Iowa legislators have passed a bill that would strip antidiscrimination protections for transgender residents from state law, sending it to Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, who is likely to sign it into law.
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The Iowa House of Representatives and Senate both approved the bill Thursday in largely party-line votes, Republicans for, Democrats against, The Des Moines Registerreports. The vote was 60-36 in the House and 33-15 in the Senate. It would make Iowa the first state to remove gender identity from antidiscrimination law and apparently the first state to remove any protected characteristic. The Iowa Civil Rights Act has included gender identity since 2007; it bans discrimination in employment, housing, education, public accommodations, and other aspects of life.
Hundreds of protesters had shown up at the state capitol in Des Moines, and “boos and jeers” greeted the votes, according to the Register. One spectator in the Senate gallery called the Republican legislators “fascist scumbags.” Another who shouted “Who’s next?” was removed by state troopers while protesters chanted, “Our liberties we prize, our rights we will maintain.”
Democratic Rep. Aime Wichtendahl, Iowa’s first out trans state lawmaker, denounced the bill during debate. The legislation “revokes protections to our jobs, our homes, and our ability to access credit. In other words, it deprives us of our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness,” she said. “I bring this up because the purpose of this bill and the purpose of 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.”
Democrat Liz Bennett, a bisexual woman who is Iowa’s first out LGBTQ+ state senator, also condemned the move. “Iowa should not become the first state in the nation to remove an entire group of people from civil rights protections,” she said, as reported by the Register. Iowa’s action is part of a nationwide attack on LGBTQ+ rights, she noted.
“This is not the history we should be writing in Iowa, that a group of individuals — a group of individuals in a severe minority — that the tyranny of the majority decided to put their thumb and say, ‘You do not belong. You should not exist. You should not be a part of our culture. You should not be a part of the state of Iowa. You should not be here,’” said another Democrat, Sen. Matt Blake. He had introduced amendments to maintain protections for trans people in employment, housing, and credit, but all of them were voted down.
Republican Rep. Steven Holt claimed, “In spite of loud proclamations otherwise, transgender Iowans will have the same rights and protections as everyone else, as they should. But the removal of gender identity as a protected class will prevent the infringement on the rights of others, particularly women, who stand to be erased, along with decades of gains.”
Reynolds has not said if she will sign the bill into law, but she has signed other anti-trans legislation, including a ban on gender-affirming care for minors and a prohibition on trans girls and women competing in school sports under their gender identity.
The Equality Federation and other civil rights groups condemned Iowa’s action. “Nobody should have to live in fear of discrimination simply because of who they are. We know it is wrong to be unfairly kicked out of a restaurant, denied an apartment, or denied education or health care just because someone is transgender,” Fran Hutchins, executive director of Equality Federation, said in a press release. “We denounce Iowa’s rollback of civil rights protections for trans people in the strongest possible terms, and call on all Americans of conscience to stand up for their LGBTQ+ friends, family, and neighbors.”
One Iowa Executive Director Max Mowitz urged Reynolds to veto the bill, saying, “Governor Reynolds stands at a crossroads. We urge her to choose Iowa’s values of inclusion over discrimination by vetoing this bill. Signing it would put Iowa on the wrong side of history. If she allows this bill to become law, it will effectively make it legal to discriminate against transgender Iowans in nearly every aspect of life — where they live, where they work, and where they go to school. That would send a devastating message that transgender Iowans are not worthy of the same rights, dignity, and protections as their neighbors.”
