Erasing civil rights will be Iowa Republicans’ 2025 legacy

Our Golden Dome of Wisdom, now redder than a wrong way road sign, is closed for the season. Lawmakers finally adjourned and went home.

Iowa was held hostage for 122 days. The drama ended Thursday after a 21-hour marathon stumble to adjournment.

The words “common sense” will be uttered dozens of times to describe the session by majority Republicans who swear they have cornered the market on it.

We can be glad for things they did not do, like expanding book banning to public libraries, denying tuition grants to kids going to private colleges where DEI survives or protecting chemical companies from lawsuits by cancer victims.

Lawmakers did, finally, restrict the use of eminent domain on ag land for liquid carbon pipelines. Now we’ll see if the governor signs it at the expense of her friends pushing for the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline. I smell a veto.

But this legislative session was defined on Feb. 27. That’s the day the House and Senate voted to remove gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act. Gov. Kim Reynolds swiftly signed it into law.

Iowa became the first state ever to yank away civil rights from a protected class. It’s the worst legislative decision I’ve seen. Have any Iowans ever lost more through a single legislative action in the last 50 years? Has anyone else had their existence basically erased under state Iowa law?

It was a repudiation of Iowa’s once storied record of civil rights achievements. It was cruel, unnecessary and a disgrace.

We could just let them live their lives in peace. Never!

We must fear transgender Iowans because, we’re told, being trans is a nefarious lie. They’re a dire threat to society. God knows what trans females will do if allowed to use a women’s restroom. I don’t know, go to the bathroom?

So, with the state’s potties on high alert, we apparently needed the Trans Erasure Act of 2025. It was once a perennial failure fringe bill that wouldn’t see the light of day. But this time, Reynolds led the push to turn hate into law.

“I must confess, it pains me to be here today,” Rep. Aime Wichtendahl said during the Feb. 27 House debate. The Democrat from Hiawatha is the first trans Iowan to serve in the Legislature. “It pains me to see how the rights of an entire group of people can be so quickly and easily discarded. It pains me to hear the slander, the stereotypes and the fear leveled at the trans community, my community, my friends and my family, my people. People who just want to live their lives to be themselves and to live free of fear.”

It was such a proud moment that GOP leaders and the governor didn’t mention it in statements after the final gavel fell this past week.

“We continued to enact common sense laws to restore and protect the rights of Iowans,” said Senate President Amy Sinclair, who mentioned common sense 10 times in five paragraphs.

Oops must be a typo.

“We continued to enact laws vaporizing the rights of Iowans.”

There, I fixed it for you.

Fear was among this Legislature’s primary weapons. I’ve heard it’s in the bitter coffee they serve at the Capitol.

And right next to trans Iowans in Republicans’ anxiety closet is DEI. No acronym has drawn more acrimony.

The crusade against Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs at state universities prompted frightened university staff to scrub websites of any evidence DEI ever existed. Republicans are watching. And watch what you say.

Fearing white conservatives are the real victims of discrimination, and Black and brown Iowans are getting ahead because of DEI, Republicans demanded it be banished from state university campuses. After all, it’s just common sense racism.

But don’t talk about racism. Teachers are scared to teach real, non-homogenized history or even mention LGBTQ Iowans living in our communities. The chilling effect on educators is like a polar vortex. And do not mention climate change.

Republicans who run Iowa are unshakable absolutists. Every trans person is a threat. Every DEI program is a leftist plot. All recipients of food assistance and Medicaid are lazy freeloaders or fraudsters. Every Democrat is a radical socialist.

This certainly puts a dent in any notion our leaders are smart and thoughtful or have any desire to learn about the real world.

But we keep voting for these folks. Iowans don’t seem to care much about even unpopular legislation. Maybe they’re just too busy to pay attention.

This would be a good time for more Iowans to start.

Because when they’re done with trans Iowans and DEI, they’ll need a new enemy. Who should we fear next? It could be you or someone you love.

(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com