DES MOINES, Iowa — On Friday, Iowa made history by becoming the first state in the United States to remove gender identity protections from its civil rights code. Governor Kim Reynolds signed a bill into law that has been met with strong opposition from those who believe it will expose transgender individuals and other Iowans to discrimination in all aspects of their daily lives.
The new law, which will go into effect on July 1, comes after years of effort from Reynolds and Iowa Republicans to limit the rights of transgender students. This includes restricting their use of bathrooms and locker rooms and their participation on sports teams. Their reasoning? To protect those who were assigned female at birth. Republicans argue that these policies cannot coexist with a civil rights code that includes gender identity protections.
The bill was introduced last week and passed quickly, with Reynolds proposing a similar bill last year that didn’t make it to a vote. The new law also includes explicit legal definitions of female and male, based on their reproductive organs at birth. This rejects the idea that a person can transition to another gender.
In a video posted on social media, Reynolds explained her reasoning for signing the bill and acknowledged that it is a “sensitive issue for some.” She stated, “It’s common sense to acknowledge the obvious biological differences between men and women. In fact, it’s necessary to secure genuine equal protection for women and girls.” Reynolds also argued that the previous civil rights code “blurred the biological line between the sexes.”
This move comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office, formalizing a definition of the two sexes at the federal level. This has led several Republican-led legislatures to push for laws defining male and female. Trump showed his support for the Iowa bill on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, after it received final approval from the Iowa House and Senate.
However, not all politicians were in favor of this new law. Five House Republicans joined all Democrats in the House and Senate in voting against it. Before the vote, Iowa State Representative Aime Wichtendahl, a transgender woman, shared her personal story and wiped away tears as she spoke. “I transitioned to save my life,” she said. “The purpose of this bill and every anti-trans bill is to further erase us from public life and to stigmatize our existence. The sum total of every anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ bill is to make our existence illegal.”
Hundreds of LGBTQ+ advocates gathered at the Capitol rotunda on Thursday to protest the bill, waving signs that read “Trans rights are human rights” and chanting slogans such as “No hate in our state!” There was a strong police presence, with state troopers stationed around the rotunda. The few protesters who remained for the final passage of the bill were emotional.
Iowa is now the first state in the U.S. to remove nondiscrimination protections based on gender identity, according to Logan Casey, director of policy research at the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ+ rights think tank. Sexual orientation and gender identity were not originally included in the state’s Civil Rights Act of 1965, but were added in 2007 by the Democratic-controlled Legislature with the support of about a dozen Republicans across both chambers.
Representative Steven Holt, the House Republican who moved the bill on Thursday, argued that if the Legislature can add protections, it can also remove them. As of July 1, Iowa’s civil rights law will only protect against discrimination based on race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, or disability status.
However, the Iowa Supreme Court has rejected the argument that discrimination based on sex includes discrimination based on gender identity. Advocacy groups have promised to defend transgender rights and may take the issue to court. Keenan Crow, director of policy and advocacy for LGBTQ+ advocacy group One Iowa, stated that the organization is still analyzing the text of the bill and its vagueness makes it difficult to determine where enforcement will come from. “We will pursue any legal options available to us,” Crow said.
In the face of this setback, it is important to remember that the fight for equality and inclusivity is far from over. Iowa may have taken a step back with this new law, but it is up to us as a society to continue pushing for progress and standing up for the rights of all individuals, regardless of their gender identity. Let us not forget the words of Representative Wichtendahl
