created equal and are endowed with certain unalienable rights. The bill passed on
Thursday goes so far to erroneously claim that "separate is not inherently unequal." We
know this is erroneous because it is the same logic used in the infamous 1898 US Supreme
Court decision Plessyv. Ferguson, which perhaps became the most recognized mistake in
the history of US jurisprudence when it was resolutely refuted by the landmark Brown v
Board of Education. That is correct; Iowa Republicans in 2025 used the same debunked
and illegal logic from over a century ago to enshrine bigotry and discrimination into our
state code. At the beginning of last century, separate but equal remained the accepted
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history. Let us not make the same mistake again. We will not wait an entire lifetime to
refute what we knowto be patently wrong. Separate but equal is unconstitutional and un-
American.
The Iowa City Human Rights Commission condemns this legislation in the strongest
manner possible. Removing equal rights from any group of people is antithetical to the
American ideal and way of life. We are ashamed that this is the direction our legislature is
moving our state. To our transgender neighbors, friends, and family: we see you, we accept
you, and we support you. We remain committed to ensuring that Iowa City remains a
community that is open and welcoming to all. In Iowa City, be assured that our liberties we
prize and our rights we will maintain.