Iowa Court Affirms Hate Crime Conviction

Last Friday, the Iowa Supreme Court affirmed the hate crime conviction of a man who sent homophobic notes to local homeowners. The notes targeted homes with pride flags and emblems, and encouraged them to “burn that gay flag.”

Robert Clark Geddes, a resident of Boone, Iowa, was convicted of trespassing as a hate crime. In June of 2021, he had taped handwritten notes to the front doors of five renters and homeowners in Boone. All the notes stated, “Burn that gay flag,” sometimes accompanied by homophobic slurs. All the targeted homes had displayed rainbow flags, decals, or other decorations outside. Geddes was caught with surveillance camera footage and sentenced to two years probation.

When appealing his sentence, Geddes claimed that his right to free speech was violated as the court couldn’t prove his targets were LGBTQ+ or thus affiliated. He thought that he was given a more strict sentence than he deserved. Iowa’s hate crime law requires that a victim was targeted because of identification or affiliation with a specific gender identity, sexuality, race, etc. Geddes’s attorney, Ashley Stewart, states, “As a symbol, a flag doesn’t independently create or express actual association with particular persons … not everyone who displays a pirate flag is associated with actual pirates.”

In Geddes’s hearing at the Iowa Supreme Court, Justice Matthew McDermott agreed with Geddes. He said that there was no evidence in the record that Geddes believed his targets were members of the LGBTQ+ community, nor that they were associated with them. He specifically noted that the hate crime legislation specifically says “association,” rather than “solidarity” or the like.

However, the majority of the court upheld Geddes’s initial conviction. They specifically noted that the rainbow flag has come to symbolize support for LGBTQ+ rights. Furthermore, the legislation in question does not criminalize speech, but rather action with specific intent (such as trespassing due to a victim’s association with a particular class).

Despite the seeming level of LGBTQ+ rights protection in this case, the Iowa government has undergone severe criticism in the past year due to the enactment of dozens of transphobic sports bans and dozens of “Don’t Say Gay” laws.