Iowa
A transgender woman is in jail after a Des Moines hotel called the police alleging that Meagan Taylor and her friend were prostitutes, the Des Moines Register reports:

The West Des Moines Police report said they were notified about “two males dressed as females who checked into the Drury Inn,” and that “staff was worried about possible prostitution activity.” So an officer went to their hotel room, and though no prostitution was noted, Taylor gave a fake name with a Missouri ID. The officer also found prescription drugs he identified as spironolactone hydrochloride (they’re listed as diuretics) in an unmarked bottle in her purse. Taylor says they’re part of her hormone treatments, but she was charged with possession of prescription drugs without a prescription.

She said she gave a made-up name but it’s unclear why she had the Missouri license, or why that led to a charge of “malicious prosecution,” an aggravated misdemeanor. Then the officer ran a check and found Taylor had an outstanding probation violation from Illinois, related to a 2010 conviction for credit card fraud. She says she did her time for that — she was 17 — but still owes $500 in fines.

“It seemed like they were trying to find something to charge me with,” Taylor said in a jail interview Thursday. “I lied about my name (but) I was not doing any illegal activity. The lady called police because I was transgender and was with a transgender friend.”

Taylor’s incarceration has sparked protest around the country, including from a Lutheran minister, the Register notes:

Megan Rohrer, a transgender Lutheran minister who was born and raised in South Dakota, set out to raise $2,000 to post bail for Meagan Taylor. (Taylor is not her legal name, but is the name she uses.)

Area residents are also showing support for Taylor as a group of nearly 20 staged a protest outside the Drury Inn on Saturday.

“We are looking to hold the hotel and the police accountable for what they did,” said Kaija Carter, one of the organizers of the protest. “Things like this happen in Des Moines, they happen in West Des Moines, and they need to come to an abrupt stop.”

The fundraising effort for Taylor can be found at Welcome Ministry.

Meanwhile, the religious right continues to court Republicans, and the Republicans continue to court the religious right. Ten Republican candidates for president gathered at the Family Leader, Iowa’s anti-LGBT group.

Media Matters put together a fact-sheet for the press about the anti-LGBT efforts of those attending:

Journalists planning to cover the upcoming Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa should be aware of the extreme anti-gay rhetoric regularly voiced by several of the event’s sponsors and speakers, including host Bob Vander Plaats, president and CEO of The Family Leader and one of the most influential conservative activists in Iowa. Attendees will also hear from Tony Perkins, the head of the anti-gay hate group Family Research Council and Brian Brown, the head of the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage, among others.

Meanwhile anti-LGBT Iowa radio host Steve Deace along with Florida religious right leader John Stemberger claimed that marriage equality is a ploy by liberals to expand the welfare state, Right Wing Watch reports:

This is all what liberals want, he told Deace: “The left feeds on broken marriages and broken families. When families are strong, when there’s an economic system there, they start to understand the implications of taxes and all the economic implications of actually work and reward.”
This prompted Deace to share his theory that the sexual revolution was an outgrowth of the welfare state because before the expansion of the social safety net, most people were too poor to “act out immorally” by having “multiple wives” and “gay lovers” since “no one was subsidizing [their] depravity.”

“We have that today, which is why the sexual revolution came after the welfare state, because once it was obvious that people were not going to be held directly accountable for their actions, we removed the inhibitions against human nature that we already had,” he explained.

Another right wing radio host is planning a conference for Republican presidential contenders, and he’s suggested that LGBT people should be put to death. Ben Carson and Bobby Jindal have apparently already signed up to attend, Right Wing Watch reports.

Iowa is being recognized as a leader in anti-bullying policies, the Des Moines Register reports:

Iowa is a national leader in including sexual orientation and gender identity in school anti-bullying policies, according to a national report released Wednesday.
The report, released Wednesday by the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, analyzed more than 13,000 school district policies nationwide, as well as state laws, to determine how much protection is given to students.
But because the policies were largely collected between 2009 and 2011 — and are at least four years old — practically all Iowa school bullying policies should have LGBT protections by now.

Wisconsin
The Kenosha Pride March was held on Saturday, the Wisconsin Gazette reports:

Chairperson Dan Seaver said the march’s intent is to show that Kenosha, which is often overshadowed by Milwaukee and Chicago, has a distinct LGBT community.
“I’ll never forget the first year, we were approached by an elderly woman who supported the march, who commented, ‘I never thought I’d see something like this in Kenosha,’” Seaver said.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is in hot water for statement’s he’s made over the last week about LGBT issues and his presidential campaign.

Walker drew jeers from activists and the press after be was asked about the Boy Scouts allowing gay, lesbian, and bisexual troop leaders by the Independent Journal Review: “I was an Eagle Scout, my kids have been involved, Tonette (Walker) was a den mother….I have had a lifelong commitment to the Scouts and support the previous membership policy because it protected children and advanced Scout values.”

That statement was seen as many to suggest that children needed protecting from LGBT people, including HRC:

“Scott Walker’s suggestion that the Boy Scouts of America’s current discriminatory policy somehow ‘protects’ children from gay adults is offensive, outrageous, and absolutely unacceptable,” said HRC president Chad Griffin in a statement. “His comments imply that we represent a threat to the safety and well-being of young people. For a sitting governor and presidential candidate to make such a disgraceful claim is unconscionable. If Scott Walker is trying to get his merit badge in being shamefully irresponsible, he just earned it with flying colors.”

Walker tried to walk back from his statement at an event last Wednesday, Madison.com reports:

“When asked about gay leaders in the Boy Scouts, Scott Walker repeatedly tells reporters that it’s a decision best left to the Boy Scouts,” the Washington Post’s Jenna Johnson tweeted from a Walker event in South Carolina.
“.@ScottWalker asked about #boyscouts comments, says “I’m not running to be president of the Boy Scouts… Those decisions are left to them,” WISC-TV’s Jessica Arp tweeted from the same event.

