Legal protections for transgender Iowans would be removed from the Iowa Civil Rights Act under a bill that is scheduled for a hearing Wednesday in the Iowa House of Representatives.
The bill, proposed by Rep. Jeff Shipley, R-Birmingham,would remove gender identity from the state’s civil rights law. It would also add “a diagnosis for gender dysphoria or any condition related to a gender identity disorder” to the disability category of the Iowa Civil Rights Act.
Shipley said on IPR’s River to River that the civil rights law is “very powerful,” and the Legislature needs to address legal questions around what accommodations must be made for transgender Iowans.
“Right now the Legislature has been answering these questions one by one as they come up, typically after someone’s already been harmed and aggrieved,” Shipley said. “So I think it is time to look at the underlying framework that is generating a lot of these issues and concerns.”
He said lawmakers should clarify whether people are legally required to use transgender Iowans’ preferred pronouns at work, and whether public swimming pools have to allow transgender Iowans to wear swimsuits that align with their gender identity.
The Iowa Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on Iowans’ race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, ancestry or disability.
It specifically outlaws discrimination in housing, employment, wages, credit practices, education, and public accommodations like restaurants and hotels.
Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, said changing the civil rights law could be a slippery slope to removing other protected characteristics. And he said nothing is clearer than the current law that explicitly prohibits discrimination based on gender identity.
“Being allowed to live in a place that you want to rent or get credit is not an accommodation,” he said. “It is a civil rights protection currently in Iowa code. And what Rep. Shipley’s doing by trying to put it … under disability, it leaves out broad swaths of people.”
Kris Maul, an Urbandale resident who is transgender, said a lot of transgender Iowans would be excluded from anti-discrimination laws if the bill becomes law, including his own gender-fluid child.
“I probably would have met the criteria for gender dysphoria many years ago, but I don’t currently meet the criteria,” Maul said. “So I am a transgender person, but I don’t have gender dysphoria diagnosis, I wouldn’t be eligible nor seek that diagnosis today, so I’m going to lose protections under that.”
Asked how he would respond to transgender Iowans’ concerns about facing discrimination, Shipley said, “It’s very hard for me to envision that kind of discrimination occurring.”
He said data since 2007 would support that.
Iowa added gender identity to the Iowa Civil Rights Act in 2007.
Bills to remove gender identity have been proposed in past years, but they never received a hearing. Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, chairs the House Judiciary Committee, and he killed one of those bills in 2020. This year, Holt told the Des Moines Register he scheduled a public subcommittee meeting because he wants to hear a conversation about the proposal.
Shipley claimed his bill could expand legal protections for transgender Iowans because disability “has tremendous legal protection.”
According to the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, which opposes the bill, it would take people’s rights away from them.
“This proposal hurts people,” said Pete McRoberts, ACLU of Iowa policy director. “It means a person can be fired, denied work, an apartment, or even a hotel room for no reason, as long as the person who is discriminating says they’re doing it because they’re transgender.”
Republican lawmakers have considered dozens of bills in recent years, and passed a few, to put restrictions on transgender Iowans.
In 2019, the Iowa Legislature amended the Iowa Civil Rights Act to state that its anti-discrimination provisions do not apply to transgender Iowans seeking Medicaid coverage for their gender-affirming surgery. That provision was ruled unconstitutional.
In the past two years, Republicans in the Iowa Legislature have banned gender-affirming medications and procedures for transgender youth, barred transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports, prohibited transgender students from using school bathrooms that align with their gender identity, required school officials to notify parents if a student asks to use different pronouns, and banned instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation before seventh grade.
