Iowa passes bill legalizing discrimination against trans people
by Curated February 27, 2025 · Gay News / Gay Pride / Gay Rights / LGBTQ Nation
Author: Daniel Villarreal
Iowa’s Republican-led legislature has voted to remove gender-identity from its anti-discrimination laws. The state’s Senate passed the measure in a Thursday 33-15 vote along party lines and its House did the same in a 60-35 vote held the same day. The bill is expected to be signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) since she has signed at least six other anti-trans laws since her election in 2017.
As such, Iowa may soon become the first U.S. state to repeal anti-discrimination protections for any class of people. Even if Gov. Reynolds vetos the legislation, the Republican support for the bill in the legislature could override her veto. LGBTQ+ protections were added to the state’s anti-discrimination statutes in 2007.
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Thousands of protestors descended on the Des Moines capitol to demonstrate against the bill. Following the Senate’s passage of the bill, protestors in the Senate gallery began chanting, “Who’s next?”and protestors in the House began booing, The Hill reported.
Republican supporters of the bill said it is necessary to protect women and children from trans women from threatening women’s safety and civil rights in gendered spaces and sports teams. Democratic Senate opponents tried adding amendments that would have kept anti-discrimination protections for trans and gender-nonconforming people in housing, employment and credit, but Republican senators widely rejected them.
State Rep. Steven Holt (R), who introduced the bill, said, “Democrats do not want to talk about the reality of the erasing of women as a result of gender identity based on feelings being elevated to a protected class status in the Iowa code.”
However, state Sen. Matt Blake (D) said of the defeated Democratic amendments, “Thank you to the Republicans for making it abundantly clear what this bill is about. This isn’t meant to protect anyone. It’s not. If it was meant to protect somebody, we would have narrowed the scope of this bill just now.”
When asked if he was surprised to hear that a majority of trans people face discrimination in numerous areas of public life, state Sen. Jason Schultz (R), the bill’s primary Senate sponsor, responded, “I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it.”
During her time as governor, Reynolds has signed bills banning trans participation in sports, gender-affirming medical care, and lessons on LGBTQ+ issues in classrooms. She is expected to sign this bill, though it may be quickly challenged in court as a possible violation of the U.S. Constitution’ Equal Protection Clause which requires states to treat people equally under the law.
Rep. Aime Wichtendahl (D), the state’s only trans legislator, said the purpose of Iowa’s bill is to “erase us from public life and to stigmatize our existence, to make our existence illegal, to force us back into the closet,” adding, “The authors of these bills wish us every harm.”
“It pains me to be here today,” Wichtendahl said on Thursday. “It pains me to see how the rights of an entire group’s people can be so quickly and easily discarded. It pains me to hear the slander, and the fear leveled at the trans community — my community — my friends, and my family, people who just want to live their lives, to be themselves and to live free of fear. This is a fear that I have known.”
State Sen. Bill Dotzler (D) told Republican senators on Thursday, “This state is going to become the first state in the nation to back up on civil rights. You get to carry that honor with you as long as you live because you’re going to take the votes to do it. When I go to my grave, I will not have to face that.”
The bill is part of the Republican Party’s larger assault on trans rights nationwide. President Donald Trump has directed his administration to deny all legal and federal recognition of trans people, to vilify them as deceitful and mentally unstable, to portray trans rights as a threat to women’s rights and to oppose gender-affirming care as “child mutilation,” even though most recipients of gender-affirming care are cisgender.
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Author: Daniel Villarreal
