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Iowa Republicans look to broaden religious freedom
Leaders say they won’t revisit the so-called ‘culture wars’
DES MOINES — Iowa’s Republican leaders say they are not planning to expand on the list of laws passed last year addressing conservative social issues and regulating gender and sexuality issues in schools, but lawmakers may revive a push for religious liberty protections — causing concerns among LGBTQ rights groups.
Republican lawmakers in 2023 passed a flurry of bills that dealt with LGBTQ issues in schools and transgender youth. A federal judge last week temporarily halted enforcement on some of the provisions after opponent filed a lawsuit. The legislation, part of a wave of similar laws in Republican-led states across the country, included:
- A ban on gender-affirming care before age 18 for transgender minors;
- A requirement that school students use the bathroom aligned with their sex assigned at birth
- A ban on gender identity and sexual orientation instruction in kindergarten through sixth grade;
- A ban on sexually explicit materials in school libraries
- A requirement that students get parental approval if they want to be referred to by a different name or set of gender pronouns at school.
House Republicans say they will propose changes to education standards and regulations in the upcoming session, but when it comes to gender identity and sexuality, legislative leaders said they are satisfied with what was signed into law last year.
“We feel that we’ve taken strong action on several of the topics that we came into with last year,” House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, said. “And so I don’t see any of those being part of our session agenda that we’re laying out as a caucus.”
Iowa Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, R-Grimes, said lawmakers are monitoring the effects of the bills passed last session, but they currently don't have any plans to expand or build on them.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds declined a request to be interviewed for this legislative preview series. Asked whether she would propose any changes to the school regulations set out last year, a governor’s spokesperson said she would lay out her legislative agenda during her Jan. 9 Condition of the State address.
Iowa was one of several states last year that banned the use of cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers and surgeries for transgender youth under the age of 18. Lawmakers in other states with similar bans have proposed raising the minimum age to as high as 26, but Iowa Republican leaders said they have no intention of extending the state’s ban.
Religious freedom
State Sen. Dennis Guth, a Republican from Klemme, said Republicans are going to pursue a bill to strengthen religious liberty protections, mirroring the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The law, signed in 1993 by Democratic President Bill Clinton, requires that courts apply strict scrutiny, the highest level of judicial review, when considering cases where a person’s religious liberty is burdened. It was passed as a reaction to a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court case that was seen as narrowing religious freedoms.
The federal law applies only to the federal government, but at least two dozen other states have passed a version at the state level.
Iowa Republicans have considered the bill several times in the past, but it has faced steep opposition from business groups that worried it would discourage people from living and working in the state.
Guth said he thinks business groups are less likely to oppose the legislation this year than they have been in the past. As the number of state-level protections has grown across the country, Guth said Iowa should follow along.
“I think this is what the Constitution originally intended for freedom of religion,” Guth said. “... It’s just been a process of keeping up.”
LGBTQ rights groups argue the law would give individuals and companies free license to discriminate on a broad range of grounds, including gender, sexual orientation and marital status.
Keenan Crow, a lobbyist for the LGBTQ advocacy group One Iowa, said the law would allow people to “pick and choose which laws they are going to follow” based on religious beliefs.
“Anything that's in the Civil Rights Act in terms of housing, employment, public accommodations, private practices, all of those things would kind of come into question if there was a broad religious exemption,” Crow said.
In a 2014 case involving Hobby Lobby, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the law allowed private corporations to deny employees insurance coverage of contraception on religious grounds.
Guth said the bill does not allow discrimination, but rather allows a more strict defense in court and restores what he believes is the original intent of the First Amendment.
“In 26 years it hasn’t happened yet,” he said of concerns that the law allows discrimination. “So we’re not the first people to do this. I don’t think there’s any reason to think that’s going to start happening.”
Library book bill temporarily blocked
The upcoming session will begin as parts of an Iowa law passed last year, focusing on LGBTQ issues and library books in schools, has been temporarily blocked from taking effect after multiple groups sued on First Amendment grounds.
The law restricts school library books with sexual content — seen by opponents as way to target books with LGBT themes — prohibits teaching about gender identity and sexuality through the sixth grade and requires schools to notify parents if a student request to change their name or gender pronouns. In blocking the curriculum and the library book portions of the law, U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Locher called it "wildly overbroad."
Iowa Republican lawmakers have defended the law as a measure to prohibit books with graphic sex descriptions from public schools. But in implementing the law, some school districts have removed classic books such as George Orwell’s “1984” and Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five.”
Grassley has said he thinks some districts are interpreting the law too broadly to make a political point, and he thinks administrators are largely supportive of the standard set out in law. Whitver said he does not anticipate any changes to the law this year.
"With 400 different school districts, there's going to be a lot of varying there," Whitver said. "And again, a new law that's just been put in place, we've got to see how it works. I think largely has been working, but we'll continue to monitor."
Democrats: Stop the 'culture war'
Democrats said the so-called culture war issues of gender identity and sexuality, which were a driving force in the last legislative session, were a distraction from things like improving housing and child care, and attracting new residents to the state.
“We need to do a better job of attracting young families and teachers and others to Iowa and right now, with what is happening with the Republican-controlled Legislature, the welcome mat is closed to anyone who looks different or thinks different than them,” Iowa Senate Democratic leader Pam Jochum of Dubuque said. “And people are tired of it.”
Iowa House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, said Republicans have been trying to “govern by headline” and pass incendiary legislation to attract support from the most conservative base of voters.
“They're out of touch with what Iowans want, and they're listening to a small subset of special interests who seem to be driving their agenda,” she said.
Republican leaders, though, have said their actions in the last legislative session were driven by concerns from parents and school officials who were looking to the Legislature to set a standard for how these issues should be approached.
“What we've been getting since then is an appreciation that we were willing to at least try to lay out a standard in which everyone could be able to follow,” Grassley said.
Gender identity protections
Iowa is one of 23 states that includes gender identity as a protected class in its civil rights code, providing discrimination protections for transgender people.
There have been attempts in recent years from some Republican lawmakers to remove gender identity as a protected class in state law. Leaders said individual members may file such bills, but it is not a priority for the majority party in either chamber.
“I assume on some of these topics there may be (a bill filed),” Grassley said. “But it's not part of what as a caucus we're currently working on as we're developing our policy committee discussion.”
Crow, the lobbyist with One Iowa, said they expect the proposal to come up again, but that it may not have the support to pass.
“We watch for anything that involves the Civil Rights Act at all,” Crow said. “And in particular anything that tries to weaken it or take people out, we will oppose any of those efforts.”
Legislative previews
In the days leading up to the start of the Jan. 8 session of the 2024 Iowa Legislature, The Gazette will preview topics of possible discussion by state lawmakers:
Sunday: Tax cuts and state budget
Today: Social issues
Tuesday: Economic development
Wednesday: K-12 education
Thursday: Higher education
Friday: Government transparency
Saturday: Agriculture and environment
Sunday: Health care
Jan. 8: Hot-button issues
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