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Saturday, September 21, 2019 www.thegazette.com $2.00

HOPEFULS PLEDGE UI reopens

inquiry
LGBTQ POLICIES of abuse
against
its band
Reversal comes as Hawkeye
Marching Band members
go public with brutal details
By Vanessa Miller, The Gazette

IOWA CITY — After earlier

closing an investigation into
reports of verbal, physical and
sexual abuse directed against
the Hawkeye Marching Band
last weekend at a football
rivalry in Ames, University
of Iowa administrators an-
nounced Friday they have re-
opened their inquiry following
an outcry from band members
who went public with detailed
allegations.
“The communication on
social media made it clear we
had not shared enough in-
formation with our students
about the steps the univer-
sity has taken to address the
concerns raised by members
of our marching band,” UI
spokeswoman Jeneane Beck
told The Gazette in an email
Friday.
“Student safety is our num-
ber one priority and we are
Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette committed to ensuring a safe
People hold signs Friday along First Avenue at the LGBTQ Presidential Forum on the Coe College campus in northeast Cedar Rapids. The forum, which experience on game day for
brought together 10 Democratic presidential hopefuls, was hosted by The Gazette, The Advocate, GLAAD and One Iowa. For more photos, see page 8A and our students,” she said. “Ad-
a gallery at thegazette.com. ditionally we are continuing
our investigation to ensure all
of our students have the ability

Forum in C.R. airs Crowd welcomes to share their experiences with

the appropriate authorities.”
Deputy Athletics Director
LGBTQ discussion Barbara Burke and UI School

largely ignored issues They have their favorites but mainly

of Music Director Tammie
Walker sent a joint message
to Hawkeye Marching Band
members Friday afternoon
White House hopefuls stress damage President Trump has glad to have issues addressed expressing “unconditional
done by revoking the executive support” following a “difficult”
ties with LGBTQ voters orders” of the Obama adminis- By Molly Duffy and Grace King, The Gazette week.
tration, former Vice President And they said UI President
By James Q. Lynch and Rod Boshart, Joe Biden said at an LGBTQ CEDAR RAPIDS — The audience at Bruce Harreld, Iowa State
Gazette Des Moines Bureau Presidential Forum held in Cedar the LGBTQ Forum on Friday was eager University President Wendy
Rapids. to hear 10 presidential candidates answer Wintersteen and University of
Though there have been nu- questions on violence against trans wom- Northern Iowa President Mark
CEDAR RAPIDS — Ten Demo- merous group gatherings of en, the military ban on trans soldiers Nook are “each committed to
cratic presidential hopefuls prom- Democratic candidates, this one and youth conversion therapy — issues discussing and adopting a uni-
ised Friday to reverse policies of was significant as the “first ever many said have been ignored during the form safety protocol prior to
the Trump administration they presidential forum focused spe- debates so far. next season.”
said discriminate against LGBTQ cifically on LGBTQ issues in the “It’s been such a painful two years, The message came after
people and to instead support Heartland, and the largest num- with ongoing destruction toward our The Gazette and other media
policies to protect them on the ber of presidential candidates to lives,” said Denise Hagerla, 47, of John- reported accounts from band
job, in the military, housing and ever gather and speak directly ston, who identifies as lesbian and gender members that they experi-
health care. enced racial slurs, verbal and
“No. 1, I would undo all the ;; FORUM, PAGE 9A ;; LGBTQ, PAGE 9A physical sexual harassment
and assault, shoves that sent
one woman to the hospital, and
thrown objects leaving lasting
bruises during last weekend’s
Cy-Hawk rivalry.
“It got really bad,” said
Paige Pearson, 20, a UI junior
who has played trumpet in the
band for three years and was
in the thick of it during the
Sept. 14 rain-delayed football
game at ISU.
“It was the fans,” Pearson
told The Gazette in an inter-
view. “The Iowa State band
has been nothing but kind.
They’ve reached out to us and
said sorry this happened. It
was not even the students, but
adult fans.”
The specific accounts from
band members come in stark
Saturday contrast to generalized state-
ments about bad fan behavior
Liz Martin photos/The Gazette from the universities’ athletic
ABOVE: Audience members applaud Angelica Ross during the LGBTQ Presidential Forum on directors, and to assurances
Friday in Cedar Rapids. LEFT: Karamo Brown laughs as he dances with Angelica Ross on stage. ;; BAND, PAGE 11A
© 2019 The Gazette

