‘Horrified’ protesters decry move to repeal rights of trans Iowans

DES MOINES — As Republican lawmakers advanced a bill that would repeal civil rights protections for transgender Iowans, demonstrators gathered Monday outside of a committee room and spilled into the Iowa Capitol rotunda in a raucous protest that led to two arrests

They decried the legislation as an attack on the human rights of transgender and gender nonconforming people in the state.

House File 583, which would strike protections for transgender Iowans from housing and employment discrimination as well as bar them from receiving gender-affirming surgery and hormone therapy, was advanced Monday through the House Judiciary Subcommittee and them the full committee. The bill was referred to as House Study Bill 242 during the committee process, but has since been renumbered. It could be debated by the full Iowa House as early as Thursday.

Introduced by Rep. Steve Holt, R-Denison, it would remove gender identity as a protected class from the Iowa Civil Rights Act. According to House Republicans, the driving factor behind the legislation is to uphold policies passed by lawmakers in previous sessions, including legislation relating to locker rooms, restrooms, girls' and women’s sports and gender-affirming care for minors.

The bill would undo protections that were added to the civil rights act nearly 20 years ago, in 2007.

Beverly Smith, of Des Moines, who works in technology, that said as a trans woman, she relies on these protections to keep her job. She said if the legislation passes, she could either lose her job or leave it.

“It could be bad,” Smith said. “I probably would not work there anymore. There's a tremendous amount of bigotry in my very small office, and it's these laws that have shielded me from that. We're not quite as dangerous as maybe we've been suggested to be.”

Drake University law student McKenzie Roberts said there is a lot of fear circulating because of the legislation and said she was protesting in support of her transgender classmates.

“We're just really disgusted with what's going on,” Roberts said. “We have trans classmates, and we just feel like right now is the most important time to speak out — can't stay silent right now.”

Another protester, Amber Lynch, of Des Moines, said as a trans woman, she was “horrified” but said she would keep coming back to the Capitol to protest

“We're channeling all that fear and that anger into stronger love and stronger unity,” Lynch said. “Everything is scary, but we're also feeling the best we've ever had to, so all they're doing is just making us more and more empowered.”

Two people were arrested by Iowa State Patrol officers stationed at the Capitol and were charged with interference with official acts.

Multiple people testified in favor of the legislation in the subcommittee meeting, but there were no identifiable supporters of the bill in the rotunda during the protest.

Leaving Iowa?

Laura Fetter, of Martendsdale, who has a 15-year-old transgender son, said her family has considered leaving Iowa multiple times due to legislation that targets transgender people. She was raised in Iowa and said she doesn't want to leave her family or the state she grew up in — but believes if the bill passes, transgender people, including her son, would have to “go into hiding.”

“It's that constant back and forth between, do we go somewhere else and feel safer, or do we stay and fight change and know that in the process, we are risking our safety?” Fetter asked. “The state is putting me in really a hard position.”

The legislation would require all state and local government data collection to identify individuals as either male or female and would eliminate the ability for transgender Iowans to change their birth certificates.

Cati Kalinoska, of Des Moines, who uses they/them pronouns, said transgender and nonbinary people they know are either leaving or considering leaving Iowa over legislation including HF 583.

“Why would I stay in a place where my elected officials outwardly hate me, tell me terrible things, and then expect me to continue paying taxes to keep them employed?” Kalinoska asked. “This is my home, and to feel like you're being pushed out of your own home is rough, especially considering that Iowans love and care for each other.”

‘It’s smoke and mirrors’

V Fixmer-Oraiz, the only openly transgender county supervisor in Iowa, who serves on the Johnson County Board of Supervisors, said HF 583 is a distraction from issues Iowans are facing, including finding affordable housing and coping with food insecurity.

“I hope that they see this for what it is, which is just hatred, and it's smoke and mirrors,” Fixmer-Oraiz said. “I have families who are sleeping in their vehicles in my county, and that's what I would rather be doing, but here I am having to come here to ask our state lawmakers to do their job.”