Iowa lawmakers pass school ‘bathroom bill’ targeting transgender students

DES MOINES, Iowa — Transgender students will not be allowed to use restrooms or locker rooms that align with their gender identity under a bill passed Thursday by Iowa lawmakers, the latest in a wave of anti-LGBTQ bills in several Republican states.

The bill prohibits people from entering a school restroom or changing room that does not align with their sex assigned on their birth certificate. The bill now heads to Gov. Kim Reynolds to be signed into law.

The House voted 57-39 to pass the bathroom bill Thursday. Five Republicans joined 34 present Democrats in opposition.

Republican supporters of the proposal say the restrictions are necessary to protect the privacy and safety of students who may feel uncomfortable sharing a facility with their transgender peers.

“This legislation is fair to everyone because it bases the use of bathrooms on what it has, up until recently, always been based upon: biology,” said Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison. “That applies to everyone equally.”

Democrats argued that there have been no issues with transgender students in Iowa using school restrooms that align with their gender. They contend the bill could cause additional harassment of transgender kids.

“Forcing transgender students into restrooms that don’t match their gender identity puts their safety at risk,” said Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Des Moines. “They need to be able to use the restroom that matches the gender they live every day in school, without being singled out.”

Similar proposals in recent years failed to win support at the Iowa Capitol. But Republican lawmakers this year have focused intensely on LGBTQ-related issues, introducing bills to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors and to prohibit instruction on gender identity or sexual orientation in elementary schools.

Iowa’s bathroom bill joins a spate of legislation targeting LGBTQ people introduced in largely red states. So far in 2023, more than 410 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced and about 180 of those bills specifically target transgender rights, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

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Tennessee, Alabama and Oklahoma have passed bills prohibiting transgender students from using school bathrooms. Discrimination lawsuits are ongoing Tennessee and Oklahoma.

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What does Iowa’s bathroom bill do?

Senate File 482 prohibits people at Iowa’s public and private schools from entering a bathroom or changing room that does not align with their sex assigned at birth.

A transgender student, teacher, staff member or visitor to the school would be barred from the restroom or locker room that aligns with their gender identity. A transgender girl would not be allowed in the girls’ restroom, and a transgender boy would be barred from the boys’ locker room.

The prohibition would also apply to gendered single-occupancy facilities and any overnight or extracurricular activities where students might change clothes.

The bill will take effect immediately when it is signed into law.

How can schools accommodate transgender students?

The bill allows a student who “desires greater privacy” to request special accommodations from their school, with written parental consent.

Schools would be allowed to offer those students access to a single-occupancy restroom or “controlled use” of a faculty restroom.

However, schools would not be permitted to grant transgender students access to a multiple-occupancy restroom that does not align with their sex assigned at birth.

Why is Iowa pursuing a bathroom bill?

Iowa Safe Schools, an advocacy group for LGBTQ students, said in a Thursday statement there have been “zero documented incidents of transgender Iowans behaving inappropriately in classrooms” since 2007, when gender identity was added to the Iowa Civil Rights Act.

Republican leaders on the legislation say restricting school bathroom use by biological sex is a preventative measure, rather than a response to a specific incident.

Holt said at least six school districts and “countless parents” had expressed concerns about the issue.

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What happens if a school breaks the bathroom law?

The bill would rely on citizen complaints to keep schools in compliance with the rules.

If someone believes a school is allowing people to use facilities that do not align with their assigned sex at birth, that person may file a written complaint to the school. The school would have three days to address the violation.

If the school does not act, that citizen could file a complaint to the attorney general. The attorney general would investigate and, if necessary, pursue legal action.

Democrats raised concerns about how teachers and school administrators will be expected to enforce the law if they do not know the sex each of their students was assigned at birth.

Are bathroom restrictions legal?

Similar laws in other states have faced legal challenges.

North Carolina passed the nation’s first bathroom bill in 2016. The law restricted bathroom access for transgender people in government buildings. It was met with intense criticism, boycotts and a lawsuit challenging the law’s constitutionality.

The state settled that lawsuit in 2019 and is now prohibited from passing laws that prevent transgender people from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity.

On Wednesday, Arkansas lawmakers approved a bathroom ban bill and sent it to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The bill has been criticized as the most extreme restriction in the country.

The Iowa Supreme Court last year ruled in favor of a transgender employee at the Department of Corrections who argued it was gender discrimination to be required to use a unisex restroom instead of facilities that aligned with his gender identity.

The Iowa Civil Rights Act bans discrimination on the basis of sex, which describes physical anatomy, and gender, which is how someone identifies and presents themselves.

However, Senate File 486 would amend the Iowa Civil Rights Act to say that it “shall not be an unfair or discriminatory practice” to require restrooms be used only by people of the same sex assigned at birth.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Iowa lawmakers pass transgender ‘bathroom bill’ in schools