CIVIL RIGHTS — IOWA LAWMAKER PRESSES THE STATE TO DISCRIMINATE AGAINST LGBT FAMILIES AT CAMPGROUNDS: In April 2009, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously overturned a 10-year ban on same-sex marriage in the state, making it one of five plus the District of Columbia that currently performs and recognizes same-sex marriage. Although the far right claimed that this decision would upend traditional marriage, a September 2009 Des Moines Register poll found that 92 percent of Iowans believed marriage equality had “brought no real change to their lives.” But now, Iowa state Sen. Merlin Bartz (R) is trying to convince the public that LGBT families threaten the pastime of camping. Bartz, who sits on the Iowa Senate’s Administrative Rules Review Committee, believes the legislature should intervene in the Iowa Department of Natural Resource’s (DNR) effort “to make gay couples eligible for family camping at state parks.” The rule change would not allow gay families to pay a lower camping price — camping prices are already equal for families and non-families — but instead allow gay families the option to “put up more than one tent on a camp site.” Bartz said he wants to be “vigilant” as state agencies adjust policies in the wake of the court’s decision. “A lot of the advocates of gay marriage in Iowa have said, ‘It doesn’t affect anything. Nothing has changed,'” Bartz said. “The reality of it is that everything is changing.” The DNR has said the change has nothing to do with the court ruling and instead reflects the agency’s effort to “comply with a state policy that prevents discrimination.” Bartz has been a staunch opponent of marriage equality, encouraging county recorders to refuse marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Bartz’s effort, however, to “pass legislation giving county recorders a free pass to discriminate” failed.