The Trump administration pushed the national 4-H youth organization to withdraw a controversial policy welcoming LGBT members — a move that helped lead to the ouster of Iowa's top 4-H leader earlier this year, a Des Moines Register investigation has found.
The international youth organization, with more than 6 million members, introduced the new policy to ensure LGBT members felt protected by their local 4-H program — part of a larger effort to modernize the federally authorized youth group and broaden membership.
Several states posted the policy on their websites, including Iowa, where it prompted fierce opposition from conservatives and some evangelical groups.
But within days of the LGBT policy's publication, Heidi Green, then-chief of staff for U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, requested that it be rescinded, Sonny Ramaswamy, then-director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the federal department that administers 4-H, told the Register.
Afterward, a NIFA communications manager sent an "urgent" email to at least two states — Iowa and New York — urging the 4-H organizations there to remove the LGBT policy from their websites, the Register found.
The subsequent decision to take down the policy set off a firestorm this spring for 4-H programs in at least eight states — including Iowa, Idaho, Wisconsin, California, Oregon, Nevada, Colorado, Virginia and New York.
It eventually precipitated the firing of Iowa 4-H director John-Paul Chaisson-Cárdenas, a fierce advocate of the LGBT policy, the Register found after conducting extensive interviews and examining more than 500 pages of state and federal communications.
John-Paul Chaisson-Cardenas, a former 4-H Youth Development Program leader, was a fierce advocate for a more inclusive 4-H program that welcomed LGBT youth. He was fired earlier this year. (Photo: Bryon Houlgrave/The Register)
The 4-H policy's removal comes amid other moves by the Trump administration to roll back federal protections covering gender identity— the deeply held sense of who one is that may differ from the sex organs with which one is born.
The Trump administration previously declared it would place limits on transgender troops serving in the military, and it rescinded a 2016 Dear Colleague letter issued by Obama’s Education Department that said prohibiting transgender students from using facilities such as restrooms that matched their gender identity violates federal anti-discrimination laws.
The Trump administration has also attempted to remove questions about gender identity from the 2020 census.
In October, the New York Times obtained a leaked memo from the Department of Health and Human Services that seeks to define gender as “either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with.”
The move would “essentially eradicate federal recognition of the estimated 1.4 million” transgender Americans, the Times reported.
The Trump administration to date has declined to comment on the leaked memo.
Iowa director pressured to drop policy
As Iowa’s document — and the ones posted to other states’ sites — circulated the internet this spring, Christian conservative leaders and media outlets rallied their supporters to pressure 4-H leaders to remove the document, and a Christian law firm threatened legal action.
Some states relented. In Iowa, Chaisson-Cárdenas, the first statewide Latino director of 4-H in the organization’s 115-year history, resisted.
A dyslexic Guatemalan refugee who graduated from the University of Iowa, Chaisson-Cárdenas was adamant that 4-H was “for all kids.”
Emails sent to John Lawrence — vice president of Iowa State University’s Extension and Outreach, which oversees Iowa's 4-H program — reflect deeply felt opinions for and against the policy.
Some said the policy was “great” and “very positive.” One former 4-H member, who claimed to be a transgender father, offered to speak on the issue.
Others, who identified themselves as 4-H volunteers, leaders and former members, called the policy a “fascist push to redefine humanity” and characterized transgender children as “horrendous” and “sinful.”
Several threatened to pull donations, leave leadership roles in their local extension or call their state legislator. Chaisson-Cárdenas said he received threats on his life.
In emails, Chaisson-Cárdenas pushed back against his bosses' efforts to apologize or retract the document.
“I guess I am not sure why we are valuing the propaganda machine of a recognized hate group over the existing rights of LGBTQ youth?” Chaisson-Cárdenas wrote in reference to WorldNetDaily, an alt-right online publication that extensively covered the dust-up in Iowa.
“It feels wrong to me," Chaisson-Cárdenas wrote.
