Iowa has become the first American state to withdraw gender identity Friday, the protections of his civil rights code when Governor Kim Reynolds reported a bill which, according to opponents, will exhibit transgender and other Iowans to discrimination in all aspects of daily life.
The new law, which comes into force on July 1, follows several years of action by Reynolds and Iowa Republicans restrict the use of transgender students in spaces such as bathrooms and changing rooms, and their participation in sports teams, in order to protect people assigned to birth. Republicans say that these policies cannot coexist with a code of civil rights which includes the protections of gender identity.
The law was adopted quickly after the first time last week. He also creates explicit legal definitions of women and men according to their reproductive bodies at birth, rejecting the idea that a person can move on to another sex. Reynolds proposed a similar bill last year, but he failed to vote from the full chamber or the Senate.
Reynolds published a video on social networks explaining his signature on the bill and recognizing that it was a “sensitive problem for some”.
“It is common sense to recognize the obvious biological differences between men and women. In fact, it is necessary to obtain real equal protection for women and girls, “she said, adding that the previous civil rights code” blurred the biological line between the sexes “.
President Donald Trump signed an executive decree on his first day in power to formalize a definition of both sexes at the federal level, leading several legislatures led by the Republicans to put pressure on laws defining men and women. Trump posted Thursday in support of the Iowa bill on his social platform Truth after obtaining the final approval of the Iowa Chamber and Senate.
Five Republicans of the House joined all the Democrats in the House and the Senate to vote against the bill. The representative of the state of Iowa, likes Wichtendahl, was the last democrat to speak before the vote, wiping tears while she offered her personal history as a transgender woman, saying: “I am going to my life.”
“The aim of this bill and the aim of each anti-trans bill is to erase us more from public life and to stigmatize our existence,” said WichTendahl. “The total sum of all anti-trans and Bill Anti-LGBTQ is to make our existence illegal.”
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Hundreds of LGBTQ + defenders have spread to the Capitol rotunda by waving signs on Thursday reading “Trans rights are human rights” and singing slogans, in particular “no hatred in our state!” There was a strong police presence, with state soldiers parked around the rotunda. The few demonstrators who dwell on the final adoption of the bill were emotional.
Not all states include gender identity in their civil rights code, but Iowa is now the first in the United States to remove non-discrimination protections based on gender identity, said Logan Casey, director of political research at the Movement Advance Project, a group of reflection on LGBTQ +rights.
Sexual orientation and gender identity were not originally included in the 1965 law on state civil rights.
The House Republican moved the bill on Thursday, representative Steven Holt, said that if the legislative assembly can add protections, it can delete them.
On July 1, the Iowa civil rights law will protect against discrimination based on race, color, belief, sex, sexual orientation, religion, national origin or disability status.
The Supreme Court of Iowa expressly rejected the argument that sex -based discrimination includes discrimination based on gender identity.
Defense groups promise to defend transgender rights, which can lead them to court.
Keenan Crow, director of policy and advocacy for the LGBTQ + Iowa defense group, said that the organization still analyzes the text of the bill and that its imprecision makes it “difficult to determine where the application of the application comes from.”
“We will continue all the legal options at our disposal,” said Crow.
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