Iowans waved rainbow pride flags and erupted in cheers in the Iowa Capitol hallway Wednesday afternoon as lawmakers announced they would were killing a bill that would have removed gender identity protections from the state’s civil rights law.
All three members of an Iowa House subcommittee that considered House File 2082 Wednesday said they would not advance it to the full House Judiciary Committee for consideration.
The bill would have removed gender identity protections from the Iowa Civil Rights Act and added gender dysphoria “or any condition related to a gender identity disorder” to the definition of a disability that would be protected under the law.
The Iowa Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, ancestry, disability and gender identity. Lawmakers added the protections for gender identity in 2007 when Democrats held the Iowa Legislature and governor’s office.
People who fall under one of the protected classes in the civil rights law are protected from discrimination in employment, wages, public accommodations, housing, education and credit practices.
Hundreds of LGBTQ Iowans and their allies packed the Capitol hallways to protest the bill, some draped in transgender flags or wearing purple shirts that said “don’t legislate hate.”
As Iowans testified to lawmakers about the bill’s impact in an emotional hourlong meeting, chants of “trans rights are human rights” filled the room through the closed door.
Aime Wichtendahl, a Hiawatha City Council member who is Iowa’s first openly transgender elected official, told lawmakers that by considering the bill they were entertaining making Iowa the first state in the country to repeal civil rights protections.
“You seem to think that being trans is some kind of ideology, so I will say it plain,” she said. “There is no such thing as transgenderism, there is only transgender people. We are human beings. We are American citizens. We are Iowans. And we do not deserve this abuse that we are getting from our government.”
Iowa Republicans in recent years have passed a flurry of laws impacting transgender Iowans, including banning transgender youth under 18 from receiving gender-affirming medical care, restricting transgender students from using school bathrooms that align with their gender identity and banning transgender women and girls from competing in female sports.
House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl, R-Missouri Valley, said the fact that the subcommittee chose not to advance the bill is a good indication that its ideas are not going to move through the committee process or receive a vote on the House floor.
Windschitl said he does not believe the Iowa Civil Rights Act needs to be revisited. He said taking away protections that exist in the law could be looked at as an opportunity to discriminate against those protected classes.
“I would say I don’t think that that would be the wise choice or the wise thing to do for those basic civil rights protections that are there,” he said.
Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.
