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Capitol Notebook: GOP pitch to remove gender ID from Civil Rights Act moving in Senate, too
Also, Iowa House Republicans advanced a series of bills addressing carbon capture pipelines and landowner rights
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DES MOINES — A proposal to weaken legal protections for transgender Iowans by removing gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act continued advancing in the Iowa Legislature on Tuesday.
The two Republican legislators on an Iowa Senate subcommittee signed off on advancing the proposal in the Senate.
That came a day after the proposal cleared its first two legislative hurdles in the Iowa House. The Senate bill is identical to the House bill.
Under the proposal, gender identity would be removed from the Iowa Civil Rights Act, where it was placed in 2007.
Gender identity and sexual orientation were added as protected classes when Democrats had complete control of the state lawmaking process in Iowa. This is the ninth year the lawmaking process has been under complete Republican control.
The Iowa Civil Rights Act provides legal protection for discrimination against protected classes in regards to housing, employment, education, public services and accommodations, banking, and more.
The bill also would:
- Strike the definition of gender identity in state law;
- Create a new section in state law to define “sex and related terms,” and define “female” as an individual who has, will have or would have “but for a developmental anomaly, genetic anomaly, or accident,” a reproductive system that produces ova and “male” as an individual who produces sperm;
- State that the term “equal” does not mean “same” or “identical” and that “separate accommodations are not inherently unequal.” The language echoes that associated with the 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, which declared segregation on the basis of race to be legal;
- Require all state and local government data collection to identify individuals as either male or female;
- Eliminate the ability for transgender Iowans to change their birth certificate. Current law allows this if the person’s doctor certifies that their sex has changed due to surgery or other treatment.
Advocates for the bill say it is needed because the legal protections for transgender Iowans guaranteed by the Civil Rights Act have made some spaces — like bathrooms and locker rooms — more dangerous for women.
Republican lawmakers also have argued that transgender protections in the state’s Civil Rights Act endanger state laws they passed in recent years that banned gender transition care for minors, prohibited transgender girls from playing in girls sports, and prohibited transgender students from using school bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.
Attorneys, school safety advocates, legal experts and civil rights activists, however, note there is a lack of documented evidence in Iowa of transgender individuals, or men pretending to be transgender, harassing or attacking women in shelters, locker rooms, restrooms or other places — suggesting the legislation is driven more by philosophical, religious and political concerns rather than real-world needs.
Some speakers during the public comment period of Tuesday’s subcommittee hearing testified that they or their children have been exposed to transgender women and their male genitalia in women’s bathrooms or locker rooms.
“Not everyone uses their belief in a kind, gentle, normal way,” Laura Carlson said during the hearing. “I don’t need to know … just need to be safe.”
Other speakers in support of the bill said transgender people are “delusional” or acting on “the way someone feels today or tomorrow,” and that terms like gender identity are “abstract, imaginary terms.”
Those who spoke in opposition to the bill, including many transgender Iowans, said the legislation would effectively erase their existence as transgender individuals because of the legal protections it would strip. They spoke about fear of losing their jobs or housing because they are transgender.
“I want the freedom to flourish, and with this bill I will not be able to do so,” Kristian Maul, a transgender man from Urbandale, said during the hearing, referring to the new state motto introduced by Gov. Kim Reynolds in 2023. “The ability to function as an adult is going to (impact) every trans Iowan … If you pass this bill, people will be able to discriminate against trans Iowans.”
If the proposal becomes law, Iowa would become the first U.S. state to remove a protected class from its state Civil Rights Act.
The Republicans on the three-member subcommittee, Sens. Jason Schultz of Schleswig and Dan Dawson of Council Bluffs, approved advancing the bill Tuesday. That makes Senate File 418 eligible for consideration by the full Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill is on the committee’s agenda for its meeting Wednesday and would be eligible for debate Thursday.
The subcommittee’s Democrat, Sen. Matt Blake, of Urbandale, declined to support the bill.
The House bill, House File 583, already has passed out of the House’s Judiciary Committee. There is a public hearing scheduled on the bill in the House on Thursday morning, and it may be debated by the full House later Thursday.
Pipeline bills clear House committee
Four bills that are the result of opposition to a sprawling carbon dioxide pipeline system that has been approved in Iowa received near-unanimous bipartisan support from the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
They included:
- House File 238, which would limit the operation of new carbon dioxide pipelines to 25 years.
- House File 240, which would require all hazardous liquid pipeline companies to have sufficient insurance to cover damages that might result from the construction and operation of the pipelines, including losses and injuries that stem from catastrophic failures. It also would require the companies to cover the insurance costs of people who are unable to obtain insurance because of the pipelines or increased premiums that result from their presence.
- House File 242, which would allow landowners who are subject to eminent domain requests for a utilities project to challenge the requests in court while permits for the projects are pending. Under current law those court challenges are delayed until the permit processes and administrative appeals conclude, which can take years.
- House File 241, which would require at least one of the three Iowa Utilities Commission members to attend each informational meeting for proposed utilities projects.
In regard to the Summit Carbon Solutions carbon dioxide pipeline system — the first phase of which was approved last year in Iowa — the company was required to hold a meeting in each county affected by the project to inform residents about it and seek feedback. More informational meetings were held last year for an expansion of the project.
The meetings were often contentious and repetitious, and commissioners stopped attending them.
“I was shocked to hear this,” Rep. Brian Meyer, D-Des Moines, said during the committee hearing Tuesday. “Given the fact that these commissioners are paid and paid quite well, they should be all attending these meetings, unless there is a very good reason not to.”
Rep. Steve Holt, a Denison Republican who has led support for pipeline-related bills in recent years, said the commissioners’ lack of attendance is part of their “pattern of arrogance toward property owners.”
“I was stunned with the realization that commissioners were not attending these meetings — meetings in which concerned landowners, century farm owners, parents concerned about their children, all come to ask questions and to be heard, and the commissioners are not even bothering to attend,” Holt said.
Each of the bills has a Senate counterpart that has not yet received a preliminary vote in that chamber.
Governor’s child care bill advances
Gov. Kim Reynolds’ proposal to help preschool providers partner with child care centers to provide full-day care was advanced by a party-line vote in the House Health and Human Services Committee on Tuesday.
Republican legislators supported Reynolds’ proposal, which would launch a new $16 million grant program to provide three-year grants of up to $100,000 to preschool providers — typically school districts — and child care providers to provide wraparound services for working families.
Democrats voted against the bill, citing reservations that the funding is coming by shifting current funding from other sources and programs.
“Iowa parents have more preschool options than ever before, but for many, availability is not the issue,” Reynolds said in a statement. “Working parents need a solution that meets the demands of their busy lives — one that allows their children to benefit from our successful preschool programs and have access to child care. Incentivizing successful partnerships between preschools and child care providers is the best way to ensure children are receiving a full day of high-quality care.”
With the 14-6 vote in favor, House Study Bill 145 is now eligible for debate by the full Iowa House.
Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau
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