An Iowa law rolling back trans civil rights protections in the state has taken effect. Here’s what to know
(CNN) — An Iowa law removing gender identity as a protected class from the state’s civil rights code took effect Tuesday, the first action of its kind in the United States.
The new rollback of protections is the latest attack on trans people in the U.S. and part of a broader movement across conservative-led states working to restrict LGBTQ rights.
GOP Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the Republican-backed measure earlier this year, saying it “safeguards the rights of women and girls.” But advocates worry about what they call the dangerous, far-reaching consequences for the trans community in the absence of state legal protections.
“It’s really a dark moment in our history,” said Democratic Rep. Aime Wichtendahl, Iowa’s first openly transgender lawmaker. “Our government in the state of Iowa has been reducing rights across the board this past decade.”
The new law marks the end to an 18-year legacy of civil rights protection for trans people in Iowa – a stark departure from the state’s history of inclusive gender policies.
“The fundamental fact is, we were freer 10 years ago than we are today,” Wichtendahl said.
While there are still federal and other anti-discrimination protections in place, President Donald Trump and conservative allies continue to take steps to chip away at trans rights since he returned to office.
What the new law changes
A state’s civil rights code safeguards people from discrimination, often based on characteristics like religion, race and, in many cases, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity.
Gender identity is no longer on the list of protected classes in Iowa.
Iowa’s new law also attempts to redefine gender as a synonym for biological sex, a shift that disregards contemporary medical and psychological understandings of gender identity.
Under the law, transgender people are barred from correcting their gender marker on birth certificates, so their identifying documentation will show the sex they were assigned at birth.
How does this impact transgender people?
Transgender and nonbinary people in Iowa now face increased legal uncertainty, experts say.
“This isn’t some nebulous law that won’t really impact people,” said Max Mowitz, the executive director of LGBTQ advocacy group One Iowa.
Without state civil rights protections, individuals who are fired, denied housing or refused medical treatment based on their gender identity have a narrower path to legal recourse.
“Folks would be able to discriminate against us if (we) were trying to get a hotel room, or go to a coffee shop, or even open a line of credit,” he said.
Having identifying documents with gender markers that don’t appear to match how a person is presenting themself could foster an uncomfortable, sometimes dangerous, situation for people who are forced to out themselves as trans to strangers.
As a trans Iowan, Mowitz said he’s been patted down by TSA because “something was on my driver’s license that didn’t look the way that they thought it should.”
Naomi Goldberg, executive director of the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit think tank providing resources to the LGBTQ community, said trans and nonbinary people will have a hard time going about daily life because of the new law.
It will also increase the already high risk of harassment and violence for trans Americans, Goldberg added.
Is this happening in other states?
More than a dozen states, mostly conservative, have never added gender identity as a protected class to their civil rights laws, according to data from the Movement Advancement Project.
Meanwhile, 31 states prohibit some form of discrimination against people based on their gender identity. And bills in those states have not moved to strike gender identity from their civil rights statutes, Goldberg said.
But protections for LGBTQ people vary greatly by state.
In Texas, the American Civil Liberties Union is currently tracking 88 bills it says are anti-LGBTQ that have been introduced during the 2025 legislative session — more than any other state. By contrast, the ACLU is tracking zero in Vermont.
How does the law compare to federal action?
At the federal level, new legislation and lawsuits targeting trans people have increased across the US.
The Supreme Court could agree this week to hear arguments in the backlog of cases dealing with trans issues — putting transgender rights front and center for a second year in a row.
The high court handed conservative states a win this Pride Month when it upheld Tennessee’s ban on some medical treatments for transgender minors.
Trump, who campaigned on ending “transgender lunacy,” has taken steps to dismantle the Biden administration’s efforts to be more inclusive of Americans’ gender identification.
He has signed a flurry of executive orders targeting trans people — including declaring there are only two genders, banning transgender women from participating in most women’s sports, and barring transgender service members from serving in the military.
Trump earlier this year pushed Iowa to follow his lead from the orders and pass the bill to “remove Radical Gender Ideology from their Laws.”
But trans people just want politicians to allow them to live freely, said Wichtendahl, the Iowa lawmaker.
“The ability to live our lives and be treated equally under the law and rights and dignity, to not have the government be this pernicious voice dictating who we are every step of the way,” Wichtendahl said, “that’s all we’ve ever asked for.”
The-CNN-Wire
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