Transgender Iowans prepare to see legal protections weakened as law stripping gender identity from Iowa Civil Rights Act goes into effect

Transgender and nonbinary Iowans will see their legal protections weakened this week when a law removing gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act goes into effect.

Republican majorities in the Iowa House and Senate passed, and Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law, legislation that strikes gender identity from the state's civil rights code, making Iowa the first state to rescind civil rights protections for a protected class.

The bill was ushered through the state legislature within a week of its introduction.

The unprecedented move repeals protections for transgender Iowans against discrimination in housing, employment, lending, public accommodations and more based on their gender identity. The Iowa Civil Rights Act protects Iowans against discrimination based on sex, race, disability and other characteristics.

Additionally, Senate File 418 defines "sex" as either male or female, based on reproductive anatomy “as observed or clinically verified at birth,” and synonymous with gender. The law also removes the ability for Iowans to change the sex listed on their birth certificates after medical transition, and restricts teaching about "gender theory" from kindergarten through sixth grade.

The law also states that “equal” does not mean “same” or “identical” and that “separate accommodations are not inherently unequal” — meaning distinctions based on sex, including in contexts like restrooms or locker rooms, are considered acceptable and not discriminatory as long as they are related to protecting health, safety or privacy.

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Supporters of the new law argue the addition of gender identity to the Iowa Civil Rights Act in 2007 improperly “elevated” the rights of transgender individuals above those of others, and granted transgender women access to spaces such as bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams that should be protected for people who were assigned female at birth.

Reynolds, in a video posted to X (formerly Twitter), said the legislation “safeguards the rights of women and girls.”

“It’s common sense to acknowledge the obvious biological differences between men and women,” the governor said. “In fact, it is necessary to secure genuine equal protection for women and girls."

Today, I signed into law a bill that safeguards the rights of women and girls. pic.twitter.com/bjEEsAW6aR

— Gov. Kim Reynolds (@IAGovernor) February 28, 2025

Civil rights groups, faith leaders, small business owners and community organizations warn the new law will make Iowa a less competitive, less welcoming place to live and work — erasing decades of progress and tarnishing Iowa’s legacy as a leader in civil rights.

Critics argue the new law targets a small, vulnerable population that already faces higher risks of bullying, suicide and housing instability. Transgender people make up an estimated 1 percent of the state’s population.

The legal impacts

Keenan Crow, director of policy and advocacy for LGBTQ advocacy organization One Iowa, said some transgender Iowans are leaving the state, while others are staying and fighting.

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The removal of the state-level protections has created uncertainty and fear for transgender individuals, making them feel less safe and included in their communities, said Crow, who uses they/them pronouns.

“It's hard to feel secure anywhere in this country when there's an entire political party that seems to be aligned against your existence,” Crow said.

Challenging discrimination becomes more difficult and costly for transgender Iowans, Crow said. For example, they could be denied housing, fired from a job, or refused service at a business based on their gender identity, with little legal recourse.

Previously, complaints alleging illegal discrimination based on gender identity could be filed with the Iowa Office of Civil Rights. Under the new law, transgender Iowans will largely be forced to pursue federal court cases for discrimination that occurs after June 30, “but that is a lot of extra time, effort and money that most people simply do not have,” Crow said.

“Filing a complaint with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission is free, and they can do a lot of the legwork for you,” they said. “So the process is just infinitely more complicated and more expensive if you actually have to go and file a federal-court case versus complaining to either a state or a federal agency.”

The ban on changing birth certificates will prohibit transgender Iowans who have transitioned from obtaining driver’s licenses, passports and other identification and government documents that describe who they are, effectively erasing any recognition of their gender identity, Crow said.

Doing so invites discrimination and further outing of transgender individuals and people whose identities do not match their physical appearance, especially when trying to board a plane, enter another country or return to the United States, they said.

That compromises their privacy and opens them up to harassment, if the validity of their identity comes into question, Crow said.

Being the first openly transgender state lawmaker in Iowa

Iowa’s first openly transgender state lawmaker, Rep. Aime Wichtendahl, a Hiawatha Democrat, made headlines in February for her speech against the new law, sharing from personal experience.

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Wichtendahl said gender identity protections in the Iowa Civil Rights Act helped save her from discrimination, including by keeping her home and her job.

The same week Wichtendahl transitioned at work, her property management company told her she had 30 days to vacate, though she had always paid her rent on time and the next-door unit had sat vacant for six months.

“Have you ever had to look into your 3-year-old's eyes and explain to him why you don't have a house anymore, to have to explain to him why you're now living with strangers and what happened to his room and all his toys?” Wichtendahl asked during an emotional speech on the House floor. “Have you ever had to do that? Because I have."

She shared that she considered taking her life before she transitioned.

Wichtendahl said she fears for the safety and security of transgender Iowans moving forward.

