“By affirmatively removing explicit nondiscrimination protections from the state civil rights law, the Iowa legislature is inviting and almost demanding the harassment and abuse of a vulnerable minority.”
The Iowa House of Representatives and Senate yesterday passed companion bills, HF583 and SF418, that remove gender identity from the state’s Civil Rights Act. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has indicated she will sign the legislation once it reaches her desk.
Whit Washington, Eileen A. Ryan Senior Attorney for the Nonbinary & Transgender Rights Project at Lambda Legal, issued the following statement:
“In 2007, just 18 years ago, Iowa added sexual orientation and gender identity to the Iowa Civil Rights Act, an important recognition of both the diversity of human experience, and the need to protect everyone from bias and discrimination. Yesterday, incredibly and cruelly, the Iowa legislature decided to strip away that protection.
“The current legislation is the first time a state would remove existing statutory protections based on gender identity. By affirmatively removing explicit nondiscrimination protections from the state civil rights law, the Iowa legislature is inviting and almost demanding the harassment and abuse of a vulnerable minority.
“For more than 50 years, Lambda Legal has fought for the full civil rights of LGBTQ+ people and everyone living with HIV. One landmark moment in that fight came in 2009, when the Iowa Supreme Court ruled denying same-sex couples the right to marry violated the Iowa Constitution, a ruling considered seminal in the nationwide campaign for marriage equality. Yesterday, the Iowa legislature gravely sullied that history. We can only ask that Governor Reynolds not compound the cruelty.”
Read about Lambda Legal’s Iowa marriage lawsuit, Varnum v. Brien, here.