Republicans on the Iowa House Judiciary Committee advanced a bill Monday that would remove civil rights protections for transgender Iowans from state law, as a few hundred people protested the bill at the Statehouse.
The committee vote came just a few hours after Iowans testified at a subcommittee hearing for and against the bill, with protesters chanting, “Trans rights are human rights” and “F*** you, fascists” outside the room. State troopers arrested two protesters.
The bill, introduced last Thursday, would remove gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act, which currently provides transgender Iowans with protection from discrimination in housing, education, employment, public accommodations and credit practices.
It would also bar transgender women from places like women’s public bathrooms, prisons and domestic violence shelters while stating “Separate accommodations are not inherently unequal.” The bill would define “sex” in state law as “the state of being either male or female as observed or clinically verified at birth.”
“I cannot imagine how much worse that discrimination would be if the state we live in chooses to abandon that protection.”Paden Sheumaker with One Iowa
Paden Sheumaker with LGBTQ advocacy group One Iowa said, as a Black and queer person, she has been discriminated against for who she is. She said it’s dehumanizing and terrifying.
“Many queer and transgender and gender nonconforming Iowans have felt this, and that is while our rights are protected, that’s with the laws and the power of the state behind us to protect us,” Sheumaker said. “I cannot imagine how much worse that discrimination would be if the state we live in chooses to abandon that protection.”
She said the bill is a “dark stain” on Iowa history.
Gender identity was added to the Iowa Civil Rights Act as a protected characteristic in 2007. The law prohibits discrimination based on Iowans’ race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, ancestry or disability.
Evelyn Nikkel with conservative group PELLA PAC said the bill would fix that “grievous error” and protect women by keeping transgender women who were assigned male at birth out of women’s bathrooms and prisons. She said having gender identity in the Iowa Civil Rights Act elevates the rights of transgender Iowans over others.
“These abstract imaginary terms must be removed so that other Iowans, not in those fictional categories, are not stripped of their fundamental civil rights protections,” Nikkel said.
PELLA PAC also advocates for removing sexual orientation from the civil rights law.
Chris Morse said the bill is a waste of time and won’t stop transgender people from existing.
“It won’t stop people like me from continuing to live, love and thrive as bearers of God’s image,” she said. “Because we are all made in the image and likeness of God, aren’t we? If you believe that, then trans people, all people, reflect something of God — not just in the ways that we are similar, but also in the ways we are different.”
Morse was escorted from the room by state troopers after she continued speaking past her allotted two minutes.
Brad Lawson of Pleasant Hill said God made people “male and female,” and he said he has struggled to figure out how to explain to his daughters why “boys” could be in bathrooms with them and compete against them in sports.
“The confusion that we push on our next generation has to stop, and you have the ability to with this bill,” he said. “Our educational system is there to educate our kids based on facts and not feelings. There’s no place for gender identity for our most vulnerable, that are already confused by so much in this world, which is only meant to indoctrinate and not educate.”
In recent years, Republican lawmakers have prohibited transgender students from using school bathrooms that align with their gender identity, barred transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports, and banned gender-affirming medications and procedures for transgender youth. They also banned instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation before seventh grade.
House GOP leaders say those laws are at risk of being struck down by the courts if they don’t remove gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act.
Lawmakers debate removing gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act
Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, said on IPR’s River to River Monday that having gender identity in the Iowa Civil Rights Act puts all the laws Republicans have passed targeting transgender Iowans at risk of being struck down by the courts.
“This isn’t greenlighting discrimination at all,” Holt said. “It is protecting everyone’s rights, most particularly women, whose rights are being destroyed in their sports and in their changing facilities as a result of this elevated class status.”
Asked if he thinks the Iowa Civil Rights Act should exist, Holt said yes. He said he thinks protected classes are problematic, but he said courts made the decision in the past to allow them. Holt said he has not looked at removing other protected characteristics from the civil rights law.
He said there are various federal and state laws that protect everyone’s rights that will ensure transgender Iowans’ rights are still protected, including a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision that found employment discrimination based on gender identity is prohibited under federal law.
Democrats said the bill will legalize discrimination against transgender Iowans, and that federal protections are not guaranteed to stay in place under President Donald Trump’s administration.
The House Judiciary Committee passed the bill with a 13-8 vote. Republican Rep. Brian Lohse of Bondurant joined all Democrats in voting against the bill.
Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, said the Iowa Civil Rights Act protects everyone from discrimination.
“The protected classes do not elevate,” he said. “We all have an age. We all have a gender identity, whether they want to admit it or not… those who have a religion, those are protected. And so therefore, on that basis, you cannot be discriminated [against].”
Wilburn said his son is transgender and faced discrimination in the workplace.
“Housing, education, employment — to be denied the right to live because you are transgender or look different or sound different, is something that goes on every day,” he said.
The House Judiciary Committee passed the bill with a 13-8 vote. Republican Rep. Brian Lohse of Bondurant joined all Democrats in voting against the bill.
What’s next?
The same bill was scheduled to be considered by a Senate subcommittee, which is open for public comment, on Tuesday at noon.
The Iowa House scheduled a public hearing on the bill for Thursday at 9:30 a.m. Those who want to speak at the hearing can sign up online.
The bill could come up for a vote by the full House of Representatives and Senate as soon as Thursday.
