IOWA CAUCUSES

O'Malley backs conversion therapy ban, questions Sanders' Obama support

Grant Rodgers
grodgers@dmreg.com
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who is running for president of the United States as a democrat, answered questions and addressed issues close to him as he met with the editorial board at the Des Moines Register on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015.

Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O'Malley threw his support Friday behind a federal ban on controversial treatments designed to change gay patients' sexual orientation.

So-called conversion therapies are "deceptive and harmful," the former Maryland governor said. His remarks came during a speech at the Iowa Safe Schools Spirit Awards, a dinner sponsored by the nonprofit that works to support LGBT students.

"Too many of our young people are still asking: Will I be able to get my dream job?" he said. "Will I be discriminated against — or attacked — for the way I look? Will I be able to live in the open, free of fear, with the people I love?"

The former Baltimore mayor unveiled other points of a plan designed to give LGBT Americans more legal protections. O'Malley called for schools to end abstinence-only sex education and to make sure programs include information for LGBT youth.

O'Malley also called on states to repeal laws that "criminalize people with HIV." The Iowa legislature rewrote the state's transmission law last year, in part because of criticism that it could penalize HIV-positive residents even if they posed very little risk of infecting their partner.

Earlier in the day O'Malley took aim at his rivals at a stop in Denison, continuing a pattern of more direct contrasts that he's used on the campaign trail in recent days.

O'Malley accused U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of turning his back on the Obama administration ahead of the president's 2012 re-election campaign by encouraging a primary contest. Sanders, a Vermont independent, told New York public radio station WNYC in 2011 that having a Democrat challenge Obama on the left would "enliven the debate."

But O'Malley said he stands behind Obama, specifically pointing out the president's work on job growth and the economy.

"A lot of us like Barack Obama," O'Malley said during a stop at a local United Food and Commercial Workers union hall. "In fact, when Sen. Sanders was trying to get somebody to primary Barack Obama four years ago, I was stepping up and working very hard for his re-election."

This rhetoric from O'Malley on Sanders — whose fiery style has made him the top competitor to front-runner Hillary Clinton — is not completely unfamiliar. On Thursday, he told The Des Moines Register's editorial board that Sanders is the "lightning rod" that progressive voters are using to send a message to establishment Democratic Party leaders.

O'Malley suggested to the Denison crowd that he's the more even-keeled candidate that voters will eventually get behind.

Martin O'Malley speaking to approximately 15 people Friday at the UFCW union hall in Denison.

"In both parties in our search for a new leader, people gravitated toward the lightening rods of discontent," he said. "But once we're done with our anger, fear and discontent, we've got to nominate a person who will lead us forward as president."

The Sanders campaign offered this response Friday night: "Bernie Sanders has been a strong supporter of Barack Obama and considers him a friend. In 2006, then-Sen. Obama campaigned for Bernie's senate campaign in Vermont. Two years later, Bernie supported Obama in his campaign for the presidency. Gov. O'Malley did not."

O'Malley supported Clinton in her 2008 run for the Democratic nomination.

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AT THE EVENT

SETTING: The local United Food and Commercial Workers union hall in Denison.

CROWD: About 15 people.

REACTION: O'Malley got laughs and applause from the audience a few times during his speech, particularly when talking about his family's experience with college costs. "My dad went to college on the GI bill," he said. "My daughters went to college and graduated with a mountain of bills." 

WHAT'S NEXT: O'Malley has a 10:15 a.m. meet-and-greet in West Des Moines on Saturday