I was reminded not too long ago that good people voted for our current president and his standards.

The message came from a social media acquaintance who called me out for my morality.

The irony of this is that anyone who has known me long enough knows very well that I am far from perfect. My life, as I see it, has been a journey towards becoming a better person.

In my heart, I always thought that was the intention of the path.

FYI: I apply that to the actions of others, especially our public representatives.

Which leaves me disappointed.

In Iowa right now, it feels like the mean kids are throwing a public party and have publicly excluded a portion of our population.

Sen. Dennis Guth, this district’s voice in the Iowa Senate, explained to me on Saturday what the law passed by both houses late last week and then immediately signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds really means.

It means, he said, that a boy who was born a boy but who now identifies as a girl – that is, in today’s vernacular transgender – can’t shower in a girls’ locker room. If he/she tries, he/she can be removed.

The Senator left open how that would happen.

He explained that this was for the safety of the girls.

Earlier that morning, during the Legislative Forum that the Daily Freeman-Journal co-hosted with the Webster City Area Chamber of Commerce and Iowa Central, the issue of the recent law was discussed and there was vocal outrage from people seated in the room. As was acknowledged, hundreds of people opposing the law before it was passed crowded the Capitol to make their numbers known.

Then they were shown the door because they were not invited to the party.

Seated next to me at Saturday’s forum was one of them: Cynthia Oppedahl Paschen. She was Guth’s opponent in the last election, but, more importantly, she is the mother of a transgender child.

Imagine being the parent of a child you love with all your heart, knowing that they are not invited, not allowed to use the facilities where they need to, and, one day in Iowa, could be denied a job or housing because one of the mean kids has decided you don’t belong.

Your heart would break for them.

That’s how love works.

There is no love in this new law. If there was, we would feel it.

Do we need it? In my opinion, no. I have never felt in danger in the presence of someone who identifies as transgender. Instead, what I have felt is their great vulnerability.

Folks, we shouldn’t pick on the vulnerable.

But in Iowa, we have chosen to.

That choice was, by the way, made by people who identify as good people.

Jane Curtis is editor of the Daily Freeman-Journal. She is a 2024 Iowa Newspaper Association Master Columnist.