Thousands of protestors flooded the Iowa Capitol over the course of the past week as House Bill 242, which removes discrimination protections for transgender Iowans, passed through the House, the Senate and Gov. Kim Reynolds. Chants of “no justice, no peace” echoed throughout the building last Thursday as the House and Senate voted. 

Signed into law by Reynolds Friday afternoon, the bill officially removes gender identity as a protected class. Reynolds’s decision marks the first time in American history that a protected class has been removed from discrimination law. 

HB 242’s main priority was defining “male” and “female” and replacing all instances of “gender identity” with “sex” or removing the term altogether from the Iowa Civil Rights Act. 

“It’s common sense to acknowledge the obvious biological differences between men and women,” Reynolds said in a video on X, formerly known as Twitter. “In fact, it’s necessary to secure genuine equal protection for women and girls.”

Republican Chairperson Steven Holt introduced the bill Feb. 20.

“Every single Iowan deserves to have their human rights protected and to be treated with dignity and respect,” Holt said on X. “HSB 242 does not take away any basic rights from transgender Iowans, nor does it legalize discrimination.”

Drake President Marty Martin expressed disagreement with the bill’s passage in an email sent out to students and faculty the morning of March 3.

“This is a moral failure against which we stand in opposition,” Martin said. “It is our duty to respect, support and affirm anyone in our community targeted by these actions.”

Sophomore Ty Cullison, a transgender man, believes this bill was unnecessary.

“I’m angry. We don’t have to fix our economy or our homelessness problem, we have to monitor trans people?” Cullison said.

Chris Morse, a genderqueer junior at Drake who received media attention for photos of her attendance at the Capitol protests last week, believes the bill is unconstitutional.

“The Supreme Court decided in Romer v. Evans in 1996 that you can’t strip civil rights protections from a group just because you don’t like them,” Morse said. “Removing those protections [under the Iowa Civil Rights Act] is itself a violation of our civil rights.” 

Cullison feels as if the language used in the bill was misleading and unspecific. 

“My opinion, consistent with many other Republican bills passed through Iowa and federal law, [is that] it is poorly written and poorly thought out,” Cullison said. “Because [of this], it allows there to be a lot of wiggle room on exactly who they discriminate against.”

From sections 1a to 1e, the bill defines the term “sex” as the “state of being either male or female as observed or clinically verified at birth.” It defines the terms “male” and “female” as either producing sperm or ova, respectively. These clauses also specify that “gender” is only to be used as a synonym for “sex,” not as anything related to “gender identity.”

“The ignorance around ignoring gender altogether and leaning into the science of male and female really struck me as culturally ignorant and also academically,” Morse said. “Gender is a social construct.”

Sections 1f and 1g of the bill passed last week states that “the term “equal” does not mean “same or identical” and that “separate accommodations are not inherently unequal.”

“I agree with the Democratic leadership that there is a gross similarity between that [wording] and [Plessy v. Ferguson],” Morse said. “One of the things that really struck me was hearing one of the speakers in favor of the bill saying giving the civil rights to allow biological males to be in private spaces that are designed for biological women was a threat to their safety. The parallels between that and [arguments] against interracial marriage are the same picture.”

From sections 8 to 29, the amendments to the Iowa Civil Rights act remove the term “gender identity” and withdraw specific protections for any individual who is not cisgender — a person who identifies with their sex assigned at birth. The bill also implicitly states that transgender women are not allowed in feminine spaces.

“[Transfeminine] people are not allowed to be with other feminine individuals,” said sophomore Mitchell Donais, a transgender individual. “If they’re forced to be with male individuals, they are a lot more vulnerable, especially in places that are typically considered rougher, like prisons.”

Democratic Rep. Rob Johnson told the TD via phone call he voted “no” on the bill.

“I [do] not believe in stripping our friends and our neighbors, our loved ones and our colleagues and our coworkers of their simple right just to simply exist,” Johnson said. “I don’t condone what happened [last Thursday].”

Personal feelings aside, Johnson isn’t surprised HSB 242 passed the House and Senate.

“[There are] people who were very bent on making this pass and getting the votes that they needed,” Johnson said.

The bill passed with a 60-36 vote in the House and a 33-15 vote in the Senate.
“We need to remember that [five] Republicans today tried to fight to get this bill squashed,” Cullison said. “They tried to fight for us – shockingly – but they themselves were silenced in the Republican majority.”

Johnson believes some Republicans did not want this bill to pass, yet were pressured to vote “yes.”

“Some of [the Republicans] did not want to [vote yes] but did it anyway just simply because sometimes you vote with the party line,” Johnson said. “We have an opportunity to continue to get us back on the right track.”

Although the Iowa Legislature removed explicit protections from transgender Iowans, some transgender students still feel safe at Drake.

“I reached out to [Martin] directly after a recent Trump executive order, and I felt very empowered by that response and the support that I have from the [Drake] community in general,” Morse said.

Regardless of their current attitude, Donais feels like that feeling of safety could change at any moment.

“I’m feeling less and less safe by the day,” Donais said.

Donais feels defeat, but not hopelessness.

“I know that this isn’t the end, because trans people have existed through the entirety of history,” Donais said. “I know that even if we falter here, we’ll survive. Maybe not us, but as a community.”

Cullison, meanwhile, says he will continue out of spite.

“All I can do is live. I’ve experienced a lot of things – whether it be hate crimes, attacks, assaults – and it’s come down to one thing, I know [they] get more pissed off at the fact that you make it out alive,” Cullison said.

The TD was unable to reach Republican Chairperson Steven Holt, the author of this bill, by deadline.

This story was originally published on The Times-Delphic on March 5, 2025.