DES MOINES, IA – Last week, Iowa became the first state to enact legislation to remove all references of “gender identity” under its civil rights law no longer recognizing gender confusion as a protected class. The measure, SF 418, also clarifies the legal definition of “sex” as biologically determined at birth, which effectively blocks gender ideology from undermining equal protection of women and girls in the state. Governor Kim Reynolds wasted little time signing the bill into law after the Iowa Senate voted 33–15 and the House voted 60–36 to approve it.
The term “gender identity” had been added to the state’s civil rights law in 2007. In removing it, Iowa officials have codified that biological sex – not a spectrum of self-identified gender – is what governs legal protections in Iowa. The new law, which described “gender identity” as an individual’s “subjective identification,” now directs the state to use objective distinctions based on reproductive systems as the way to provide fair treatment in areas such as education, employment, public accommodations, athletics, and more.
SF 418 defines sex as “the state of being either male or female as observed or clinically verified at birth.” The law’s text further defines “male” and “female” as an individual who normally will, has, or would have had “the reproductive system that at some point produces sperm” or an “egg,” respectively.
SF 418 also defines “man,” “woman,” “father,” “mother,” “boy,” and “girl” all along male and female lines. Under the law, the term “gender” is only to be used to reference the natural differences between males and females and is to be regarded as a “synonym for sex,” not “gender identity.”
The legislation also prevents changes to birth certificates for individuals attempting to change their gender through medical interventions while ensuring that Iowa’s school curriculum does not promote “gender theory or sexual orientation” to students from kindergarten through the sixth grade. The law then addressed how people with the rare disorder of having both male and female anatomy, commonly called “intersex,” are already protected. Any “person born with a medically verifiable diagnosis of disorder or difference of sex development shall be provided the legal protections and accommodations afforded under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and applicable state law,” the law reads.
In a statement, Gov. Reynolds said “it is common sense to acknowledge the obvious biological differences between men and women. In fact, it is necessary to secure genuine equal protection for women and girls.” Gov. Reynolds noted that these “commonsense protections” had been at risk because the state’s previous civil rights code had “blurred the biological line between the sexes.”
“We are all children of God, and no law changes that. What this bill does accomplish is to strengthen protections for women and girls, and I believe that is the right thing to do,” stated Gov. Reynolds.
Iowa’s SF 418 further strengthens the state’s protections against gender ideology, which also includes laws keeping gender-confused males out of female sports, a ban on child medical mutilation, and protecting female-only spaces, such as bathrooms, in public schools.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “This is common sense legislation by Iowa lawmakers that dispenses with the false, unscientific idea that people can change their gender or that there is no difference between males and females. This legislation striking ‘gender identity’ protects all Iowans. Biology is fixed at birth and enacting laws based on fact not fiction is what every state should be doing.”
For more information about state laws protecting against gender ideology, visit Liberty Counsel’s website here.