Much more at: https://www.press-citizen.com/story...owa-state-university-civil-rights/1572199002/
The international youth organization, with more than 6 million members, introduced the new policy to ensure LGBT members felt protected by their local 4-H program — part of a larger effort to modernize the federally authorized youth group and broaden membership.
Several states posted the policy on their websites, including Iowa, where it prompted fierce opposition from conservatives and some evangelical groups.
But within days of the LGBT policy's publication, Heidi Green, then-chief of staff for U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, requested that it be rescinded, Sonny Ramaswamy, then-director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the federal department that administers 4-H, told the Register.
Afterward, a NIFA communications manager sent an "urgent" email to at least two states — Iowa and New York — urging the 4-H organizations there to remove the LGBT policy from their websites, the Register found.
The subsequent decision to take down the policy set off a firestorm this spring for 4-H programs in at least eight states — including Iowa, Idaho, Wisconsin, California, Oregon, Nevada, Colorado, Virginia and New York.
It eventually precipitated the firing of Iowa 4-H director John-Paul Chaisson-Cárdenas, a fierce advocate of the LGBT policy, the Register found after conducting extensive interviews and examining more than 500 pages of state and federal communications.
John-Paul Chaisson-Cardenas, a former 4-H Youth Development Program leader, was a fierce advocate for a more inclusive 4-H program that welcomed LGBT youth. He was fired earlier this year. (Photo: Bryon Houlgrave/The Register)
The 4-H policy's removal comes amid other moves by the Trump administration to roll back federal protections covering gender identity— the deeply held sense of who one is that may differ from the sex organs with which one is born.
The Trump administration previously declared it would place limits on transgender troops serving in the military, and it rescinded a 2016 Dear Colleague letter issued by Obama’s Education Department that said prohibiting transgender students from using facilities such as restrooms that matched their gender identity violates federal anti-discrimination laws.
The Trump administration has also attempted to remove questions about gender identity from the 2020 census.
In October, the New York Times obtained a leaked memo from the Department of Health and Human Services that seeks to define gender as “either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with.”
The move would “essentially eradicate federal recognition of the estimated 1.4 million” transgender Americans, the Times reported.
The Trump administration to date has declined to comment on the leaked memo.
Iowa director pressured to drop policy
As Iowa’s document — and the ones posted to other states’ sites — circulated the internet this spring, Christian conservative leaders and media outlets rallied their supporters to pressure 4-H leaders to remove the document, and a Christian law firm threatened legal action.
Some states relented. In Iowa, Chaisson-Cárdenas, the first statewide Latino director of 4-H in the organization’s 115-year history, resisted.
A dyslexic Guatemalan refugee who graduated from the University of Iowa, Chaisson-Cárdenas was adamant that 4-H was “for all kids.”
Emails sent to John Lawrence — vice president of Iowa State University’s Extension and Outreach, which oversees Iowa's 4-H program — reflect deeply felt opinions for and against the policy.
Some said the policy was “great” and “very positive.” One former 4-H member, who claimed to be a transgender father, offered to speak on the issue.
Others, who identified themselves as 4-H volunteers, leaders and former members, called the policy a “fascist push to redefine humanity” and characterized transgender children as “horrendous” and “sinful.”
Several threatened to pull donations, leave leadership roles in their local extension or call their state legislator. Chaisson-Cárdenas said he received threats on his life.
In emails, Chaisson-Cárdenas pushed back against his bosses' efforts to apologize or retract the document.
“I guess I am not sure why we are valuing the propaganda machine of a recognized hate group over the existing rights of LGBTQ youth?” Chaisson-Cárdenas wrote in reference to WorldNetDaily, an alt-right online publication that extensively covered the dust-up in Iowa.
“It feels wrong to me," Chaisson-Cárdenas wrote.
Much more at: https://www.press-citizen.com/story...owa-state-university-civil-rights/1572199002/
