Tag Archives: iowa

Shameless: Conservatives Panic Over “Transgender Hillbillies”

Transwomens Land Army
…and lesbian farmers, of course.

Really, the jokes just write themselves, as we learn from Media Matters of conservative angst over the The Iowa LGBT Rural Summit, which was held on August 18. The purpose of the summit is to elevate voices in rural LGBT communities and share information for politics, programs, and services to protect and strengthen them. This innovative program was quickly viewed as a plot to infiltrate the heartlands with “radical LGBT propaganda,” for evil purposes of course. For example, according to the Washington Free Beacon,

“The all-day summit will teach lesbian and transgender hillbillies how to get subsidies from the government like rural housing loans and “community facility grants.” Bullying will also be discussed.”

Noted transphobe, homophobe…shoot, is there anyone this guy likes?…Rush Limbaugh weighed in on this issue, braying on his August 17th show:

Have you heard the latest Democrat scam? Have you heard about the Agriculture Department’s financial grants to lesbian farmers? You think I’m making this up?


I’m like you; I never before in my life knew that lesbians wanted to be farmers. I never knew that lesbians wanted to get behind the horse and the plow and start burrowing[sic]. I never knew it. But apparently enough money can make make it happen, and the objective here is to attack — they’re already attacking suburbs, and that has been made perfectly clear by what happened in Milwaukee. And they’re going after every geographic region that is known to be largely conservative. They never stop, folks. They are constantly on the march.

While most of the criticism in the right-wing media focuses on lesbians, there is plenty of fear and loathing over the slow realization that transgender people not only exist, but yes, sometimes we do actually farm.

The Unwanted Bride – The Murder of Terri Williams Moore

Williams_Terri_1976_01

Newton, Iowa. May 20, 1976

Just after dawn along Interstate 80, a passing motorist spotted something which made him pull over – the figure of a person, laying on the shoulder just a couple of feet from the pavement. He got out of his car for a closer look, and saw a still form, covered by a blue blanket and pillow. A small shaggy black dog stood watch silently by the figure.

Thus begins the story of the murder of Terri Williams Moore, a transsexual woman who was murdered in cold blood by her husband in what was likely an early case of “transsexual panic.” I’ve purchased an original article on her murder and the aftermath, and conducted a small amount of research to tell the story of a sister from not-so-long ago, who went through so many trials, and yet died trying to do nothing more than live an authentic life. You can read my write-up, and download the original article from 1976, at the link below.

The Unwanted Bride

Iowa – Emerging Battleground for Transgender Rights

Desmoines
This is a lengthy and well-written article about the latest battles over Trans Toilet Terror in Iowa, as a minority of persons attempt to prevent transgender women from using the bathroom in accordance with their gender expression. The primary arguments concern the interpretations of the Iowa Civil Rights Act, with some transwomen winning in court, others losing. Recall if you will that this is a state which recently crowned a transgender homecoming queen at UNI, so awareness is certainly growing among Iowans.

There are a few case histories of discrimination on and linked to the page which could be worth reading. As always on newspaper websites, don’t read the comments unless you’re a glutton for punishment.

Transgender rights: Restroom battles emerge | The Des Moines Register | desmoinesregister.com.

Settlement Reached in Transgender Bathroom Case

Finally! It’s so rare when a transperson wins a discrimination case against law enforcement, in part because juries are cowed into assuming that everything the police say is the gospel truth. In this case, Iowa woman Jodie Jones wins money and gets an agreement that the sheriff’s department will receive training on how to deal with transpeople.

Settlement reached in transgender bathroom case | The Des Moines Register | desmoinesregister.com.