Move to strip gender rights from Iowa’s civil rights law rejected by legislators

By HANNAH FINGERHUT
Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa lawmakers have declined to advance a bill that would have stripped “gender identity” from the state’s civil rights law. The proposal has been floated in recent years without success. It reached the first step in Iowa’s lawmaking process Wednesday, when it was rejected by three members of a House Judiciary subcommittee. If eventually passed, it could have subjected LGBTQ+ Iowans to discrimination in education, housing and public spaces. Not every state has explicit protections for a person based on their gender identity. But bill opponents say removing already existing protections from the state’s anti-discrimination law would have stood out in an already historic period of anti-trans laws in Republican-led statehouses.