Iowa governor signs new law combating gender ideology

Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds on Friday signed a law to remove preexisting legal protections for individuals based on so-called gender identity, and to legally define the terms male and female. The law also aims to prevent schools from teaching students that a person’s gender could be separate from their biological sex. 

Both chambers of the Iowa Legislature on Thursday voted to put the bill on Reynolds’ desk. The Iowa Senate voted 33-15 in favor of the legislation mid-afternoon on Thursday. Less than an hour later, the state House of Representatives voted 60-36 in favor of the bill. 

What did folks have to say about the bill? LGBT advocates rallied in the rotunda of the state capitol on Thursday. Democratic State Rep. Aime Wichtendahl called the bill an attempt to marginalize people who identified as members of the opposite sex. The bill, if put into effect, would deprive them of their life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, Wichtendahl said. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump celebrated the bill and urged the state to put it into effect as fast as possible.

Dig deeper: Read Nathanael Blake’s column in WORLD Opinions about how the transgender movement is pressing on despite a lack of evidence.