Cheers erupt after Republicans kill attempt to erase trans people from Iowa civil rights law

A proposed change to Iowa’s civil rights law was so drastic and loathsome that even Republicans refused to entertain the idea. The bill would have stripped transgender people from the state’s civil rights law.

A crowd of hundreds erupted into cheers when the members of a subcommittee who had heard an hour of testimony against the bill announced they would not advance it any further. The committee was composed of two Republicans and a single Democrat. The vote was unanimous.

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House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl (R) also condemned the measure, saying, “I don’t think that that would be the wise choice or the wise thing to do.”

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Windschitl is not a member of the subcommittee. He confirmed that without the three legislators’ approval, the bill would not advance to a vote either at the House Judiciary Committee or on the house floor.

One of the most impassioned testimonies offered against the bill came from Aime Wichtendahl, the state’s first transgender elected official. Wichtendahl is a Hiawatha City Council member.

“You seem to think that being trans is some kind of ideology, so I will say it plain,” she said. “There is no such thing as transgenderism, there is only transgender people. We are human beings. We are American citizens. We are Iowans. And we do not deserve this abuse that we are getting from our government.”

Republicans have pushed through a raft of anti-trans laws over the past couple of years – but not without pushback from the community.

State law bans healthcare professionals from providing any medical treatment that attempts “to alter the appearance of, or affirm the minor’s perception of” a gender other than the minor was assigned at birth. The law also forbids the use of puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy. Medical professionals who provide such trans-related care can be sued up to 20 years later and also possibly lose their medical licensing.

The state also has a law that prohibits people from using school bathrooms that don’t correspond with the gender that a person was assigned at birth.

Another law requires school administrators to notify parents if their child requests to be called by another name or request accommodations for their gender identity. The law also bans books that include “depictions of sex acts,” no matter how vague or the overall content of the book. Like a similar law in Florida, it forbids teachers from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity.

High schoolers in Iowa are actively defying the laws. They’ve heckled the state’s anti-LGBTQ+ governor, and instead of relying on teachers and faculty for support, they’re providing it themselves.

“Teachers have to follow the law. We don’t,” senior Brett Giltner said last year. “We can always be there to support our students when our teachers potentially can’t, even though they want to.”