People protesting against a bill introduced by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds defining sex and requiring transgender people’s gender assigned at birth are listed on government-issued IDs demonstrated at the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines Feb. 6, 2024. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
Iowa Republican lawmakers introduced legislation Thursday to remove gender identity as a protected class from the Iowa Civil Rights Act.
The bill was anticipated by LGBTQ advocates and organizations to arise again this session, with One Iowa, an LGBTQ advocacy organization, stating in January that multiple sources had confirmed Gov. Kim Reynolds was in discussions about the measure in late January. The legislation introduced Thursday, House Study Bill 242, was brought forward by Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison.
The House bill would remove gender identity as a protected class in the Iowa Civil Rights Act, in addition to making definitional changes to how “sex” and “gender” are classified and defined in Iowa Code. Protection from discrimination in employment, wages, public accommodations, housing, education and credit practices on the basis of gender identity would be removed from Iowa Code under the bill.
Gender identity was added as a protected class to the Iowa Civil Rights Act by state lawmakers in 2007, when the state legislature was under Democratic control.
Max Mowitz, the executive director of One Iowa, an LGBTQ advocacy organization, said the measure was “the worst bill we have ever seen come out of the Iowa Legislature.”
“This would wreak havoc on the lives of transgender people across the state, upending their ability to do basic things like rent an apartment or get a credit card,” Mowitz said in a statement. “More than that, it removes their ability to get government documents that match their gender and legally defines them out of existence. The consequences of this bill will also serve to weaken protections for intersex and cisgender Iowans who fail to meet the rigid gender assumptions contained within.”
Republican lawmakers introduced a similar measure in 2024, but the bill failed to advance out of a subcommittee hearing. In discussions on that legislation, groups like the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa brought up concerns about the legality of such a proposal, stating that removing a group voluntarily added to the state civil rights code could violate the Equal Protections Clause.
Becky Tayler, executive director for Iowa Safe Schools, said in a news release Thursday that the legislation seeks to strip rights from transgender Iowans.
“HSB 242 subverts the constitutional guarantees of equality under the law and seeks to push trans Iowans back into the shadows,” Tayler said. “This bill sends a message that trans Iowans aren’t welcome in their own state. We will not stand by while the Iowa Legislature seeks to erase the students we serve.”
The bill would require that if a person seeks a new birth certificate with a different gender designation, that birth certificate would list both their sex as designated at birth as well as their sex “at the time of establishment” of the new birth certificate. In the legislation, “female” would be defined as people whose reproductive system at some point will produce ova and “male” as those who would produce sperm with caveats for situations where a developmental anomaly, genetic anomaly or accident causes them to not produce these reproductive cells.
People with medically verifiable diagnoses of disorders or difference in sex development are provided legal protections and accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act under the bill.
The measure would also change references to “gender identity” in laws like the state’s prohibition on materials related to gender identity and sexuality for students in grades K-6 to be referred to as “gender theory.” This subject would include ideas such as “an individual may properly be described in terms of an internal sense of gender that is incongruent with the individual’s sex as either male or female,” that “an individual who experiences distress or discomfort with the individual’s sex should identify and live consistent with the individual’s internal sense of gender,” and that a person can pursue development of sex characteristics or delay puberty through the use of puberty blockers, hormones or surgical procedures.
The legislation has been assigned a subcommittee, but a meeting has not yet been scheduled.