Christopher Cervantes
Crvantes.edu.@uiowa

Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, the head of the House Government Oversight Committee, has ordered an investigation into the state’s LGBT youth conference because of what he believes to be inappropriate content. The reasoning behind his suspicion is an undercover report conducted by an associate of the prominent conservative group the Family Leader.

The report contended, “It’s a conference teaching kids how to be confidently homosexual, how to pleasure their gay partners — one session even taught transsexual girls how to sew fake testicles into their underwear in order to pass themselves off as boys.”

The Family Leader is an umbrella group comprising the Family Leader Foundation, Marriage Matters, Iowa Family PAC, and Iowans for Freedom. It has an extreme anti-gay stance and was heavily involved in removing three Iowa Supreme Court justices because the court had legalized same-sex marriage in Iowa.

Kaufmann is sending two representatives to investigate these contentions, though he has said his goal is not to shut down the event. Conversely, Nate Monson, the executive director of Iowa Safe Schools, believes that Kaufmann is taking an antagonistic approach, describing his opposition as a “witch hunt.”

I’m not buying what Kaufmann is selling.

First of all, the representative is working purely on the biased reporting of a group known for opposing LGBT social progression. This is irresponsible. It’s like investigating a Hebrew youth conference because a neo-Nazi group calls its teachings “inappropriate.”

Second, Kaufmann first brought up the undercover report in November 2015. At that incident, Kerri Barnhouse, an adviser for Iowa City West High’s Gay Straight Alliance, commented that the “inappropriate” sex talk was, in fact, a discussion of sexual health and safety.  God forbid homosexual youth are allowed to learn about safe sex.

But Kaufmann has another complaint. In this undercover report he holds so dear, there are contentions that there was a speaker who pushed for LGBT students to vandalize property of those who disagree with their lifestyle.

Once again, this was taken out of context. The speaker of that segment was a comedian who was giving a standup performance. That is two claims that have been taken out of context.

I could talk more about what’s wrong with Kaufmann’s plan, how bizarre it is that the state government is investigating an event despite there being nothing illegal mentioned, and that the event is not being funded by the state. I could talk about how one of the investigators, Greg Heartsill, has been an opponent of the conference. But I shouldn’t have to, because this investigation is a farce.

Kaufmann and his anonymous source saw what they wanted to see. They saw a group of people whose lifestyle conflicted with their own set of beliefs and decided that what was being taught at the conference was wrong.

The entirety of this investigation could be summed up in three words: waste of time. The so-called allegations driving the investigation have been misinterpreted, and the extreme bias behind this situation should be a red flag. Because it is a waste of time, nothing will change, as nothing should change. Kaufmann will be disappointed to find actual work on his desk when this is all over.