OUR VIEW: Legislature should focus on issues, not culture wars

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

55% : In 2009, our Supreme Court made us one of the first states to recognize same-sex marriage.
50% : A few weeks ago, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill removing gender identity as a protected class from Iowa's civil rights code.
48% : In the 1960s, we passed our own civil rights act -- then strengthened it in 2007 to protect Iowans based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
47% : In the 1800s, Iowa was among the first to ban school segregation, create education programs for the blind and developmentally disabled, admit a Black man to the bar, grant women the right to vote in local elections, and offer women equal access to higher education.
42% : This week, State Sen. Sandy Salmon, a Republican from Black Hawk County, introduced a resolution urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
40% : It found that state bans on same-sex marriage violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

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