Iowa Gov. Reynolds signs ban on transgender girls in girls sports into law

DES MOINES — Ainsley Erzen, a high school athlete from Carlisle, stood at the podium, speaking to the media throng and the dozens assembled about her desire for a fair and level playing field for female athletes in Iowa.

A few feet behind Erzen, on the other side of a mass of supporters to her cause, advocate Becky Smith stood silently behind a transgender flag. She later said she was there to show her support for Iowa’s transgender youth.

That was the scene in the Iowa Capitol rotunda on Thursday as Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law legislation that bans transgender girls and women from participating in girls’ and women’s sports in Iowa.

Iowa becomes the 11th state to enact a ban on transgender girls in girls sports.

The legislation, House File 2416, passed through the Iowa Legislature with only Republican support. Republicans and supporters of the new law say it is a matter of ensuring fairness in girls’ and women’s athletics.

“It’s simply a reality of human biology. Forcing females to compete against males is the opposite of inclusivity, and it’s absolutely unfair,” Reynolds, a Republican, said during the public bill-signing event. “Girls athletes would inevitably be displaced by biological boys with physical advantages.”

There are no examples of transgender girls dominating a girls’ sport in Iowa, and examples nationally exist but are rare.

Democrats, advocates for LGBTQ people and other opponents argue the examples of transgender girls dominating girls’ sports are rare, and that these types of proposals can create a feeling of exclusion in LGBTQ people, who are already subject to higher rates of suicidal thoughts.

More than half of transgender male adolescents and 30 percent of transgender female adolescents reported a previous suicide attempt, compared to 14 percent of all adolescents, in a 2018 study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“Transgender student-athletes are not a threat to girls athletics. We’re extremely disappointed that this law was passed,” Smith, who is executive director of the LGBTQ youth advocacy organization Iowa Safe Schools, told reporters. “Today, we wanted to make sure that transgender students who were watching the bill signing or who will see it tonight on the news know that we stand with them, they still have the right to a safe and supportive school, and that if they need anything that Iowa Safe Schools is here to support them.”

The bill takes effect immediately, meaning that any transgender girls or women currently playing high school or college sports in Iowa are no longer allowed to under the new state law.

Under the state law, transgender students must now play sports with the gender on their birth certificate, not the gender with which they identify.

While the number of transgender student-athletes competing in Iowa is not known, Iowa Safe Schools has worked with many over the years, a spokesperson said.

Both of the organizations that govern Iowa high school athletes have policies or guidance regarding transgender student-athletes. A spokesman for the boys’ association said it has not received any complaints regarding its policy. The girls’ association on multiple occasions declined to respond to questions about the proposed legislation.

Iowa’s new law may conflict with transgender participation policies for the NCAA and NJCAA, the bodies that govern college athletics. Both allow transgender men and women to compete under certain guidelines.

The new law could face a legal challenge, as has been the case in many other states that passed similar laws.

Smith said Iowa Safe Schools believes Iowa’s new law violates federal laws that prohibit discrimination in schools.

“This is going to open up a giant landslide of lawsuits against different school districts across the state when transgender students remember that they have a federal right to protection under the law,” Smith said.

The state’s nonpartisan legal services agency reported that the new law could open the state to lawsuits, and could threaten federal funding if it is determined to violate federal anti-discrimination regulations.

The bill’s signing drew condemnation from advocacy and business groups both locally and nationwide.

More than 150 businesses, including Amazon, Microsoft and IBM, signed a letter opposing the legislation. The Human Rights Campaign called the bill’s signing “a shameful moment in Iowa’s history.”

In Iowa, Kum & Go CEO Tanner Krause tweeted his strong opposition to the new law.

“We are sending the wrong message to the next-gen of Iowans & Americans. Iowa should be attracting people, not shutting them out,” Krause tweeted.

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