Iowa lawmakers approve bill targeting transgender athletes

DES MOINES — The Iowa House approved legislation Monday banning the participation of transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports at Iowa schools and colleges.

“There are fears out there that women’s sports are under attack,” Rep. Skyler Wheeler, R-Orange City, said about House File 2416, which was approved 55-39.

It would require any Iowa schools that get public funding to designate sports programs as one of the following: open to biological females, open to biological males or coeducational.

Girls and women are being displaced from their teams by transgender athletes identified as male at birth, Wheeler said.

“It is shameful that it happened. It never should have happened. And it better never happen here,” Wheeler said in urging passage of the bill, which is similar to one awaiting action in the Senate. Gov. Kim Reynolds has indicated she will sign the legislation if it gets to her desk.

Despite Wheeler’s claims of girls who have been harmed by the participation of transgender athletes identified as male at birth competing on their teams, Democrats insisted there are no examples of unfairness in Iowa.

Wheeler’s “crisis” has been manufactured by conservative legislators “claiming, falsely, that when transgender girls compete, cisgender girls cannot win,” said Rep. Art Staed, D-Cedar Rapids.

“There is no, no crisis and no threat to girls’ sports. Girls’ sports don’t need to be rescued,” he said.

Democrats also warned that prohibiting transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports will further marginalize the less than 2 percent of Iowa students who identify as transgender. They already are 40 percent more likely to commit suicide, according to Rep. Mary Mascher. Banning them from athletic activities could increase anxieties.

HF 2416 isn’t about “right and wrong, but life and death,” said Mascher, adding that the bill is “state-sanctioned bullying.”

Rep. Henry Stone, R-Forest City, countered the bill is “state-sanctioned fairness” for girls want to compete on a level playing field.

Rep. Jane Bloomingdale, R-Northwood, also rejected criticism that the bill was about hate, discrimination and bullying. She grew up in the 1970s when girls had to fight for opportunities in sports and voted for the HF 2416 “for the girls playing sports (to) keep it a level playing field.”

But Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, D-Ames, called the bill a “mean-spirited solution without a problem.”

The solution, Wheeler said, will “ensure that girls continue to have a level playing field in athletics and don’t lose out on varsity letters, scholarships, championships and the fame and attention that comes with dominating in a sport.

“Girls should not be sidelined in their own sports,” he said.

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