Iowa Blocks Cities From Protecting Transgender Residents
Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the Republican-backed law preventing about 20 Iowa cities from enforcing transgender protections.
On March 10, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill barring local governments from adopting laws or ordinances that prohibit discrimination against transgender individuals.
The bill was approved by both the Iowa House of Representatives and the Iowa Senate on party-line votes, with Republicans seeking to undermine existing local ordinances that include gender identity protections.
Under the new law, a city or local government cannot enact an ordinance that is “broader or has different categories of unfair or discriminatory practices” than protections that exist in state law.
That means about 20 local governments whose civil rights ordinances currently contain transgender protections — including some of Iowa’s largest cities, such as Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Davenport, Dubuque, Cedar Falls, Waterloo, Ames, and Council Bluffs — can no longer enforce those provisions, as reported by the Des Moines Register.
The new law removes a requirement that cities with more than 29,000 residents operate a civil rights commission, though they are still permitted to have one, and sets the terms of local civil rights commissioners at two years. It also says that any complaints not resolved by a local civil rights commission within a year must be transferred to the Iowa Office of Civil Rights for resolution. It further requires the state to take charge of any civil rights disputes in which one of the parties is a local government.
In recent years, Iowa Republicans have targeted the transgender community, with lawmakers last year repealing decades-old protections in the Iowa Civil Rights Act that ensured transgender people could not be discriminated against in employment or when seeking credit, housing, and public accommodations.
Reynolds defended signing the bill barring local governments from adopting gender-identity protections.
“We just believe that the locals should follow the state laws especially when it comes to civil rights, otherwise we have a mismatch of rights out there,” she told reporters on March 11. “We felt that it was the right thing to do. I think we forget that it also matches the federal law so now the state law, the local law and the federal laws all match.”
While the Iowa bill does not repeal protections for sexual orientation in the state’s Civil Rights Act, nothing in federal law explicitly grants nondiscrimination protections based on sexual orientation. That means that, using Reynolds’ criteria of “matching federal law,” anti-gay opponents could later argue that those protections should also be repealed.
Some conservatives have already argued that a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling finding that sexual orientation discrimination is a form of sex-based discrimination should apply only to workplace discrimination, potentially allowing anti-gay discrimination in other areas of life.
Reynolds also claimed that repealing local governments’ power to prohibit gender-identity discrimination was necessary to ensure that other anti-trans legislation passed by Iowa Republicans in recent years — including bans on gender-affirming care for trans youth, transgender athlete bans, and restrictions barring transgender students from using bathrooms aligned with their gender identity — can withstand court challenges.
“It does have an impact on protecting girls’ sports and making sure that we’re protecting girls in safe spaces, in restrooms and in lockers,” Reynolds said. “And so that was at jeopardy if we have a hodgepodge of mixed laws within our state.”
LGBTQ advocates say the bill is a naked attempt to further discriminate against transgender people.
“Republicans acted as quickly as possible to remove any semblance of rights remaining for transgender Iowans, and took local civil rights commissions down with them,” Max Mowitz, executive director of One Iowa, said in a statement. “With all the issues facing Iowans at this moment, from cancer rates to water quality, Iowa Republicans can’t seem to agree on anything other than taking away civil rights.”
More from Metro Weekly:
Support Metro Weekly’s Journalism
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.