“There's so much hostility to the trans community, and because lawmakers and leaders are openly engaging in that hostility that gives basically everyone else, like permission to be as just cruel and awful as they can to the trans community,” she said. “… There's real, you know, animosity and real harm being directed at trans people because our lawmakers engage in that harm.”

Wichtendahl said she remains hopeful for legal challenges to overturn the law, emphasizing the need for continued support and solidarity within the trans community.

“I believe that in the end of the day, that justice will be done,” she said. “I'm an eternal optimist, and I do believe that whether it's through the courts or whether (at the ballot box) that we will restore our freedoms and our rights in the state of Iowa. I still haven't given up hope on believing that if there's a legal challenge, it will ultimately be successful, and that this law will be escorted to the dustbin of history in due time.”

What do federal protections look like?

During debate on the legislation in February, Republican state lawmakers argued stripping gender Identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act was necessary to uphold laws passed in previous sessions that protect women in bathrooms and sports, adding that transgender Iowans will still receive civil rights protections under federal law.

“The removal of gender identity as a protected class means that transgender rights are not elevated above women and other citizens. The hyperbolic argument that taking this step will cause discrimination does not hold up to scrutiny or common sense,” Republican Rep. Steven Holt of Denison, the bill’s floor manager in the House, said during debate on the legislation in February.

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Holt pointed to a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Bostock v. Clayton County, where the court ruled discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is sex discrimination.

Breanna Young, an attorney at Dentons Davis Brown, said while federal protections for gender identity still exist in areas including housing, employment and credit, they are a “patchwork” of regulations that could be weakened by President Donald Trump’s administration during his second term in office.

“We will be relying a lot more on federal law than we ever were before. Because before we had sort of like the backstop in Iowa of the Iowa Civil Rights Act, which of course protected against discrimination based on gender identity in so many areas,” Young said. “We've been seeing that with the Trump administration, the rollback of civil rights protections for trans people at the federal level.”

Anti-discrimination protections for gender identity currently exist for housing under a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development rule that prohibits discrimination based on sex, which includes gender identity. Under a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule, gender identity also is included in a prohibition on sex discrimination in banking and finance. But enforcement of both rules has been halted as the Trump administration reviews them.

Federal protections against discrimination based on gender identity in employment provided by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission also are not being enforced after Trump issued an executive order in January instructing government agencies to enforce laws governing sex-based rights, protections, opportunities and accommodations to “protect men and women as biologically distinct sexes, and to remove all statements, politics regulations, forms, communications or other internal and external messages promoting gender ideology.”

There are no federal protections for discrimination in public accommodations based on gender identity, which Young says will allow businesses to turn away people based on their gender identity.

“You could, you know, be out with friends, want to go to the movie theater and be turned away because you're transgender, or they think you're transgender,” Young said. “It’s all of these parts of public life that we all enjoy, and I think to some extent, take for granted, are no longer a given for a lot of our community members.”

‘I just want to live my life’

Beverly Smith of Des Moines, who works in technology, said since beginning her transition as a trans woman six years ago, she has faced “bigotry” at work.

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Up until last March, Smith worked in an office where she felt hostility from her co-workers. For a while, she used the restrooms on the warehouse side of the building where she worked.

“When I first began presenting as Beverly, just to make things easier on everybody around and because I wasn't interested in picking a fight, you know, I'm not interested in shoving my presence in anybody's face. I have no interest in that. I just want to live my life,” Smith said.

Eventually, the company downsized the building and Smith had to use the office restrooms. Management eventually put up placards on the doors indicating the occupancy of the multi-stall bathrooms after one of her co-workers complained about her using the women’s restroom.

Smith currently works for a new company where she feels “100 percent embraced,” but believes that if she had stayed at her previous job, they could legally let her go or make her life “more unpleasant” because she is transgender.

“What this (law) is going to do is it's going to force the bigots to come out of the closet,” Smith said. “Trans people are a minority voting bloc, and so we're pretty easily bullied … and I think that politicians know that and this is something they can put a feather in their cap. You know, when they address their nationalist base.”

A few years ago, Smith was able to change her gender to female on all of her documents, including her birth certificate, but worries for those who won’t be able to once the new law goes into effect.

“This (legislation) was sold into the guise of protecting women's athletics and frankly, my potentially being turned down for a mortgage or to be served in a restaurant has absolutely nothing to do with women's athletics,” Smith said. “Their claims are all wrong, and the mechanism of this legislation is fundamentally faulted.”

Smith knows people who are leaving the state to go where there are civil rights protections for gender identity and gender-affirming care is more accessible.

But as a lifelong Iowan, she says she plans to stay in the state despite the new law.

“My plan is simply to know that it (discrimination) could happen, and to just to take it in stride and, you know, make sure to share my experiences,” Smith said. “We need to stand our ground and to recognize that we're not alone, that we have a marvelous community and that we have allies around us as well … it's worth living our lives”

‘The way that I walk about my life at times has changed’

Parker Williamson was among the hundreds of Iowans who packed shoulder-to-shoulder into the Iowa Capitol Rotunda in February in a massive, emotionally charged protest against legislation removing civil rights protections for transgender Iowans like himself.

