Davenport (AP) -- State and federal officials say there are no laws to protect six workers at a state-supported Davenport care facility who were fired because they are homosexuals.
The workers were fired from their jobs at the St. Katherine's Living Center, a privately-owned residential facility for the mentally-ill.
Administrator Roger Crow said he fired the workers because they were homosexual and did not have the proper "moral character."
In an interview with the Quad City Times newspaper, he said, "When I first came here, there was probably at least three -- excuse my French -- faggots working here and I had at least three dykes working here.
"And when I first came there it was, like, these people are gone. This isn't the kind of atmosphere I want to project when a client or family member comes to my nurses station and sees a 45-year-old-faggot that has got better skin than you and I and is a man but presents itself more like a woman, " he said.
Crow also said he fired the workers because he didn't want to the care center to be vulnerable to complaint of residents being abused by employees.
"When you hear situations of, 'Oh, what's-his-name might have done it with one of the patients,' well, you don't even want to hear that. You know? Boom, they're gone," he said.
Crow also told the newspaper about his own feelings toward homosexuals.
"I don't care for them. I don't want to have anything to do with them. They're not part of the Bible. They're not part of society, as far as I'm concerned," he said.
Carl McPherson, the Iowa Ombudsman for Elder Affairs, filed a complaint with the state Civil Rights Commission and the Iowa's Office of Nursing Home Examiners because the workers were fired for their sexual orientation, not their performance, in their jobs. The home receives $600,000 a year in state money.
But McPherson said nothing will come of it.
"State law provides no protection for gay and lesbian people," he said. "Iowa legislators obviously believe this sort of thing doesn't happen. Well, it has happened in Davenport and, as far as I'm concerned, there is nothing the state can do to remedy it," McPherson said.
Federal law also does not apply, according to Al Overbaugh of the U.S. attorney's office in Des Moines. "Sexual orientation is not a protected right under federal law," he said. Don Grove, director of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, said his office is powerless to intervene.
The Iowa Civil Rights act prohibits discrimination on matters of age, sex, national origin and other matters, but not sexual orientation, he said. "It is, in effect, legal under the Iowa Civil Rights Act to do this."
Legislation that would prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation has failed in several attempts, the last being in 1992.
State Rep. Dan Boddicker, R-Tiption, said the bill would fail again.
"I believe that when you're an employer, you have the right and the obligation to have people working for you who will do the job and project a good image of your business. The kind of legislation they're talking about wouldn't even get out of committee," he said.
Rep. Johnie Hammond, D-Ames, a longtime supporter of such legislation, agreed the bill would have no chance.
"Opponents say it (discrimination against homosexuals)
doesn't happen. This case makes it clear that it does. But I
can't imagine this will have any chance of passage until we get
a new Legislature and governor, " she said.
