Iowa Lawmakers Not Down With School Bullies

Now, for some more uplifting news: Iowa became the 30th state to pass a comprehensive anti-bully bill which asks schools to take a more proactive role in curbing school yard tyranny.

Lauding the bill, openly gay Senator Matt McCoy said:

We know that more than 45 to 50 percent of those kids that are perceived gay or are actually gay are being harassed verbally and physically… If you happen to be one in 10 — one in 10 that was born gay — your world is a completely different world and the things that you experience and the feelings that you go through on a daily basis are different than anyone else’s.

Gay or not, a fist hurts like hell.

Not all the lawmakers were so supportive, Republican Senator Nancy Boettger thinks that a bill protecting kids from discrimination based on sexual orientation, race and gender gives some kids an upper hand, so to speak: “We are not protecting all kids equally because we are giving special protection to those.” We’ve never really understood arguments like Boettger’s. It’s not as if there’s suddenly going to be some pro-gay task force out there, ensuring these kids are protected while other kids get hacked to bits or anything. What kind of monster would let one kid get beat down while helping another? If someone like that does exist, we imagine they’d let the fag get hurt and help the hetero. But, we could be wrong…