Transgender sports ban advances in the Iowa Legislature

People on both sides of a proposed bill that would ban transgender girls from competing on girls sports teams said Thursday that students are under attack.

Those who support House File 2309 say girls are being robbed of opportunities to compete in sports on a level playing field when schools allow transgender girls to join their teams and potentially beat out girls for starting spots, medals and scholarships.

People who oppose the legislation say its an attack on transgender students, who already face increased risk of depression, anxiety and suicide and just want to play on a team that matches their gender identities.

“You can put up those health outcomes, those risks, and then put up the benefits of sports. It’s like we have an antidote,” Dr. Katie Imborek, co-director of the University of Iowa’s LGBTQ Clinic, said at a House Education subcommittee meeting in Des Moines. “This bill pretends to protect girls, but it is solving a problem that doesn’t exist.”

More than 20 people spoke out for and against HF2309, which would require any Iowa schools that get public funding to designate sports programs as one of the following: open to biological females, open to biological males or coeducational.

In a 2-to-1 decision, the subcommittee advanced the bill to the full Education Committee. Rep. Skyler Wheeler, R-Orange City, and Rep. Henry Stone, R-Forest City, supported the bill. Rep. Mary Mascher, D-Iowa City, opposed it.

Last year, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said during an appearance on Fox News that she would sign such a bill. Later, at a news conference, she said it was “an issue in fairness.”

Several people who made statements Thursday echoed that, saying it’s not fair for biological males to complete against biological females, even if the boys identify as girls.

“I have five brothers and grew up outnumbered by the boys at every turn. I wouldn’t always be able to keep up, regardless if I wanted to,” said Rebecca Oleson, who works for the Family Leader, a Des Moines-based social conservative organization. “The bottom line is boys and girls are different. Girls deserve to compete on a level playing field. Girls should never be sidelined in their own sports.”

Another speaker highlighted recent news stories about Lia Thomas, a transgender woman breaking records as part of the University of Pennsylvania women’s swim team. Thomas competed as a male swimmer before undergoing hormone treatment as part of her transition, the Washington Post reported.

Sixteen of Thomas’s teammates wrote a letter recently saying they support her decision to affirm her gender identity, but that she should not be allowed to compete against them.

“Biologically, Lia holds an unfair advantage over competition in the women’s category, as evidenced by her rankings that have bounced from #462 as a male to #1 as a female. If she were to be eligible to compete against us, she could now break Penn, Ivy, and NCAA Women’s Swimming records; feats she could never have done as a male athlete,” the Post reported from the letter.

But in Iowa high schools, there hasn’t been a challenge of a district decision about an athlete’s gender and sports competition, the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union told The Gazette in December.

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School superintendents said at that time they were looking for guidance from the Legislature.

Iowa Code Chapter 216.9 prohibits discrimination in educational institutions based on “race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion or disability.“ But the code excludes school athletic programs.

“You can discriminate if it’s deemed an unfair advantage,” Gary Ross, associate director for the Girls Athletic Union, told The Gazette in December.

Emily Piper, a lobbyist for the Iowa Association of School Boards, told the subcommittee Thursday that HF2309 puts school administrators in the position of deciding whether they want to violate state law or federal law. There are different interpretations of how Title IX, the federal gender equity law, comes into play with transgender sports participation, according to the National Law Review.

“The end result for school districts will be confusion,” Piper said. “It’s going to be expensive and it will be very difficult to manage.”

Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, said the bill language is similar to what has been passed in 10 to 12 other states, so he thought it had better odds of passing than similar bills proposed in the past.

“I think we came up with language that is much more workable,” he said. “Some level of guidance may be needed right now.”

Mascher said she wants the state to investigate how much the bill could cost, given provisions the Iowa Attorney General would be required to represent any school district sued if the bill becomes law.

Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com