DES MOINES, Iowa—On Thursday, Feb. 27, thousands of people flooded the Iowa Capitol, their voices rising in defiant chants of “Our rights we prize, our liberties we will maintain,” the Iowa State Motto, as Republican lawmakers voted to strip transgender Iowans of their legal protections. The bill (SF 418), which removes gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act, marks a historic and shameful moment. Iowa is now the first state in U.S. history to eliminate an existing civil right.
Despite the relentless attacks from a legislature hellbent on erasing them, transgender Iowans and their allies stood firm. People from all walks of life, all creeds, and from every corner of the state packed the Capitol to show their fellow trans citizens that they are not alone. They will not be erased, no matter how desperately Iowa Republicans try to legislate them out of existence.
The public had one last chance to speak against the bill in a 90-minute hearing Thursday morning. Their words fell on deaf ears. By the afternoon, House Republicans forced the bill through in a 60-36 vote, following its earlier passage in the Senate. It now heads to Gov. Kim Reynolds, who is expected to sign it into law, further cementing her legacy of cruelty toward marginalized communities.
This legislation doesn’t just strip away protections; it signals open hostility toward trans Iowans. Since 2007, gender identity has been a protected class in Iowa’s civil rights code, safeguarding people from discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations. Now, Republicans have chosen to make their transphobia the law of the land.
According to GLAAD, 21 states since February 2022 have recognized gender identity in their civil rights codes, protecting the civil rights of trans people from discrimination in everyday life. Other states don’t explicitly spell out gender identity in their laws but still provide protections through legal interpretations of existing statutes.
Iowa, however, is moving in the opposite direction. The state’s Supreme Court has already rejected the argument that discrimination based on sex includes discrimination based on gender identity, further isolating transgender Iowans in a legal system that refuses to recognize their humanity.
The GOP uses Iowa as a Petri dish to test the most radical policies they think they can get away with. For instance, they replaced the progressive tax that made high earners pay more than poor people with a flat tax, simultaneously slashing public programs, effecting a wealth transfer from the poor to the already rich. Then they implemented Medicaid work requirements so that if you are disabled, sick, or have been laid off, you will be surveilled and must submit to interviews and fill out numerous forms, despite the fact that 92% of those collecting SSI and SSDI already work full or part time. The purpose of the work requirements is a war of attrition: attempting to kick people who fail to comply with the new onerous paperwork out of the program, leaving them both uninsured and unemployed.
Iowans used to be so proud of their public schools that we put a schoolhouse on our quarter: then the war on education began. From book bans to the installation of “seclusion rooms” (prison cells for children) in schools to “obscenity” laws that conflate gender-nonconformity, drag performance, or any mention of non-heterosexuality with sexual deviancy and criminality, Iowa is an experiment in just how far the GOP can go.
First, they cut property taxes, the primary source of public school funding, and then rural schools began to empty. In contrast, private companies that profit from the destruction of public schools receive state handouts, aka “vouchers,” cannibalizing our once world-renowned educational system.
As Reynolds said in her 2025 Condition of the State Address, “I like to say we were doing DOGE before DOGE was a thing.” Efficiency to Reynolds means removing your rights, social safety net, and access to public goods, and a hollowing out of civic society. The Iowa Legislature’s decision to remove an existing civil right may be unprecedented, but it is right in line with their playbook of radical, regressive legislation. Who will be next?
No matter how many oppressive laws legislatures enact, trans people will not be erased. The thousands who gathered in Des Moines yesterday sent a resounding message: While Iowa Republicans may have forsaken justice and humanity, the true heart of Iowa still beats with integrity and resistance.
We hope you appreciated this article. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading People’s World and the stories we bring you, please support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today. Thank you!
CONTRIBUTOR
