Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill on Friday that removes protections for transgender people in the state’s civil rights code.
While not every state has protections for transgender people, Iowa Democrats added them to the civil rights code in 2007.
Iowa is the first state to remove gender identity protection from its state civil rights code.
The new law follows President Donald Trump’s executive orders only recognizing two sexes, restricting sex change operations and restricting trans people in the military, as well as state efforts to ban trans women from women’s bathrooms and women’s sports.
The bill also defines male and female based on the person’s reproductive organs at birth.
“Iowa, a beautiful State that I have won BIG every time, has a Bill to remove Radical Gender Ideology from their Laws,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Iowa should follow the lead of my Executive Order, saying there are only two genders, and pass this Bill – AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. Thank you Iowa!”
Critics of the law say it will allow transgender people to be discriminated against in all aspects of life.
Democratic Iowa state Rep. Aime Wichtendahl, who identifies as a transgender woman, said, “The purpose of this bill and the purpose of every anti-trans bill is to further erase us from public life and to stigmatize our existence. The sum total of every anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ bill is to make our existence illegal.”
Protesters also filled the state Capitol’s rotunda on Thursday, holding up signs like “Trans rights are human rights” and shouting, “No hate in our state!”
Keenan Crow, who directs policy and advocacy for the LGBTQ advocacy group One Iowa, told The Associated Press that the group will take any legal action “available,” adding that they’re still trying to understand how the law will be enforced.
All Democrats in the state House and Senate voted against the bill and were joined by five House Republicans.
The law goes into effect July 1.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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