(Des Moines) Hundreds gathered in the rotunda of the Iowa State Capitol Feb. 27, 2025, protesting legislation to remove gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act that lawmakers are expected to debate on the floor Thursday.
The Iowa House and Senate, working simultaneously Thursday, passed a bill removing gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act. It is the first bill of the 2025 legislative session to reach Gov. Kim Reynolds’ desk.
The Senate voted 33-15 and the House 60-36 in favor of Senate File 418, a bill that would amend parts of Iowa Code providing protections against discrimination in areas like employment, housing, public accommodations and education, to no longer include “gender identity” from these civil rights sections.
The bill would also change language defining “sex” and “gender” in Iowa law and would remove the ability for a transgender person to change the sex designated on their birth certificate after receiving gender-affirming surgery or other related treatment from a licensed medical provider.
Hundreds of Iowans filled the rotunda of the Iowa State Capitol, chanting and holding signs that called for lawmakers to reject the measure. Some opponents to the legislation were removed from chamber galleries for disruptive actions.
Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, said gender identity protections added in 2007 to the Iowa Civil Rights Act conflict with laws passed by Republican lawmakers in recent years on issues like transgender women competing in women’s sports and the ability of transgender people to use school bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity, and repealing these civil rights protections was a necessary step to ensure such laws can survive court challenges.
Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, answered questions from fellow lawmakers during floor debate Feb. 27, 2025 on a bill removing gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act.
“When we look across the country, what do we see? Twenty-eight states do not have this special recognition in law,” Schultz said. “Among the states, Iowa finds itself in a peculiar spot. We are the only state to have the words ‘gender identity’ in code alongside legal protections for women’s bathrooms, sports and for children from mutilation and attempts to protect taxpayers. This cannot stand.”
House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst said Iowa would also be in a unique position in being the first state in the nation to strip a group of people of their protected class status in a state civil rights code.
“We’ve never done it before – no one in the country has ever done this before,” Konfrst said. “We would be the first state in the country to take away rights from a protected class. So we don’t know what the impact will be. So don’t tell us we’re overreacting.”
Currently, there are 23 states, including Iowa, with state protections against discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation according to the Human Rights Campaign.
Senate Minority Leader Janice Weiner said Iowa lawmakers were elected to pass laws for Iowa, and that comparisons should not be made on the basis of other states’ civil rights code. Weiner said this legislation will not stop legal challenges to other Iowa laws related to transgender people.
“You have already passed the bills to do what you want,” Weiner said. “But this won’t stop the lawsuits. It will, in fact, create more causes of action. You’ll hear that there’s no slippery slope, it’s a figment of our imagination. You may think that I have a wild imagination, Mr. President, but what I actually have is a logical, legally trained mind. But you’re right on one count, there will be no slippery slope, because we’ll already be there right at the bottom of the slope. Because including gender in the Civil Rights Code as a right, freely given in 2007 (versus) removing it now are two very different votes.”
Rep. Aime Wichtendahl, D-Hiawatha, the first transgender Iowan elected to the state legislature, spoke during floor debate Feb. 27, 2025 on a bill to remove gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act.
Rep. Aime Wichtendahl, D-Hiawatha, the first transgender Iowan elected to the Legislature, shared her story of facing discrimination in her business career and in housing after coming out as transgender.
“This bill revokes protections to our jobs, our homes and our ability to access credit,” Wichtendahl said. “In other words, it deprives us of our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. I bring this up because the purpose of this bill, and the purpose of every anti-trans bill, is to further erase us from public life and to stigmatize our existence. The sum total of every anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ bill is to make our existence illegal, to force us back into the closet. If we want jobs or a place to live, we have to go back, is what they’re telling us. Because the authors of these bills wish us every harm. … It is far past time these anti-trans bills be placed into the dustbin of history.”
Democrats introduced amendments in both chambers that would change sections of the bill specifically removing “gender identity” from protections related to access to credit, housing and employment. All of the amendments were voted down.
Schultz called for the Senate to resist these amendments because it would create conflicts within Iowa Code. Sen. Zach Wahls, D-Coralville, asked Schultz to clarify if he supported a person being discriminated against in areas like credit because they are transgender.
“I resist anybody, discriminating against anybody, insulting anybody, doing anything wrong against anybody,” Schultz said. “But this bill addresses protecting women and children and taxpayers.”
Schultz did not respond “yes” or “no” when asked if he approved of a person being denied access to credit based on their gender identity.
“If the senator from Crawford believes that it is morally correct to deny transgender Iowans access to credit because they are or are perceived to be transgender, he should have the courage of his convictions to say that on the floor of the state Senate,” Wahls said. “The refusal to actually answer the question, to actually engage in debate and conversation on this topic, is beneath the dignity of this chamber.”
An amendment introduced by 10 House Republicans removing sections of the bill repealing bans on gender identity discrimination for housing and credit was withdrawn.
Rep. Sean Bagniewski, D-Des Moines, and other Democrats speaking on the House floor urged his colleagues, especially those in the majority party, to reject the “dangerous and unconstitutional bill.”
“We have partisan support for this bill, but we also have bipartisan opposition to it,” Bagniewski said. “And for the folks from both parties who are considering voting against us today, you are seen. Iowans are proud of you. I’m proud of you. I’m proud to be your colleague.”
Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, said people who used the state’s motto, “our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain” to criticize the measure should ask whether they believed women are entitled to these rights and liberties as well.
“It is basic to me, in my opinion, that the party that championed women’s rights for decades now turns a blind eye to the fact that they are being erased,” he said. “Discrimination in any form is unacceptable, but yet, apparently, it is acceptable against women in this context. It’s been described as a hateful bill. Why don’t women matter?”
Konfrst decried attempts to label the bill as a “women’s rights” measure.
“I’ve heard a lot about how this bill will protect women,” Konfrst said. “With all due respect, as someone who has fought for women’s rights my entire life, I don’t need your protection. I don’t need you to protect me. I need you to protect all Iowans, because that is what we are here to do.”
