A petition in response to Iowa 4-H and ISU Extension’s decision to roll back protections for LGBTQIA+ youth and adults within 4-H was submitted to President Wendy Wintersteen and Iowa State’s Faculty Senate Monday.

The petition requested the Iowa Civil Rights Commission investigate “whether Iowa 4-H and Iowa State University Extension have created a hostile climate against LGBTQIA+ individuals (including youth, volunteers and staff).”

This hostile environment includes accommodation requirements “which frames being LGBTQIA+ as a disability,” according to the petition.

More than 1,000 “ISU and 4-H students/participants, staff, alumni and friends” from the United States, Canada, the Republic of the Congo, Mexico, Taiwan, South Africa, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Malaysia, Liberia, Australia and United Kingdom signed the petition.

The petition cited concerns with Iowa 4-H and ISU Extension, including political pressures from “elected officials, donors and hate groups” which they claim could have influenced the roll back of protections, the firing of John-Paul Chaisson-Cardenas and whether it was a political or partisan action and a link between “participation in the ISU Campus Climate Process and this incident.”