Amid the protest of hundreds of Iowans gathered in the state Capitol building, Iowa lawmakers advanced a bill that would eliminate civil rights protections for transgender people.
The legislation, House Study Bill 242, removes gender identity as a protected class and would remove anti-discrimination protections for transgender people from the Iowa Civil Rights Act.
A similar bill introduced by the Senate — Senate File 418 — is scheduled to be heard by a panel of lawmakers Tuesday.
The bill would also make sweeping changes to state law, including defining male, female, gender, and sex, and requiring birth certificates to reflect an Iowan’s sex at birth.
Both the panel of Iowa lawmakers and the full House Judiciary Committee advanced the bill Monday. The full committee vote fell on party lines, 13-8, with Rep. Brian Lohse, R-Bondurant, joining all Democrats against the bill.
The bill could be debated on the Iowa House floor as soon as Thursday, and a public hearing is scheduled then for 9:30 a.m.
Within the subcommittee, a 2-1 vote followed party lines with Chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, voting in favor, as did Rep. Samantha Fett, R-Carlisle, and Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, voting in opposition.
After each hearing, protesters chanted “shame” as lawmakers left the room.
During the subcommittee, Wilburn spoke about his son, a transgender man, who left Iowa years ago when the state legislature began amping up anti-transgender legislation. He said his son’s friend, who was also transgender, committed suicide “to escape the pain of discrimination, being singled out.”
A 2023 study by the Williams Institute reported than more than 40 percent of transgender adults in the U.S. have attempted suicide.
Wilburn said the legislation will increase discrimination.
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“I came to the legislature to create opportunity, not to take away civil rights from any group of people,” he said. “This bill will create a problem against equal protection of the law. It’s supposed to be about opportunity.”
The only Democrat on the subcommittee, Wilburn, raised concern over language in the bill, specifically lines 26 and 27, which read: “the term ‘equal’ does not mean ‘same’ or ‘identical,’” and “separate accommodations are not inherently unequal.”
Wilburn said the statement takes us back in time and creates a system of injustice.
“Many of us have wondered what year they’re talking about,” he said. “Plessy v. Ferguson was 1896, and I guess that’s what year we’re going back to should this pass.”
Iowa’s legislation mirrors a slew of executive orders from President Donald Trump targeting the transgender community, including a federal definition of sex as only male or female and for that to be reflected on official documents and policies such as federal prison assignments.
Trump has also signed executive orders to cut federal support for gender transitions for people under the age of 19, ban transgender women from participating in women’s sports, ban transgender people from joining the U.S. military, and more.
Iowa’s Republican majority in the state legislature has passed similar laws over the years, including laws banning those under 18 from receiving gender-affirming care, banning transgender women and girls from competing in female sports, and banning transgender students from using school bathrooms aligning with their gender identity.
Many of Trump’s orders are currently tied up in court.
Holt has previously said he introduced House Study Bill 242 because gender identity protections jeopardize other laws passed by the legislator, as the legislation would be at risk of being considered unconstitutional.
Holt said on Monday that transgender individuals, just like every other American, are protected by the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the Iowa Constitution, and putting gender identity as a protected class in the Iowa Civil Rights Code has “elevated their rights above others and infringed upon the rights” of women.
The legislation advanced Monday also prohibits Iowa’s schools from providing instruction related to gender identity and sexual orientation to students in kindergarten through grade six.
Fett said bills like House Study Bill 242 protect women and girls and their spaces, such as bathrooms and locker rooms. She said the bill was carefully crafted and is not about discrimination but to provide clarity and truth about biological sex.
“The truth is there are only two sexes, no gender identities and infinite personalities,” Fett said. “By defining those basic terms, we’re going to stop the infringement on the to anyone that disagrees with gender theory.”
Hundreds of Iowans protest the bill, only a few able make public comment
Voices of protesters boomed through the halls and could be heard in the subcommittee room lined with people speaking both in favor and against the bill.
The protest was so loud and vigorous, Chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee Holt paused public comment multiple times. The meeting ran out of time before all Iowans wanting to speak during public comment were able to do so.
After lawmakers reported difficulty hearing people testify, state troopers directed protesters to the Capitol rotunda and then handcuffed and removed at least four people, according to reporting by The Des Moines Register.
Max Mowitz, the executive director of the LGBTQ+ rights group One Iowa, said the bill will have enormous consequences that extend outside of the transgender community.
They said the legislation is a “scourge on our history,” conflicts with other parts of the Iowa Civil Rights Act, and allows for discriminating practices and behaviors toward women.
Mowitz spoke of their experience being a transgender Iowan and condemned legislators for not focusing on other issues.
“Myself and my trans family is part of what makes the state amazing,” they said. “We deserve dignity and love. This state raised me. We deserve better than this. We deserve legislators that focus their attention on resources, housing, agriculture, cancer rates, and not birth certificates.”
Johnson County Supervisor Mandi Remington, a staunch supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, advocated against the bill. Remington spoke about having to talk with her 17-year-old child who identifies as transgender about losing their civil rights.
“No parent should ever have to have that conversation with their child, and no teenager should ever have to wonder if their government is going to decide that they’re no longer equal under the law,” she said.
Remington said the bill does not protect anyone or solve any problems; it only legalizes harm.
“The passage of HSB 242 would send a clear message that Iowa is no longer a state where everyone is welcome,” she said. “It would drive away families, students, and businesses.”
Holt paused public comment for over five minutes due to the noise from the protestors outside of the room. Roughly halfway through the hearing, the chat function was disabled over Webex.
Amber Williams, lobbyist for Inspired Life, a nonprofit ministry, registered in favor of the bill. Williams said the bill reaffirms spaces created “in recognition of biological differences and the unique vulnerabilities that women face — restrooms, locker rooms, domestic violence shelters — remain protected.”
“This isn’t about hatred or exclusion,” Williams said. “It’s about acknowledging that women have the right to feel secure in spaces meant for them.”
Tamara Scott, state director for Concerned Women of America, urged lawmakers to remove the term “sexual orientation” in state law as well as “gender identity.”
Scott said the LGBTQ+ community is ever-expanding and questioned how to “responsibly give a class action protection to a group that is fluid, changing, and ever-expanding.”
“It is not your job to codify feelings, to perfect, protect perceptions, pronouns or preferences, but it is to bring justice to all of us,” Scott said.