Payton McNabb was a 17-year-old North Carolina high school volleyball player with dreams of being a college athlete. Her dreams were shattered in 2022 by a 5’11 transgender opponent who spiked the ball with such force that when it struck her in the face it knocked her unconscious. When she woke up she was diagnosed with permanent brain damage and has difficulty walking without falling. Payton later stated, “If only my rights had been more important than a man’s feelings.”
Tennessee native Riley Gaines was recognized as one of the top female swimmers in the country, competing for the University of Kentucky swim team. She was forced to compete against transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, a 6’1 male who performed miserably against other males before choosing to identify as a female. Riley described the humiliation and abandonment she and other female swimmers felt when they were forced to shower with this fully intact male only a few inches away. Incredibly, in spite of the built-in advantages Thomas had as a biological male, Riley tied him for fifth. The meet organizers chose to give the trophy to the biological male, Lia Thomas. Shattered Dreams.
Iowa’s very own Ainsley Erzen, a high school track star from Carlisle, who has been an outspoken critic of transgender girls competing against real girls, had this reality check in a Des Moines Register Editorial: “My time of 2:06.52, the time that made me the fastest Iowa high school female 800 runner of all time, the time that earned me the title of national champion, was easily beat by 85 high school boys at the 2021 Iowa high school track meet alone. Eighty-five. Just in our small state of Iowa.”
In response to these realities, and the belief that the rights of women were being assaulted by this transgender ideology that demanded that only their rights mattered, Iowa Republicans passed legislation by Rep. Skyler Wheeler that mandated that participation in school sports be based on biology at birth. A few years later, I floor-managed legislation into law that mandated that the use of bathrooms and changing facilities in our schools be based in biology, and also legislation to prohibit puberty blockers and sex-change operations on our minor children. We were cutting the tentacles off the octopus, but the octopus was still there.
The octopus rests in the fact that Gender Identity was placed into the Iowa Civil Rights Code as a protected class in 2007, when Democrats had complete control of Iowa government. While most protected classes are based on immutable characteristics, such as skin color, I have long believed that protected classes should be unconstitutional, since they elevate the rights of these groups above other citizens, and all Americans are supposed to be afforded equal protection under the law. In the case of Gender Identity, the impact of this elevation of rights above the rights of others is profound.
The tentacles of Gender Identity as a protected class are far-reaching. When Iowa Republicans found out that taxpayers were footing the bill for sex change operations and hormone therapies for individuals on Medicaid and in our prisons, we passed legislation to stop it. In 2019 the Supreme Court struck down the law in a case called Good V the Iowa Department of Human Services, citing the fact that Gender Identity is a protected class in Iowa code. From 2015-2022, Iowa taxpayers, by my calculation based on information provided by the Department of Health & Human Services, have paid for sex-change procedures to the tune of $1,950.613. If our law to stop this was struck down by the Iowa Supreme Court, because of the protected class status, what about our laws passed the last few years to protect women’s sports and changing facilities, and prohibit sex-change procedures and operations on minor children?
Iowa is the only state that has moved to protect women’s sports and private spaces and prohibit sex-change procedures on minors, while also having Gender Identity as a protected class in Iowa code. Legal experts tell us that these two realities cannot cohabitate for long and that we could well lose lawsuits because of the protected class status. So, why have there not been lawsuits already? The answer is clear, and within that answer, is why we must take action now.
Any court challenges against laws we have passed to protect women’s rights and protect our children while Republicans hold the trifecta would invite an immediate reaction that in all likelihood would be to remove the protected class status of Gender Identity, since this would protect the important laws we passed while also respecting the rights of the transgender community protected elsewhere in law.
I believe that activists are waiting to file suit until Republicans no longer control all of Iowa government. If Republicans lose control of a legislative chamber or the Governor’s mansion, it will make it nearly impossible to respond to lawsuits. In this scenario, activists have nothing to lose and everything to gain. If they lose the lawsuit the status quo remains. If they win because Gender Identity is a protected class in code, all of the protections we have passed for women’s sports and private spaces, and the prohibition against sex-change procedures for our minor children will be lost. This is why I have concluded after years of effort that removing the tentacles is simply not enough.
The removal of Gender Identity as a protected class means that transgender rights are not elevated above women and other citizens. Transgender rights will be protected just as are the rights of all Americans – by the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, federal law, the Iowa Constitution and Iowa law. Additionally, as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court Bostock decision, transgender individuals are protected from housing and employment discrimination.
What will transgender individuals not be able to do if Gender Identity is removed from the Civil Rights Code?
- They will not be able to use public restrooms, dressing rooms, and showers designated for the opposite sex.
- They will not have access to prison cells, hotel rooms, homeless and domestic abuse shelters and other spaces designated for the opposite sex.
- They will not have access to free sex-change procedures and surgeries paid for by taxpayers.
- They will not be able to file legal complaints against a business that believes sex is binary and acts accordingly.
- They will not have the ability to file legal complaints against an employer who does not affirm the validity of an individual’s self-proclaimed Gender Identity.
In spite of the loud proclamations otherwise, transgender Iowans will have the same rights and protections as everyone else, but their removal as a protected class will prevent the infringement on the rights of others, particularly women.
HSB242, which I introduced as Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, removes Gender Identity as a protected class, provides truthful definitions for male and female and tightens up the birth certificate language to ensure that the rights of all are respected and truth is honored.
Every Iowan deserves to have their human rights protected, and to be treated with dignity and respect. Current Iowa code, with Gender Identity as a protected class, actually results in the infringement of the rights of many Iowans, for the reasons I have already explained. Twenty-seven other states do not have Gender Identity in their Civil Rights Code, and neither does the federal government, further exposing the lack of truth in claims that this will result in discrimination. On the contrary, to place the rights of women and all Iowans on equal footing, and to safeguard the laws we have passed to protect women’s sports and private spaces, and our children from irreversible sex-change operations, this legislation is essential.
Truth, not feelings. No more shattered dreams.