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© 2019 The Gazette
• COMICS��������������������������������������� 14A • LIVING������������������������������������������� 7B • RIVER LEVELS����������������������������� 13B • WEATHER������������������������������������ 13B

Forum/‘This means a lot to us’
;; FROM PAGE 1A
to LGBTQ people,” said One
Iowa Executive Director Dan
Royer. One Iowa, The Gazette,
The Advocate and GLAAD
sponsored the forum at Coe
College that attracted some
750 people, as well as people
around the nation watching
the livestream online.
All the Democratic candi-
dates actively campaigning in
Iowa were invited to attend;
10 did.
The last presidential candi-
date forum to address lesbian,
gay, bisexual, transgender and
queer issues was in 2008, said
Drew Anderson of GLAAD,
and those issues received little
attention in 2016.
“So this means a lot to us,”
he said.
It was an important op-
portunity for the candidates
to make their case directly to
some of the 87,000, or 4 per-
cent, of Iowa voters who iden-
tify as LGBTQ, according to
the Human Rights Campaign.
There’s also 449,000, or 23
percent, who are equality vot-
ers — LGBTQ people and their
friends, family and allies.
“I imagine all of these can-
didates on stage tonight would
love to have those 87,000 peo-
ple caucusing for them,” said
Zeke Stokes, chief programs
officer for GLAAD, the world’s
largest LGBTQ media advo-
cacy organization.
However, he doesn’t think
LGBTQ people have aligned
behind any one candidate.
“I think it’s very much up
for grabs,” Stokes said.
The candidates sounded
similar themes in promising
to undo many of President
Donald Trump’s policies, work
with Congress to pass the
Equality Act and take action
to protect transgender Ameri-
cans, especially trans women
who have been the victims
of fatal violence 18 times this
year.
Although they were asked
about their policies going for-
ward, many of the candidates
said their records should in-
form LGBTQ voters.
Stokes wasn’t sure that
would be enough to win their
support.
LGBTQ people are not look-
ing for a “casual ally,” he said.
“I think our community is
looking to hear what are you
going to do to reverse the trav-
esty of this Trump record and
what’s your plan to get us to
full equality and acceptance,”
he said.
However, Republican
National Committee spokes-
woman Preya Samsundar
defended her party’s record of
accomplishment.
“We continue to support
and welcome all members of
the LGBTQ community to the
Republican Party,” she said.
In some cases, candidates
had to defend their records.
Biden was grilled about his
past support of the Defense of
Marriage Act and the “Don’t
Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. He lat-
er supported repealing those
LGBTQ/Crowd hears from 10 candidates in C.R.
;; FROM PAGE 1A
non-conforming. “I was very
excited to hear everybody’s
clear and coherent message on said Janes. She left the forum
what they would do.”
The LGBTQ Forum, or-
ganized by The Gazette with
One Iowa, The Advocate, and
GLAAD and held at Sinclair
Auditorium on the Coe Col-
lege campus, was the first in
the 2020 campaign season on
key issues for lesbian, gay, bi- more factors that play into
sexual, transgender and queer this than just the fact that
Americans.
Pete Buttigieg, the first
openly gay presidential
candidate and the mayor of
South Bend, Ind., arrived on
a stage to a standing ovation
from the audience of 700, and
was a welcome presence on
stage to many potential Iowa
caucusgoers.
“He was able to speak
from a perspective of my
community,” University
of Northern Iowa student
Megan Janes, 19, said. “That’s from Iowa City. “You could
really refreshing to see that,
Pete Buttigieg speaks Friday at an LGBTQ Presidential Forum in the Sinclair Auditorium on the Coe College campus in
Cedar Rapids. The South Bend, Ind., mayor is the only openly gay candidate from a major party running for president.
