IOWA legislators voted to remove protests from the gender identity from the Civil Rights Code despite the massive protests of opponents who say that this could expose transgender people to discrimination in many areas of life on Thursday.
The measure has traveled the legislative process after being introduced last week. The State Senate was the first to approve the bill Thursday, followed by the Chamber less than an hour later.
Hundreds of 2SLGBTQ + defenders are disseminated in the Capitol rotunda Thursday by waving signs reading “Trans rights are human rights” and singing slogans, including “no hate in our state!”
There was a strong police presence, with state soldiers parked around the rotunda. The opposition to the bill was enormous, with people 2SLGBTQ + and their allies presenting themselves en masse to defend the human rights of transgender and non -binary people. Of the 167 people who registered to testify during a 90 -minute public hearing before a chamber committee, all except 24 were opposed to the bill.
The demonstrators who watched the vote of the Gallery of the House Hué and shouted “Shame!” As the room we used to. Many reprimanded the representative of the State of Iowa, Steven Holt, who managed the bill and delivered a fierce defense before its adoption.
The bill would eliminate gender identity as a protected class of the law on civil rights of the state and explicitly define women and men, as well as sex, which would now be considered a synonym of sex and “will not be considered a synonym or a subtoris expression for gender identity, gender, gender expression or gender role.”.
The measure would be the first legislative action removing non-discrimination protections based on gender identity, said Logan Casey, director of political research at the Movement Advance Project, a reflection group on 2SLGBTQ +rights.
Supporters of the change claim that the current law has codified the idea that people can move on to another sex, which, according to them, are incorrect and have granted transgender women access to spaces such as bathrooms, changing rooms and sports teams which, according to them, should be reserved for people who have been assigned to birth.
“The Iowa legislature for the future of our children and our culture has an acquired interest and a solemn responsibility to defend the immutable truth,” said Holt.
2SLGBTQ + Defenders of people and human rights say that there is no justification for eliminating the protections of civil rights from trans and non -binary persons.
“If this bill is adopted, many basic basic necessities that iowans hold for acquired will become much more difficult to access the transgender iowans,” said Maz Mowitz, executive director of 2SLGBTQ + Advocacy Group One Iowa Action, said last month.
“The owners will be able to legally deny them the possibility of renting an apartment, the banks will be able to refuse them a car loan and the hotels will be able to refuse them for no other reason than because they are transgender. This bill gives those who wish to discriminate the ability to put their thumbs on the balance of the American dream.”
The representative of the state of Iowa, likes WichTendahl, was the last democrat to denounce the bill on Thursday, becoming emotional when she offered her personal history as a transgender woman, saying: “I am going to my life.”
“The aim of this bill and the aim of each anti-trans bill is to erase us more from public life and to stigmatize our existence,” said WichTendahl. “The total sum of each anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ ticket is to make our existence illegal.”
“The protections must be … reinforced, not removed”
The legislation now goes to the republican governor Kim Reynolds, who supported efforts to limit the protections of gender identity. A reynolds spokesperson refused to comment if she would sign the bill.
The actions of the legislators of Iowa came the same day that the Georgia house moved away from the elimination of gender protections of the law on state hatred crimes, which was adopted in 2020 after the death of Ahmaud Arbery.
The current Iowa civil rights law protects against discrimination based on race, color, belief, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation, religion, national origin or disability status.
Sexual orientation and gender identity were not originally included in the 1965 law on state civil rights.
The republicans of Iowa say that their changes aim to strengthen the prohibition of the State in the participation of sport and public access to the bathrooms for transgender students, which were promulgated by Reynolds.
These growing attacks against trans rights should be a reason to strengthen protections, not to remove them, said Sarah Kate Ellis, president and chief executive officer on Wednesday.
“At a time when transgender is subject to an unprecedented attack, the protections must be applied and reinforced, and not removed to encourage discrimination,” said Ellis A declaration.
“The laws on non-discrimination are essential to protect our most vulnerable and most marginalized communities, and ensuring that no one is treated differently because of whom they are. It is a red alert awakening which, if it can do it to transform people, all civil rights protections could be in danger,” said Ellis.
According to the Advancement movement, around half of the US states include gender identity in their civil rights code to protect themselves against discrimination in housing and public places, such as stores or restaurants. Some additional states do not explicitly protect against such discrimination, but it is included in the legal interpretations of laws.
The Supreme Court of Iowa rejected the argument that sex -based discrimination includes discrimination based on gender identity.
Several legislatures led by the Republicans also push to adopt more laws this year, creating legal definitions of man and women on the basis of the breeding bodies at birth following a decree of US President Donald Trump.
Trump, in a decrees to target the rights of trans and non -binary people, also signed orders launching the basics of the ban on transgender people in military service and the maintenance of transgender girls and women outside the sports competitions of girls and women, among others. Most policies are disputed in court.
