Iowa's Republican-led legislature voted Thursday to remove gender identity as a class protected from the state's civil rights code, sending the first scale to Gov. Kim Reynolds (R).
The bill, first introduced last week, has skyrocketed through the legislative process despite protesting its passage to the state capitol in Des Moines despite widespread opposition from Demoines and LGBTQ rights advocates. Over 2,500 people entered the building on Thursday. Reported by Des Moines RegisterQuoting the number from the security of the state capitol, it tripled over 600 on average.
Protesters filled the corridors of the Iowa State Capitol on Thursday, raising the flag of transgender and LGBTQ pride, saying, “There is no hatred in our state!”
Senate File 583 Removes gender identity as a protected class under the Iowa Civil Rights Act. This is a decades-old law that protected Iowans from discrimination in employment, housing, education and public facilities. State lawmakers added protections for sexual orientation and gender identity in 2007, when Democrats controlled both the Congressional Rooms and the Governor's Office.
The state Senate passed the action Thursday by 33-15 votes along the party line. The Iowa family then voted 60-35 to approve the bill.
The gallery exploded with a chant “Who's Next?” following the Senate vote. Boo broke out after the House vote.
Over the past three years, Iowa Republicans who passed laws prohibiting transgender youth from maintaining gender, accessing toilets, locker rooms and school sports teams that match their gender identity, have enacted these laws this week and argued that this action is necessary to protect women and children.
“There was a lot of false exaggeration on the floor of this room today. Obviously, in my opinion, Democrats don't want to talk about the reality of erasing women as a result of their feelings-based gender identity that has been promoted to Iowa Cord's protected class status.”
He said trans rights were “elevated” than women's rights, he said.
Iowa Sen. Jason Schultz (R), the leading sponsor of the Senate bill, said state law cannot protect both gender and gender identity.
“We had to choose one side and not go along the way,” Schultz said Thursday.
Several GOP lawmakers cited executive orders from President Trump, which declared that the federal government only recognizes two genders: male and female. The order is one of several cards signed during his first month to roll back trans rights and deny the existence of trans, non-binary, intersex people.
Reynolds, who has not said whether she will sign the measure, has signed at least six laws since the 2017 election that explicitly targets transgender rights. Last year, we introduced the law. That would have been necessary for the nation to recognize Iowans based solely on the gender of birth.
In this week's session, Iowa Democrats denounced the proposal to remove gender identity as cruel and unnecessary as a protected class. They read aloud dozens of letters from transgender members and families with transgender children.
“The state will be the first state in the country to back up civil rights,” Democrat Sen. Bill Dotzler spoke directly to a Republican colleague on Thursday. “As long as you are alive, you can carry that honor to you. When I go to the grave, I don't have to face it.”
The Senate amendment to protect transgender and gendered people from discrimination in housing, employment and credit has been overwhelmingly rejected by the GOP vast majority in the Upper Chamber.
“Thank you to Republicans for making a wealth of clarity about what this bill is,” Sen. Matt Blake, D., said Thursday after the housing discrimination amendment was defeated. “This isn't about protecting anyone. It's not. If it was meant to protect someone, we would have just narrowed the scope of this bill right now.”
Schultz said Congress refused to amend it because he wanted to pass a 100% bill to provide clarity and predictability for the future.
“If we have different policies that take different directions, we can be called into question about the true intentions of Congress,” he said.
He was asked if he was surprised to hear that the vast majority of transgender Americans experienced harassment and discrimination in the workplace, Schultz said. I've never thought about it. ”
November Report by Williams Institute It was found that 82% of transgender people experienced discrimination in the workplace, including being fired or verbally physically or sexually harassed due to sexual orientation or gender identity.
Rep. Iowa, a Democrat and the state's first openly transgender lawmaker, said this week that the bill would take trans people away from “the pursuit of our lives, freedom and happiness.”
“It's painful to be here today,” Witchtendal said Thursday. “It's painful to see how the rights of people across the group can be quickly and easily abandoned. It hurts me to hear slander, and fear is me, I just want to live my life, I want to be myself and live free from fear. This is a fear I know.”
“The purpose of this bill, the purpose of all anti-trans bills, is to further erase us from our public life and condemn us for our existence,” she said. “The sum of all anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ bills is to make our existence illegal and push us back into the closet. If we want a job or a place to live, we have to go back. That's what they're saying to us, as the authors of these bills pray for us all the harm.”