Elizabeth Warren greets the audience Friday while being introduced by Lyz Lenz,
columnist for The Gazette, during the LGBTQ Presidential Forum in Cedar Rapids.
She read the names of 18 trans women of color who have been killed this year.
policies.
He expressed pride in his
record of being one of the first
people on the national stage to
come out in support of same-
sex marriage. Biden related a
story from when he was a high
school student and saw two
men kiss.
“It’s simple,” Biden said his
father told him. “They love
each other.”
“I didn’t have to go through
a period of adjustment,” he
said. “I came out in support of
gay marriage before anybody
else did nationally.”
New Jersey U.S. Sen. Cory
Booker and California U.S.
Sen. Kamala Harris reminded
the audience they were per-
forming same-sex marriages
before the U.S. Supreme Court
overturned laws banning
them.
Booker raised the Pride flag
over the Newark City Hall in
2006 “before a lot of people
evolved,” he said. LGBTQ
rights have been “an urgent
part of my life for my entire
career.”
Booker talked about patrio-
tism as love of country, “but
you cannot love your country
especially from a presidential
candidate.”
But Buttigieg has far from
sewn up the LGBTQ vote,
impressed by the mayor but
more so by Massachusetts
Sen. Elizabeth Warren and
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker.
“To think Buttigieg is the
best candidate for the LGBTQ
community is tokenism,”
Janes said. “There are a lot
he’s a part of the LGBTQ
community.”
Warren, who also was wel-
comed by the rowdy crowd,
won many over by naming the
18 trans women of color who
have been killed in the United
States this year.
“We saw all these candi-
dates scrambling for time, but
she decided to devote upward
of a minute of her 3-minute
opening to name names,” said
Kevo Rivera, a 29-year-old
tell she felt moved by just
Liz Martin/The Gazette
if you don’t love all your coun-
trymen and country women,”
he said.
Harris encouraged people to
look at her record on LGBTQ
issues.
“This is not new to me,” the
former attorney general said.
“When some Democrats
were talking about civil
unions, I was performing
same-sex marriages,” Harris
said.
South Bend, Ind., Mayor
Pete Buttigieg, who is openly
gay, was introduced as “a
member of our community.”
He promised to be a presi-
dent who, based on his own
experience, “understands that
all politics is personal.” He
would use his authority to ap-
point an administration and
judiciary “that understands
that American freedom means
you can be who you are and
love who you love.”
A veteran, Buttigieg noted
it is the eighth anniversary
of the end of the “Don’t Ask,
Don’t Tell” policy that allowed
gays and lesbians to serve in
the military as long as they
kept their sexual identity a
secret.
Members of the audience listen Friday as Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of
GLAAD, speaks during the LGBTQ Presidential Forum at Coe College.
saying all those names. It felt
human to me, and I didn’t re-
ally see that from a lot of other still is a tendency to “duck
candidates.”
Aime Wichtendahl, a trans
woman and Hiawatha City
Council member, said she, too, ston, who felt the senator was about how candidates plan to
was impressed by Warren’s
Saturday, September 21, 2019
Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette
Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette
Joe Biden speaks Friday at an LGBTQ
Presidential Forum in the Sinclair Au-
ditorium on the Coe College campus
in Cedar Rapids. He noted he “came
out in support of gay marriage before
anybody else did nationally.”
“I remember the weight
that was lifted” when the poli-
cy was repealed, he said.
Buttigieg also promised to
work to overturn religious
exemptions laws, including
Iowa’s, which he said allow
discrimination against LGBTQ
people.
Those laws are “abusive
toward not only LGBTQ
people, but abusive toward
faith,” Buttigieg said. “Faith is
supposed to be about making
people whole. When used as