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After chanting at the top of his lungs alongside an estimated throng of more than 2,500 other Iowans, he stormed home angry. Once home, the anger subsided, replaced by waves of grief and fear.

His mother started the day by texting him to check in to see how he was feeling. Frustrated and angry that the state he had long called home no longer considered him one of its own worth protecting, Williamson felt almost annoyed that his mother kept checking in to make sure he was OK.

Now home, sitting down, he picked up the phone and called his mom.

He broke down, sobbing.

“Mom, it hurts so bad,” he said.

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“It was hard to get the words out without choking over them,” Williamson told The Gazette. “And I think, I mean even still now when I talk to her every day, if we talk about how I essentially lose part of my civil rights protection next week, she's very angry and scared for me.”

The 25-year-old Korean American who grew up in Creston and lives in Des Moines, came out as transgender in 2011 at the age of 11, with support from family, friends and teachers.

Growing up poor, non-white and queer in rural Iowa was not picture-perfect, but Williamson said he always considered himself lucky.

Iowa was home. He was proud of that. While there was some bullying, dirty looks and the rare call from a parent to the school to complain, overall, Williamson still felt safe and accepted. There was rarely a direct confrontation.

Today, Williamson said he walks around on guard and unsettled.

“If I want to go downtown and try a new restaurant, I need to see if they've got a (trans flag) sticker in the window,” or are listed by One Iowa as among the businesses that signed its “No Hate In Our State” inclusivity pledge, he said.

“The way that I walk about my life at times has changed, like just being more cautious of talking about my identity out loud and in very public spaces where I'm not sure what the vibe is,” Williamson said. “And I think the way that I feel about my home has certainly changed and felt like a sort of roller coaster.”

He said he remains hopeful for legal challenges that will overturn the new law.

“I'm very fortunate to have supportive family like my mom and partner, and a good, supportive workplace,” Williamson said. “So I'm trying to remain optimistic that there will be legal fights over this and that we will come out on top.”

Moving forward

While transgender Iowans will now see weaker rights under Iowa state law, Young says there are a few ways they can gain some legal protection, including signing specific documents, like wills, trusts, power of attorney documents and “Declaration of Designee for Final Disposition” documents.

“There are all kinds of legal documents that people can get in place to protect themselves, and those documents are not dependent on anybody's gender identity or perception of gender identity, and also they're accessible to most people,” Young said.

Young says there are also multiple free legal resources transgender Iowans can access in the state, including a Drake Law School LGBTQ law clinic held every fall.

Crow said One Iowa is working to provide support through several channels, including releasing a guide to inform transgender Iowans about the new law and its implications. It’s also set up a reporting mechanism at report@oneiowa.org for individuals to share experiences of discrimination.

Though they cannot provide direct legal services, Crow said One Iowa is committed to preventing the loss of critical stories of discrimination and creating an official record once state reporting mechanisms are eliminated to document the law's real-world impacts and create a data-driven narrative for potential policy reversals

After the removal of gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act goes into effect on July 1, complaints of alleged illegal discrimination based on gender identity to the Iowa Office of Human Rights that happened on June 30 or up to 300 days before still will be taken up by the office.

The Iowa Trans Mutual Aid Fund also is preparing to handle increased requests for support and funding.

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S. Eliot Steuer, a native Iowan and founding board member of Dubuque Pride, said the group aims to support the community and collaborate with other Iowa Pride organizations to strengthen their network.

The LGBTQ+ nonprofit has created a Know Your Rights resource document available on its website to educate the community about legal protections and resources.

The group also is hosting monthly gatherings and pop-up events to provide community support and connection, and is supporting trans mutual aid efforts, which provide no-questions-asked financial assistance for critical needs like hormone replacement therapy.

It’s also collaborating with local colleges to help LGBTQ+ student groups continue operating and finding community support; working to build networks with other LGBTQ+ organizations in Iowa like Iowa City Pride and CR Pride to create a stronger collective support system; and offering presentations and seminars to businesses and organizations about supporting LGBTQ+ employees and community members.

“It's creating enough confusion with people that everyone's panicking. Again, I think that's intentional, and that causes a lot of emotional stress to people,” Steuer said. “We already know that within the LGBTQ community, and especially within the trans community, we have a lot of neurodivergence, we have a lot of financial insecurity … so we're talking about a vulnerable population to begin with.”

She said she knows Trans Iowans who have made preparations and are ready to flee Iowa to another state or country “as soon as it gets uncomfortable here.”

“They've got their passport, they've got everything set. So they're fortunate enough, at least financially, to be able to do that,” Steuer said. “But you have a lot of people who are not financially well off enough to do that. They're just trying to survive. They're trying to survive as the self that they know that they are. … When you start to take that away from any class of people and any group of people, you're eroding a part of society.”

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com