Engage with Iowa's past of equality for LGBT History Month

This month, like every October for the past 29 years, LGBTQ+ community members and allies alike honor and celebrate LGBT History Month. Started in 1994 by a Missouri high school teacher, LGBT History Month is a time to revisit LGBTQ+ history, educate younger generations about the past, and pay respect to the thousands of LGBTQ+ activists, both known and unknown, who gave their time, energy, and even their lives to build a more just, equal, and accepting world for generations to come.

Most of us in the legal profession are probably familiar with the Stonewall Riots, recognized as the beginning of the Gay Rights Movement. It was at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in New York City on June 28, 1969, when LGBTQ+ community members, led by drag queens and gay and transgender people of color, fought back against a police raid and declared that they would no longer quietly tolerate the police brutality, harassment, and entrapment that they suffered due solely to their sexuality and gender identities.

More: Celebrate with pride: Visit these sites where LGBTQ history was made

At the same time as that pronounced activism was happening in large cities around the country, LGBTQ+ history was also being made elsewhere, including Iowa and in the legal profession as a whole. In the decade following Stonewall, gay and lesbian rights groups exploded onto the scene and began organizing politically, with the legal profession taking a prominent role therein.

In 1972, the American Bar Association held its first forum on gay rights at its annual meeting. The forum was successful, and within the next few years the ABA publicly took positive stances and began creating committees on gay rights. The year 1972 also brought about the formation of the first gay law student associations, with more being created in the following years. While being an out, LGBTQ+ attorney was still a challenging life, the profession on a national scale was an early leader in offering acceptance and support to those members.

Locally, the 1970s saw Iowa following its tradition of extending rights to groups well before other parts of the country. In 1978, the state Legislature repealed a state law criminalizing same-sex sexual activity, well before the rest of the country followed suit as the result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Lawrence v. Texas in 2003.

The following decades continued to have Iowa at the forefront of LGBTQ+ rights. In 2003, the state began providing benefits to same-sex partners of state employees; in 2007, the state passed legislation outlawing discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity; and in April 2009, Iowa became the fourth state in the nation to recognize marriage equality. It would be another six years before the U.S. Supreme Court would declare marriage equality the law of the land in Obergefell v. Hodges.

Despite Iowa’s long history of championing equality and civil rights, recent years have seen a sharp turnabout regarding the freedom and equality of LGBTQ+ Iowans, with dozens of bills taking aim at the community being proposed each legislative session. This year alone, multiple bills passed into law targeted transgender students, banning gender-affirming care and severely limiting their ability to merely exist in school as their identified gender by requiring parental notification and permission for their use of preferred names and pronouns and non-gendered bathrooms. Bills proposed that ultimately failed to advance included banning marriage equality, removing gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act, restricting attendance at drag performances, and allowing discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals on the basis of religious and sincerely held beliefs.

The Iowa of 2023 is a very different landscape than the Iowa of a decade ago. For the LGBTQ+ community, today feels further away from the progress of twenty years ago than it does from the police raids of the Stonewall Inn.

The impact of the uncertainty faced by Iowa’s LGBTQ+ community will almost assuredly be felt across the legal profession. In a state already fighting “brain drain” and a lack of attorneys in rural areas, the attacks on LGBTQ+ rights will only further those concerns. Many attorneys in the state identify as LGBTQ+, have children or family members who are LGBTQ+, or are allies of the LGBTQ+ community for other reasons. When faced with the decision of whether to stay in Iowa to practice law, or to move out of state to protect the rights and safety of themselves or others, the choice isn’t difficult. The fact that neighboring states like Minnesota and Illinois have doubled down on protections for LGBTQ+ individuals makes the choice to leave even more feasible.

This October, as we recognize LGBT History Month, I encourage our profession to really engage. Read a book or an article, watch a documentary, or listen to a podcast about the history of LGBTQ+ rights in this country. Pay respects to the trailblazers who came before, from the drag queens and people of color at Stonewall to the Iowa legislators, attorneys and judges who championed equality in our state. And as a profession, let’s commit to going back to our roots. Let’s take a role in promoting equality and fostering acceptance for the LGBTQ+ community. It’s not only the right thing to do; the future of our profession may very well depend on it.

Emily Bartekoske (she/her/hers) is a 2009 graduate of Drake University Law School. She is a senior attorney at SouthLaw P.C. in West Des Moines, where she supervises the Iowa foreclosure department.

In addition to her practice, she is actively involved in diversity, equity and inclusion work both at her firm and within the wider legal community, frequently speaking on and writing about DEI topics.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: For LGBT History Month, engage with Iowa's past of equality