March 3 (UPI) -- Iowa moved to remove civil rights protections for transgender people from state code, making it the first state to do so.
Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, signed the bill on Friday, four days after it was introduced in the state legislature and quickly moved through state Congress and is set to take effect on July 1.
Reynolds said that before signing the law, the Iowa Civil Rights Act "blurred the biological line between the sexes." The law, in effect, combines the meanings of sex and gender identity, removing protections on the basis of gender identity in housing, education, the workplace, public services and more.
Iowa adopted civil rights protections for transgender people in 2007.
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The bill passed the state Senate by a 33-15 vote and the House by a 60-36 vote, both on Thursday.
Reynolds called it a "common sense" bill, describing it as a law that "safeguards the rights of women and girls."
"It's common sense to acknowledge the obvious biological differences between men and women," Reynolds said in a video statement. "In fact, it's necessary to secure genuine equal protection for women and girls. It's why we have men's and women's bathrooms and not men's and women's conference rooms."
Reynolds argued that the change to the Iowa Civil Rights Act brings it in line with federal civil rights law.
While Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act does not mention gender identity, the 2020 case Bostock vs Clayton County determined that the law protects employees from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. This is the prevailing legal interpretation of the law.
Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, introduced the bill in the Iowa House. He argued in the House chamber that women are being erased because of civil rights protections based on gender identity.
"Discrimination in any form is unacceptable. Yet, apparently it is acceptable against women in this context," he said. "It has been described as a hateful bill. Why don't women matter?"
Holt went on to add that the protections of transgender Iowans will not be affected.
"In spite of the wild proclamations otherwise, transgender Iowans will have the same rights and protections as everyone else, as they should," Holt said. "But the removal of gender identity as a protected class will prevent the infringement on the rights of others. Particularly women who stand to be erased along with decades of gains toward equality by a protected status that is not based on an immutable trait but rather a changing identity predicated upon feelings."
Madison Fiedler-Carlson, a civil rights attorney in Des Moines, Iowa, who focuses on employment law, told UPI it is not as clear as Holt suggests that transgender individuals will continue to be protected from discrimination.
"They kind of did a carve out for disability discrimination in the bill, saying trans people are disabled, basically, and will be protected that way," she said. "I also don't think that is accurate."
Fiedler-Carlson said that protecting transgender people under disability discrimination is inadequate and ineffective. It relies upon a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. Yet in the case of employment law, a gender dysphoria diagnosis alone is not enough.
"The disability has to be something that affects major life activities," she said. "Under federal law and under state law there are certainly going to be arguments that gender dysphoria doesn't meet that standard."
Fiedler-Carlson adds that while Title VII of the Civil Rights Act has been interpreted to offer protection on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in the realm of employment law, she is concerned that the transgender community will not be protected from discrimination in housing or credit activities.
Scott Turner, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, announced in February that he is stopping all enforcement of a 2016 rule that prohibits discrimination protections based on gender identity.
"Very simply, what this does allow is for a person to deny someone a house or apartment simply because they're a transgender person," Keenan Crow, director of policy and advocacy at One Iowa, a grassroots LGBTQ advocacy organization told, UPI.
Crow said Iowa's change to civil rights law is one part of a larger Republican effort meant to eliminate the rights of the transgender community.
Iowa passed a bathroom ban, banning people from using the restroom that matches their gender identity, in 2023.
In 2022, the state passed a law banning transgender athletes from participating in women's sports.
The state legislature is currently debating a bill that will criminalize drag performances, carrying a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Iowa House Study Bill 158, introduced in February, makes bringing a minor to a "drag show," or hosting a show at a venue a felony offense. The venue will be fined $10,000 and may lose state funding.
The drag show ban vaguely describes what constitutes a drag show. The main aspect of the performance, according to the bill, is a performer who exhibits a gender identity that is different from the gender they were assigned at birth The performer sings, lip-syncs, dances, reads or otherwise performs for an audience, whether they are paid or not.
"To my reading it's not really a drag ban. It's a ban on dressing in a way that people find inappropriate for a particular gender," Crow said. "As a non-binary person, if I am dressing in the way I'm dressing right now, is that me projecting a different gender identity than the sex I was assigned at birth? I don't know because I don't know what that means."
Crow adds that the removal of anti-discrimination protections creates an environment that puts transgender people at more risk while a bill like the drag show ban goes a step further by engaging in active discrimination.
"That creates additional risks on top of the risk that has already been leveled by this removal of anti-discrimination protections," they said. "All of this stuff is synergy."
