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Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill on Friday to remove the state’s civil rights law protections for transgender people.
Not all states protect trans people, but Iowa Democrats added it to the Civil Rights Act in 2007.
Iowa was the first state to remove gender identity protection from state civil rights laws.
The new law follows President Donald Trump’s executive order, which follows the state’s efforts to recognize only the genders of the two, limit gender reconciliation operations, limit trans people in the military, as well as to ban trans women from women’s toilets and women’s sports.
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Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill on Friday to remove the state’s civil rights law protections for transgender people. (AP Photo/Charlie Neighborgole, file)
The bill also defines men and women based on the person’s reproductive organs at birth.
Iowa’s civil rights law includes protection of race, color, creed, gender, sexual orientation, religion, national origin and disability situations.
Reynolds explained the bill in a video he uploaded to X on Friday.
“Today, I am signing the law on a bill protecting the rights of women and girls,” she said. “It’s common sense to acknowledge obvious biological differences between men and women. In fact, we need to ensure true equal protection for girls. So, it’s not a meeting room for men and women, but there’s no sports for girls and boys, but not for girls math, boys math.”
She said, “Before signing this bill, these common sense protections were at risk as the civil rights law blurred the biological lines between men and women.”
Protesters will fill the Iowa Capitol in Des Moines, Iowa on Thursday and condemn the bill that strips the state’s civil rights protection laws based on gender identity. (AP Photo/Charlie Neighborgor)
Reynolds admitted that it was “a sensitive issue for some people, and many of them have heard false information about what the bill would do. The truth is that it simply brings Iowa along federal civil rights laws and most states.”
She added that all Iowans “who deserve respect and dignity without exception. We are all children of God, and the law does not change that.”
Trump announced his approval of the law shortly before it was signed Thursday.
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“Iowa is a beautiful state where I have won big every time and I have a bill that removes radical gender ideology from their laws,” Trump writes of the Truth Society. “Iowa should follow my executive order lead and pass this bill as soon as possible, saying that there are only two genders. Thank you Iowa!”
Law critics say it allows trans people to be discriminated against in all aspects of their lives.
Democratic Iowa Rep. Iame Whittendahl responds after speaking during a discussion on the bill on Thursday. (AP Photo/Charlie Neighborgor)
“The purpose of this bill and the purpose of all anti-trans bills is to further erase us from our public life and condemn our existence,” said Iame Whittendahl, a democratic Iowa lawmaker who identified him as a transgender woman.
Protesters also met the Capitol Rotunda on Thursday, holding signs like “trans rights are human rights,” and shouting, “There is no hatred in our state!”
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Keenan Crow, who directs policy and advocacy for LGBTQ advocacy group One Iowa, told The Associated Press that the group will take “available” legal action, adding that he is still trying to understand how the law will be enacted.
All Democrats in the Capitol and the Senate voted against the bill, with five House Republicans joining the bill.
The law will come into effect on July 1st.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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