Iowa becomes first state to remove gender identity from civil rights code

As of July 1, Iowa is now the first state to strip gender identity protections from its civil rights code. The move means transgender and nonbinary residents are no longer considered part of a protected class, opening the door to potential discrimination in housing, employment, and other areas of life.

Iowa’s Republican governor and supporters of the new law say it “safeguards the rights of women and girls.”

“It is common sense to acknowledge the obvious biological difference between men and women. In fact, it’s necessary to secure genuine equal protection for women and girls,” Gov. Kim Reynolds said in a video statement upon signing the law in February. “These commonsense protections were at risk, because before I signed this bill, the civil rights code blurred the biological line between the sexes.”

What does the law mean for Iowa’s transgender community?

In the months since the law passed, many people in the transgender community have expressed concerns over the possibility of being denied housing or employment.

One attorney told KCRG in Cedar Rapids even with the law on the books, it’ll be difficult for employers or businesses to discriminate because there are still federal laws blocking it, as well as local laws.

However, housing protections are more vulnerable, according to another legal expert, who noted there is less oversight when it comes to landlords and rental practices. 

What else changed on July 1?

Another major shift that took effect July 1 involves Iowa’s Health and Human Services budget. Under the provisions, Medicaid no longer covers gender-affirming surgery or hormone therapy.

The new law also limits the definitions of male and female to be based on a person’s reproductive organs at birth. And Iowans are no longer allowed to change the sex designation on their birth certificate.

What are critics saying?

The LGBTQ rights organization One Iowa told Iowa Public Radio the new gender identity law puts the state on the “wrong side of history.”

“By signing this bill into law, she [Gov. Reynolds] has made 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,” One Iowa Executive Director Max Mowitz said. “This law sends a devastating message: that transgender Iowans are not worthy of the same rights, dignity and protections as their neighbors.”

State Rep. Aime Wichtendahl, a Democrat who was the first openly transgender person to be elected to the Iowa Legislature, said in a video statement that the law amounts to “waging legislative war against your fellow citizens.”

“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,” Wichtendahl told fellow lawmakers in February. “The sum total of every anti-trans bill and anti-LGBTQ bill is to make our existence illegal, to force us back into the closet. If we want jobs or a place to live, we have to go back, is what they are telling us.”