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Gay Marriage Foe Challenges Iowa Campground Policy


IOWA STATE CAPITOL BUILDING X390 (CITY-DATA.COM) | ADVOCATE.COM

An Iowa state senator opposed to same-sex marriage wants to challenge a change in state parks policy that would extend family camping privileges to married gay couples.

Sen. Merlin Bartz has previously called for county recorders to defy last year’s state supreme court ruling and deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Now the Republican from Grafton wants to question a state parks proposal that would include gay families in guidelines that allow families to pitch more than one tent on a campsite.

According to Radio Iowa, “The rates or fees for camp sites are the same, whether you’re a family or a non-family, but the state allows families to put up more than one tent on a camp site. ‘They’re changing their language even though the state legislature has not had a debate on this particular issue,’ Bartz says.

“Bartz is a member of the Legislature’s Administrative Rules Review Committee which meets on Monday. He’s asked [Department of Natural Resources] officials to explain their proposal at that meeting. Bartz says he wants to be ‘vigilant’ and keep state agencies from writing rules that extend new benefits to gay couples. ‘A lot of the advocates of gay marriage in Iowa have said, ‘It doesn’t affect anything. Nothing has changed,’ Bartz says. ‘The reality of it is that everything is changing.’”

The committee will consider the proposed rule Monday, but a vote on the final draft will not take place until later this summer. The committee could choose to delay a decision until 2011 so the full legislature can consider the proposal, reports Radio Iowa.

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Reader Comments
  • Name: caseyvt
    Date posted: 5/10/2010 2:16:22 PM
    Hometown: S. Royalton

    Comment:

    Just when you think you're reading The Onion, you're not! I've had great success yesterday and today discussing this with sane straight people. They really have no idea how implacable the anti-gay crowd is, and this is a delightfully insane example of why we need their help. Spread the word, my dears!

  • Name: Thad
    Date posted: 5/9/2010 6:20:52 PM
    Hometown: SF

    Comment:

    First the gays are putting up tents in a rented campsite, the next we're raping your children. It's a slipperly slope.

  • Name: Brad Bailey
    Date posted: 5/9/2010 5:14:28 PM
    Hometown: Fayetteville, AR

    Comment:

    The Religious Right has had a comprehensive nationwide strategy in place for decades to stop gay civil rights dead in its tracks. It gets its leaders elected at all levels of government, from the smallest of grassroots communities to state government to the highest echelons of the fed, i.e. C Street and its annual Prayer Breakfasts. That LGBT people have come this far despite such well-organized resistance is nothing short of a miracle.

  • Name: Tod
    Date posted: 5/9/2010 12:50:25 AM
    Hometown: West Hollywood

    Comment:

    [continuing from last post] Oh, perhaps it's their definition of what is considered a "family." I wonder, if a straight couple that is not married but has children are they allowed the "family" benefit? I'm not sure why the need the law in the first place.

  • Name: Tod
    Date posted: 5/9/2010 12:45:49 AM
    Hometown: West Hollywood

    Comment:

    If married couples are allowed the benefit then why would they have to change anything? Opposite-gender or same-gender married is married, and they may have children. There's no need to change anything, not even the language describing the benefit since "married" covers everyone who is, well, married.

  • Name: lizzie the lizard
    Date posted: 5/8/2010 9:13:57 PM
    Hometown: miami

    Comment:

    ‘A lot of the advocates of gay marriage in Iowa have said, ‘It doesn’t affect anything. Nothing has changed,’ Bartz says. ‘The reality of it is that everything is changing.’” That's right Bartz, the whole world is changing except the bigots of the radical right, and they'd like to change too, but by going backwards. Well, that's not going to happen, sir, so get over it. We're queer and we're here! ---- Ladies, we're going camping; get the tents, pack your gear, and don't forget the strap-on dildos!

  • Name: Gene
    Date posted: 5/8/2010 8:30:48 PM
    Hometown: Allentown

    Comment:

    Doesn't this guy remember Barbara Bush's speech at the 1992 Republican National Convention in Houston? "However you define family, that's what we mean by family values." See Mr. Bartz, you don't have to trouble yourself with all that hard work of thinking and all. People are capable of forming and running families on their own without your inept interference. A true conservative keeps the government from encroaching on the personal decisions of others. See how that works? Now just go sit down.

  • Name: Michael Gemmell
    Date posted: 5/8/2010 1:35:58 PM
    Hometown: Lakeport CA

    Comment:

    I searched this senator's name on the Des Moines Register, very much the paper of record for Iowa and politics there, and there is no mention of this. I suspect the DMR considers this just political grandstanding not worthy of coverage. Read the DMR, and you will see MOST Iowans consider the issue settled.

  • Name: James
    Date posted: 5/8/2010 12:44:41 PM
    Hometown: Burlington

    Comment:

    Fortunately, Senator Bartz is in the Republican minority in the legislature, which is out-of-session, anyway. His influence is limited to his own party caucus. He is not respected in the legislature, or the state as a whole. The only reason he gets re-elected is that he runs from a safe district for conservative Republicans.

  • Name: JR
    Date posted: 5/8/2010 11:50:26 AM
    Hometown: Dallas, TX

    Comment:

    I'm sure the state of Iowa has more pressing issues than the number of tents being pitched in a campground. This guy really needs a swift kick in the butt, and just get over it already !!

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