CNN followed up with Walker on his statement and he stepped in another controversy when he didn’t know whether or not being gay is a choice:

In a weekend interview with Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker about whether the Boy Scouts should allow gay troop leaders, CNN’s Dana Bash asked Walker, “Do you think being gay is a choice?”

“I don’t have an opinion on every single issue out there. To me, that’s, I don’t know,” Walker answered. “I don’t know the answer to that question.”

Michelangelo Signorile, writing at Huffington Post, notes how Walker’s courting of the religious right is backfiring:

Scott Walker thought he was playing a deft game. For a while the Wisconsin governor, running for the GOP nomination for the presidency, has been engaging in his own version of dog-whistling to homophobes, as he and the GOP struggle with the reality that the base of their party is still in the Stone Age on LGBT rights, while most Americans support equality. But this week it blew up in spectacular fashion as Walker stepped on the Ben Carson third rail and blatantly implied gay men are predators who can’t be trusted around children.

HRC, perhaps noticing Walker’s struggle over the course of the last week, hit him hard with a laundry list of his anti-LGBT words and deeds:

“Scott Walker will have a difficult time making the case that he’s a new, fresh face on the national stage given that he wants to allow states to re-ban same-sax marriage,” said JoDee Winterhof, HRC Vice President of Policy and Political Affairs. “Walker is not quiet about his opposition to LGBT equality either, but has a record of working to undermine even the most basic rights of LGBT residents in Wisconsin. With a candidacy so out of step with mainstream Americans, it’s hard to imagine Scott Walker will get the support he needs to be President.”

Fellow Republican Rick Santorum took a swing at Walker last week from the opposite direction. Two weeks ago, it was revealed that Walker’s wife and kids support LGBT rights. That didn’t sit well with Santorum, Newsmax reports:

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum says that the conflict Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s wife feels about same-sex marriage could soften Walker’s view on the landmark Supreme Court decision.

“Spouses matter,” the presidential hopeful told The Daily Caller. “When your spouse is not in-sync with you — particularly on cultural issues, moral issues — [you] tend not to be as active on those issues.”

Tonette Walker told The Washington Post that she had mixed feelings about the court’s decision legalizing gay marriage because her husband is a strong opponent and her sons are equally strong proponents.

South Dakota
The Black Hills Pride Festival was help over the weekend, the Rapid City Journal reports: “After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality last month, Nancy Rosenbrahn knew this year’s Black Hills Pride Festival would be special.
‘Oh, people are ready to party,’ Rosenbrahn said. ‘We expect it’s going to be huge this year.'”

Black Hills Fox reports that hundreds attended the pride festival.

Nancy Rosenbrahn, the Vice President for the Black Hills Center for Equality, said “It is our party; it is our chance to come out and say we’re here, we’re queer.”

And she can now say that without any fear – as the community came together Saturday for equality.

John Nelson, a vendor at the festival, said “A lot of people are more comfortableof coming into Pride Festivals, and I think South Dakota as a whole is starting to know who we are … not as a gay person, but as a person.”

Attorney General Marty Jackley defended his policy allowing government officials with “deeply held beliefs” to decline to process marriage licenses for same-sex couples in an interview with the Yankton Daily Press and Dakotan

“Under the law, constitutional rights are required to coexist,” Jackley said. “Federal requirements mandate that reasonable accommodations be put in place to protect the constitutional rights of all individuals, which would include government employees.”

Oftentimes, it is a common misconception that a register of deeds that rejects to administer a marriage license to a same-sex couple on its bona fide and sincere religious objection is not adhering to the their duties or the Supreme Court’s decision, according to Jackley.

“The hypothetical question has been: What would South Dakota do in balancing these rights?” he said. “I as attorney general have taken the position, that based upon the law … we would take a common-sense approach in South Dakota, and in the event that a register of deeds had a bona fide and sincere religious objection, that we would find a common-sense and reasonable way to issue the marriage license.”

Such an approach would include another county employee issuing the marriage license.

“The marriage license is still being issued and it’s being issued without infringing on other well recognized constitutional rights,” Jackley said.

He also said that in the unlikely event that there is no other county employee available, South Dakota law allows any county to issue a marriage license, in which case, LGBT couples could obtain them in an adjoining or nearby county.

North Dakota
The Fargo Parks board has adopted a nondiscrimination policy barring discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, KVRR reports:

The Fargo Parks Board has voted to update its equal opportunity and harassment policy to include sexual orientation, and gender identity.
The policy update will protect LGBT employees and future employees from anti-gay discrimination.
Board members say it’s about accommodating the diverse population that they serve.

“The people who pay their taxes, and who we are providing recreation for so we want our policies to be very clear that every single person who wants to join the Fargo parks district activities is more than welcome to,” says Fargo District Board Member Joe Deutsch.

A county official is refusing to process marriage licenses for same-sex couples, according to Valley View Live

A county official in Grafton, North Dakota has declined to abide by th eFederal Court mandate to issue marriage licenses for same sex couples.
However, County Recorder, Diane Link has found a solution to legally abide by her own opposition to same sex marriages.
Some of the duties of a County Recorder include processing marriage licenses and now that also means, processing marriage licenses for same sex couples. But, here in Walsh County, County Recorder, Diane Link has said no.
Diane Link, Walsh County Recorder: “Two years ago I met with the Board during my budget review and let them know that if North Dakota ever approved same sex marriages, I would not be comfortable doing them.”
Link spent 4 years in the Navy after graduating from high school in Grafton. She’s raised a family and has spent 30 years in the County Recorder’s office. She calls herself a Christian, who cannot condone same sex marriages.