Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee advanced a bill Monday that would remove antidiscrimination protections for transgender people from the Iowa Civil Rights Act. It would also bar transgender women from women’s public bathrooms, prisons and domestic violence shelters.
Hundreds of Iowans protested the bill, HSB 242, at the Statehouse. Opponents of the bill say it will legalize discrimination against transgender Iowans and make Iowa the first state to remove a protected class from its civil rights law.
Paden Sheumaker with One Iowa says it’s dehumanizing and terrifying to be discriminated against.
“Many queer and transgender and gender nonconforming Iowans have felt this, and that is while our rights are protected, that’s with the laws and the power of the state behind us to protect us. I cannot imagine how much worse that discrimination would be if the state we live in chooses to abandon that protection.”
Supporters of the bill say it’s meant to protect women’s sports and private spaces from transgender women who were assigned male at birth. They also say the Iowa Civil Rights Act elevates the rights of transgender Iowans above the rights of others.
Copyright 2025 Iowa Public Radio News