Attack on LGBTQ+ student group enabled by Iowa’s anti-LGBTQ+ bills

Linn-Mar’s LGBTQ+ student group was attacked at the school’s homecoming parade. Here’s why the Iowa Legislature is on the hook.

What do you remember about homecoming in high school? The parade, hallway decorating, maybe ditching the dance with your friends?

For the students in Linn-Mar High School’s LGBTQ+ group Spectrum, those memories are stained with another.

The students in Spectrum—decked out in rainbows, pride flags, and colorful makeup—were walking in the homecoming parade Sept. 25 when an unknown member of the parade crowd threw an extended boxcutter at them.

A mom of one of the students in Spectrum posted about the experience on Facebook, calling it a hate crime and included a picture of the boxcutter thrown. She also said that various parade watchers yelled slurs and homophobic sentiments at the students.

Iowa Safe Schools, a local nonprofit that focuses on LGBTQ+ inclusivity in schools, posted the story on Facebook, along with a statement saying “The hostile environment surrounding LGBTQ+ youth, fostered in part by lawmakers at the Iowa State Capitol, has enabled these vile acts.”

And enable they have.

In 2024, Iowa lawmakers introduced nearly 40 anti-LGBTQ+ bills, including one to remove gender identity as a protected class under the Iowa Civil Rights Act, religious exemptions for health care providers and insurers, and “Don’t Say Trans”-style legislation. 

In 2023, the legislature passed a gender-affirming care ban, a sweeping “Don’t Say Gay”-type law that opened the door for banning books and outing students, and a bathroom bill that banned trans kids from using the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity.

And those are some of the more tame ones on the list!

Iowa Rep. Jeff Shipley once introduced a bill that said you couldn’t have a gender identity until age 18, and that in any civil rights dispute between a cisgender and transgender person, the cis person would win.

In early 2023, The Trevor Project released results from a poll about the connections between anti-LGBTQ policy and bullying. This poll found that 86% of trans and nonbinary youth say the surge in anti-trans legislation negatively impacted their mental health, and 45% of trans youth experienced cyberbullying as a result of those policies and debates.

Alongside the results of the poll, The Trevor Project’s VP of Advocacy and Government Affairs Kasey Suffredini said that LGBTQ+ youth are watching and internalizing the very public debates on their humanity, and so are those that would do their community harm. 

These last few legislative sessions in Iowa have contained some of the most public debates and resulted in some of the most harmful legislation to LGBTQ+ youth, which—as the poll revealed—can and does result in harm done to these kids. 

@iowastartingline Iowa kids deserve better. #iowa #iowanews #iowalife ♬ original sound – Iowa Starting Line