The LGBT community has known about Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal for some time, ever since his video, "You've Already Lost" went viral back in 2009. At that time, Gronstal refused to allow a vote on a constitutional amendment to take away marriage equality, and has continued to do so since then, bringing down upon him the wrath of the religious right to his electoral peril.
What is less well known is that Gronstal has also become a working class hero. He is pretty much singlehandedly preventing a bill, House File 525, from passing the Iowa Legislature that would strip Iowan civil servants of their rights. The struggle in Iowa is not as well known as that in Wisconsin or Ohio, but it is just as real. The only reason it is not as dangerous is because of Mike Gronstal.