To the editor:

In 2024, I spent 10 months running for the Iowa Senate. The district includes Franklin, Hamilton, Hancock, Humboldt, Wright and northern Story Counties (Roland and Story City.) It’s a big, rural district and mostly Republican. I’m a Democrat, and like a lot of Dems in 2024, I did not win.

Senator Dennis Guth was re-elected on a platform of:

1. No eminent domain for private gain;

2. Medical Freedom (freedom from vaccine requirements but zero freedom to make decisions about women’s reproductive health) and;

3. Changing the basis of our currency to one based on the price of gold and silver. The last one is definitely a federal, not a state issue, but here we are.

In his most recent column in Iowa newspapers, “The View From Here,” Guth notes that he and his wife Margaret recently returned from a trip to Israel. The bulk of his remarks were celebrating the passage of Senate File 418. The bill removes gender identity from the list of protected classes in the Iowa Civil Rights Code. Gender identity has been a protected class since added by a bipartisan vote in 2007.

Guth echoed his remarks made at Iowa Central Community College on March 1 (in Webster City) when he said perhaps it is time to “just get rid of the Civil Rights Code and go back to all people are created equal.” I will remind the Senator that in the early days of our government the only folks that were equal and able to vote were white male landowners.

On the day of the vote (February 27) there were, according to Iowa State Patrol troopers, at least 2,500 people inside the Capitol to protest the erasure of transgender individuals from the Civil Rights Code. We were the largest Capitol protest ever. The crowd included dozens of clergy and pastors, gay folks, transgender folks, allies and lots of young people. We chanted, we sang hymns, we tried to contact our senators and representatives and tell our stories. I asked the Senate pages (high school students) if I could speak with Sen. Guth. They told me he was not there. I watched from the gallery as the Senate debated SF 418. Guth was indeed present and spent the time working on his laptop and not listening to his Democratic colleagues plead their case and tell of how the bill would harm their constituents and their loved ones. It was painful to watch. After the vote, many of us sobbed in one another’s arms.

Guth described the 2,500 protesters: “The left was truly outraged by this legislation and showed up in full costume to protest loud and profanely. We had a lot of security present, and it was certainly an interesting day.”

The next time you get 2,500 people who take the time to show up at the Capitol, Senator Guth, you may want to speak with some of us. Your constituents are the good people of Iowa, even those you don’t understand or might disagree with. My transgender child already has a target on their back. Starting in July, my October can feel the impact of this cruel legislation when they apply for a loan to buy a home, when they apply for work, when they apply for a credit card.

When I became a mother for the first time 36 years ago, I learned quickly that I was capable of love beyond measure when it comes to my children. You, Sen. Guth, have harmed one of my children and a lot of other folks I care about. We will not forget or forgive.

Cynthia Oppedal Paschen

Jewell and Ames