March 27, 2025
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa lawmakers became the first in the nation to approve legislation removing gender identity as a protected class from the state’s civil rights law Thursday.
The bill also explicitly defines female and male, as well as gender, which would be considered a synonym for sex and “shall not be considered a synonym or shorthand expression for gender identity, experienced gender, gender expression, or gender role.”
The measure raced through the legislative process after first being introduced last week. The state Senate was first to approve the bill on Thursday, on party lines, followed by the House less than an hour later. Five House Republicans joined all Democrats in voting against it.
The measure would be the first legislative action in the U.S. to remove nondiscrimination protections based on gender identity, said Logan Casey, director of policy research at the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ+ rights think tank.
The bill now goes to Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, who signed earlier policies banning sports participation and public bathroom access for students of the opposite gender. A spokesperson for Reynolds declined to comment on whether she would sign the bill. If she does, it will go into effect on July 1.
Hundreds of LGBTQ+ advocates streamed into the Capitol rotunda on Thursday, waving signs and chanting slogans. There was a heavy police presence, with state troopers stationed around the rotunda.
Supporters of the change say the current law incorrectly codified the idea that people can transition to another gender and granted men claiming to be women access to women's spaces such as bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports teams that should be protected for people who were assigned female at birth. Holt said the inclusion of gender identity in the civil rights codes threatens recent “commonsense” laws to protect women's sports and access to bathrooms.
“The legislature of Iowa for the future of our children and our culture has a vested interest and solemn responsibility to stand up for immutable truth,” Holt said.
The Iowa lawmakers’ actions came as the Georgia House backed away from removing gender protections from the state’s hate crimes law, which was passed in 2020 after the death of Ahmaud Arbery.
Iowa’s current civil rights law protects against discrimination based on race, color, creed, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, or disability status.
Sexual orientation and gender identity were not originally included in the state’s Civil Rights Act of 1965. They were added by the Democratic-controlled Legislature in 2007.
About half of U.S. states include gender identity in their civil rights code to protect against discrimination in housing and public places, such as stores or restaurants, according to the Movement Advancement Project. Some additional states do not explicitly protect against such discrimination, but it is included in legal interpretations of statutes.
Iowa’s Supreme Court has expressly rejected the argument that discrimination based on sex includes discrimination based on gender identity.
Several Republican-led legislatures are pushing to enact more laws this year creating legal definitions of male and female based on the reproductive organs at birth following an executive order from President Donald Trump.
Trump also signed orders laying the groundwork for banning people claiming to be the oppositegender from military service and keeping boys and men out of girls and women’s sports competitions, among other things. Most of the policies are being challenged in court.
On Thursday night, Trump wrote on his Truth Social site: “Iowa, a beautiful State that I have won BIG every time, has a Bill to remove Radical Gender Ideology from their Laws. Iowa should follow the lead of my Executive Order, saying there are only two genders, and pass this Bill – AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. Thank you Iowa!”
