While President Donald Trump has been tackling LGBTQ+ activism at the federal level, Iowa has become the first state to pass a bill that removes gender identity from the state’s civil rights law.
On Friday, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, signed SF418, which made its way to her desk with a 33-15 vote in the Senate and a 60-36 vote in the House.
The legislation eliminates “gender identity” as a protected class under the Iowa Civil Rights Act. It also defines sex as “the state of being either male or female as observed or clinically verified at birth.” The text goes on to define other terms such as “male” and “female,” and it states that the term “gender” will be regarded as a “synonym for sex.”

The legislation does not allow changes to birth certificates after an individual undergoes “gender-affirming care,” and it ensures that Iowa’s school curriculum does not promote “gender theory or sexual orientation to students in kindergarten through grade six.”

The bill also explains that 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.”

In a statement, Reynolds said this bill “safeguards the rights of women and girls.” She also emphasized that “it is common sense to acknowledge the obvious biological differences between men and women.” Yet, “unfortunately, these commonsense protections were at risk because, before I signed this bill, the Civil Rights Code blurred the biological line between the sexes.”

Reynolds continued, “That is unacceptable to me, and it is unacceptable to most Iowans. … 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.”

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We are finally coming to our senses, 49 more states (or 56 for Obama) to go