Here’s the news around for region for the LGBT community.

Wisconsin
A new poll released on Tuesday shows that 51 percent of Wisconsin residents support marriage equality. That poll is consistent with others that have shown support for marriage equality in the Badger State as high as 56 percent.

South Dakota
A LGBT rally in Rapid City drew a crowd after a man was the victim of an anti-gay hate crime last month, the Rapid City Journal notes. The rally even drew a Republican speaker. Sen. Craig Tieszen, R-Rapid City, told the crowd, “There are many of us in the Legislature that are interested in making sure that the rights of all the citizens of South Dakota are protected.”

University of Minnesota Prof. Dale Carpenter was at the University of South Dakota this week to talk about sexual orientation and the law.

He said that marriage equality is “profoundly conservative,” according to the Yankton Daily Press and Dakotan.
“It’s occurred to me that gay people are practically the last people in America who still believe in marriage, who believe in its power, who speak in almost poetic ways about its ability to change a person’s life for the better.”

Iowa
The 2016 elections are still far off but Republican hopefuls are already hitting the trail in Iowa stirring up trouble. Mike Huckabee did just that this week, according to the Washington Post.

“I’m not against anybody; I’m really not… I’m not a hater. I’m not homophobic. I honestly don’t care what people do personally in their individual lives.”

Huckabee said people point out that opposition to gay marriage could put people on the “wrong side of history” — comparing it to opposition to the civil rights movement.

The former Arkansas governor, preacher and potential 2016 presidential candidate says, whatever the polls say, he needs to follow the Bible.

“This is the right side of the Bible, and unless God rewrites it, edits it, sends it down with his signature on it, it’s not my book to change,” Huckabee said.

Huckabee is a leading favorite of social conservatives and won the Iowa caucuses in 2008.

In a 2010 profile, Huckabee also addressed gay marriage and its “ick factor.”

“Male and female are biologically compatible to have a relationship,” he told the New Yorker. “We can get into the ick factor, but the fact is two men in a relationship, two women in a relationship, biologically, that doesn’t work the same.”

Pat Murphy, a Democrat from Dubuque who is running for Congress, got the endorsement of the Human Rights Coalition for his work in stopping an anti-gay marriage amendment.

One Iowa, the state’s largest LGBT advocacy group, has started a chapter at ISU thanks to two grad students.

State Sen. Matt McCoy is pressing Iowa’s elected officials to pass an anti-bullying bill.

Senate File 2318 establishes the Office of Support & Analysis for Safe Schools to coordinate and implement efforts to prevent and respond to harassment and bullying. Competitive grants will promote high-quality bully prevention and positive school climate programs for the Iowa schools most in need.
The House has yet to take up the bill, but it is my hope that our efforts, along with those of communities, schools and organizations like Iowa Safe Schools, can eliminate bullying and inspire acceptance and understanding among all Iowans.