an excuse to harm someone, it
is an insult to religion itself.”
Hawaii U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gab-
bard, a National Guard mem-
ber who served in the Iraq
War, said Trump has sought to
divide the nation with wedge
issues like banning trans-
gender people from military
service.
She served alongside mem-
bers of the LGBTQ community
“and I knew they would give
their life for me and I would
give my life for them.”
Minnesota U.S. Sen. Amy
Klobuchar talked about her
record as a county attorney
Liz Martin/The Gazette tonight.”
decision.
Wichtendahl, 39, said there
away” from LGBTQ issues.
Booker’s time on stage was “But I wanted less examina-
striking, said Hagerla, of John- tion of past records and more
well-versed on issues in her
● The Gazette 9A
prosecuting hate crimes.
She promised to get the
Equality Act passed in the first
year of her presidency and to
appoint a secretary of educa-
tion who would protect the
rights of transgender students
to stop bullying, eliminate
conversion therapy and invest
in mental health to include
serving LGBTQ people.
America is a “country of
shared dreams,” she said.
“No matter who you love, you
should be able to do what you
want and achieve the things
you want to achieve.”
Massachusetts U.S. Sen.
Elizabeth Warren began
by reading a list of 18 trans
women of color who have been
killed so far this year.
“Equality is far off for many
people in this country,” she
said. “The cost of inequal-
ity for trans people has now
reached a moment of crisis.”
Trump’s strategy is to
turn Americans against one
another so that “as long as
people are turned against one
another, perhaps they won’t
notice he and corrupt buddies
robbing the country of wealth
and dignity.”
Former U.S. Housing and
Urban Development Secretary
Julian Castro would seek to
change the status quo by maxi-
mizing executive authority. He
promised to appoint a Cabinet
that looks like America and
reflects its diversity, including
the LGBTQ community.
Castro said he would over-
turn the religious exemptions
that “license discrimination”
in health care, housing, adop-
tion and the military.
“There should be no second-
class citizens,” he said. “Un-
fortunately, that’s not true for
the LGBTQ community.”
Castro also promised to
appoint a task force to inves-
tigate deaths of transgender
women.
Then he would work with
Congress to pass the Equality
Act “so you can’t be discrimi-
nated against when you go
look for a job or a house.”
LGBTQ people should have
equal rights “because we’re all
Americans,” author-lecturer
Marianne Williamson said.
There’s something dark go-
ing on that she described as
a battle between the forces of
exclusion versus inclusion.
“Some of us just think this
whole diversity thing is so
fabulous,” she said. “Some
people find that entire idea
psychically annihilating to
their identity.”
Retired admiral Joe Sestak
noted he was elected to the
U.S. House with a 95 percent
rating from the Human Rights
Campaign.
He said the military wants
the best people regardless
of their sexual identity, and
said he would repeal the ban
on transgender soldiers and
sailors. That same philosophy
should apply across society,
he said.
Comments: (319) 398-8375;
james.lynch@thegazette.com
community.
“He wasn’t stumped at all,”
she said. “You know, ‘LGBTQ’
just flies off his tongue like he
says it all the time.”
Former Vice President
Joe Biden, who had a tense
exchange with moderator and
Gazette columnist Lyz Lenz,
was a disappointment to some,
including Janes, the UNI
student.
“I don’t know what I expect-
ed,” she said. “ … I feel like if
he really cared about issues
in our community, he would
have done his research about
how to address the LGBTQ
community. He didn’t do that
Andrew Lenz, though,
said he thought the questions
about candidates’ decades-old
statements were unfair.
© 2019 The Gazette
“Bringing those things to
light is important,” said Lenz,
38, of Golden Valley, Minn.
effect change.”