Iowa Lawmaker: Gay Families Shouldn't Go Camping

[NorthCarolina]

Iowa Lawmaker Says Gay Families Shouldn't Go Camping

by Michael A. Jones

There's a lawmaker in Iowa who has a problem with gay people pitching a tent. And no, we don't mean it in that way, but in the camping way. Smores. Fishing. Fires. Mosquito repellent.

Apparently those items are solely the domain of straight folks, and specifically straight families, according to Iowa State Senator Merlin Bartz. Senator Bartz is crying foul because, now that Iowa recognizes same-sex marriage, he's worried that his state's Department of Natural Resources is going to allow married gay couples and their children access to family camping grounds in state parks.

For Bartz, the idea of two moms or two dads roasting marshmallows next to straight people is exactly the type of horror that he was afraid of when the Iowa State Supreme Court legalized gay marriage last year.

"A lot of the advocates of gay marriage in Iowa have said, ‘It doesn’t affect anything. Nothing has changed,'" Bartz told Radio Iowa. "The reality of it is that everything is changing."

---snip---

Senator Bartz's comments would be ridiculous, outside of the fact that this dude actually wields some sort of power as a member of the Iowa General Assembly's Administrative Rules Review Committee. Now that sounds like potentially the most boring committee on the face of the planet, tasked with reviewing reams of organizational bylaws and policies that would make Going Rogue look like a thrilling John Grisham novel.

But alas, dull as the committee's responsibilities might sound, they're pretty important. In this case, it's this committee that will determine whether Iowa's Department of Natural Resources can change camping rules in the state park system to allow LGBT families access to specific family-area campgrounds.
---

Link: http://gayrights.change.org/blog/view/iowa_lawmaker_says_gay_families_shouldnt_go_camping

[cali]

1. No Onion piece

will ever top this. Alas.

[ohheckyeah]

2. Gay couples didn't go camping until they got married?

Is there something about marriage that compels one to pitch a tent?

Bartz is an idiot.

[Old Troop]

28. I believe it's the lack of money to stay in a nice hotel...

[liberal N proud]

3. Did you find that in the Weird News or the WTF File?

:wtf: :crazy: :shrug:

[NorthCarolina]

7. A friend emailed the link to me. n/t

[Rex]

4. What a discriminating piece of shit, I wouldn't waste my spit to put

him out if he was aflame. Bartz is the type that looks under his kid's bed for homosexuals before they go to sleep at night. Sad. Pathetic. Wrong.

[loudsue]

15. Prolly boinking a male prostitute, while he's looking under his kid's bed

for homosexuals. It's the republican way.

[geardaddy]

5. Bartz is worried that he'll pitch a tent

if he sees gays camping next to him.

[Touchdown]

6. Do bears shit in the woods?

You left that one wide open for me!:rofl:

[NorthCarolina]

8. That would be primitive camping.

[Dappleganger]

9. Yes, everything is changing!

There's no more room for bigots, that's what's changing!

[haele]

10. How can you tell if it's a gay family or a "girl's or boy's" weekend out with the kids?

My dad used to talk about going camping with his brother, his uncle, and a couple other of his friends along with another friend's father out to the San Gabriels or out in Death Valley for a weekend.
I'm sure that even in Iowa, single parents might pool together to take their families out for a weekend over the summer or the holidays, or even married parents might split off so the moms or the dads could have a quiet time for themselves. And horrors, the adults might share an enclosed tent at night while the kids share their own for their own little "adventure time".
Do they ask if the adults are married at the family areas, or do they just count adults and kids per space?

Silly Senator. The "Gay" isn't contageous.
And if you're worried about inappropriate adult behaviour in public or around kids, then it doesn't matter if it's a gay couple or a straight couple, right? Or is it only okay for "Mom and Dad" - or a hetero couple playing house to start groping and tickling tonsils; getting hot and kinky with between the thongs at the kiddy pool in front of Gawd and everyone at high noon on a nice Saturday?

Haele

[Touchdown]

27. Gay families have sunscreen and Subarus.

Instead of coloring books in the back seat, gay family's kids have coloring books on the back deck. They're easy to spot.:crazy:

[myrna minx]

11. Gay marriage leads to camping?

:rofl:

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

14. Well, yeah and after that

Where else will it lead?

Why, they may want to take their family to the beach for a day, or to the movies. Maybe they are in that boat right exactly next to where you are fishing!

Oh NOES!

[Echo In Light]

12. How do the fascists plan on enforcing this bullshit?

[Old Troop]

29. I'm sure the honorable senator will require a demonstration, then

another and another until he's sure

[tomm2thumbs]

13. this man watched Deliverance WAAAAYYY too many times...

and actually, it makes me wonder why tsk tsk tsk, not another one!!!

rentboy.com is gonna have to open another site JUST for closeted politicians!

[KamaAina]

23. He needs to go rent Brokeback Mountain instead

:eyes:

[RaleighNCDUer]

16. Well, there's a simple solution to that - just sent the gay families down to the gay campground.

It's down to the left, just past the Negro campground and the Jew campground.

[movonne]

17. This is as stupid as it gets..how about murders and the kkk camping

in campgrounds???
Some of the people that are running our government should be in a mental institution..

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

18. But it's OK to carry a gun in the state parks... nt

:eyes:

[Solly Mack]

19. and once we allow them to go camping as a family, they'll want to go out to eat as a family

and they'll go shopping as a family, and they'll go on vacations as a family and this will be the end of the family!

Idiot.

[fishwax]

20. what an idiot

:puke:

[sinkingfeeling]

21. Oh boo-hoo. '....everything is changing'. Grow up and become a man!

[Sabriel]

22. Now they're pushing their gay camping agenda on us

What's next? A gay movie-going agenda?

(Why can't these lawmakers stick to producing equitable, useful laws and stop wasting their time on other people's personal lives?)

[bullwinkle428]

24. UPDATE : Bartz had his ass handed to him in Senate debate yesterday!!

:woohoo:

http://www.muscatinejournal.com/news/state-and-regional/iowa/article_feddf7ca-5b37-5975-9336-ab4e102e0e8a.html

[NutmegYankee]

31. Funny error in the article...

"Department of Natural Resources officials said they are only trying to comply with state law. The current policy was approved before heterosexual couples could marry in Iowa."

Snark!

[Mojeoux]

32. Gay Camping is my town's "bread n' butter"!!!

DU, Can I say that we here in Sonoma County Ca. are super-gay friendly and proud of it!?


We welcome all gay couples, families and gay-friendly peeps.
Come camp and canoe and kayak and have fun!!


:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[UndertheOcean]

25. Mr. Bartz , eat shit and die you fossil n/t

[greencharlie]

26. disgusting bigots, myofb! nt

[SalmonChantedEvening]

30. I'm amazed he said marshmallows and not weenies.

The Very Stupid haven't been wise with their choice of words lately.