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UPDATE (Feb. 28, 2025, 4:03 p.m. ET): Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the measure into law on Friday afternoon, framing the legislation as one that “safeguards the rights of women and girls.” The law is scheduled to go into effect on July 1.
On Thursday, both chambers of Iowa’s Legislature passed a bill to remove gender identity protections from the state’s civil rights code, positioning the state to become the first to eliminate such protections for transgender and gender nonconforming people.
Senate File 418 swept through Iowa’s House and Senate despite fierce protests against the bill, including at the State Capitol on Thursday. The measure passed the state Senate along party lines. In the state House, five Republicans voted against the bill alongside their Democratic colleagues.
The bill will remove gender identity as a protected class in the state civil rights code, effectively exposing trans and nonbinary people to being discriminated against by employers, businesses or landlords. It will also define sex as based on a person’s anatomy upon birth.
Iowa is one of 23 states that protects against discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. Iowa will now become the first state to roll back civil rights protections for a group of people facing some of the highest rates of discrimination across the country.
State Sen. Jason Schultz, a Republican who introduced the Senate measure, has said that a recent lawsuit over Iowa’s anti-trans bathroom bill — which cites gender identity as being a protected class under the state civil rights code — was the impetus for the bill.
During a debate on the bill Thursday, when asked if he considered the statistics on discrimination against trans people in the workplace, Schultz said, “I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it.”
State Sen. Bill Dotzler, a Democrat, chastised his Republican colleagues.
“This state is going to become the first state in the nation to back up on civil rights,” he said. “You get to carry that honor with you as long as you live, because you’re going to take the votes to do it.”
In recent years, Iowa Republicans have banned trans women from participating in girls and women’s sports, prohibited gender-affirming care for trans youth, and prevented trans students from using school bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity. Those efforts mirror that of Republicans in states across the country, as well as the spate of anti-trans executive orders that President Donald Trump has signed.
Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican who has approved previous anti-trans legislation, was by Trump’s side earlier this month as he signed his order banning trans athletes from female sports.