AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Hundreds of supporters of LGBTQ rights protested in the Iowa Capitol building this week.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTORS: (Chanting) No hate in our state. No hate in our state.
CHANG: The protests came as Iowa became the latest state to reduce the rights of transgender people. It's part of a wave of Republican-led states that have cut transgender access to bathrooms, sports and health care. And Iowa's legislature took it one step further. It moved to strip gender identity as a protected class from the state's civil rights law. That is something that transgender advocates say has not happened in any other state. Iowa Public Radio's Katarina Sostaric is here with more. Hi, Katarina.
KATARINA SOSTARIC: Hi, Ailsa.
CHANG: OK, so I understand that this bill was rushed through the state House and state Senate just yesterday. What does it do, exactly?
SOSTARIC: It removes antidiscrimination protections for transgender people from state law. Now, to step back for a second, the Iowa legislature added gender identity and sexual orientation as protected categories to the Iowa Civil Rights Act in 2007. Democrats were in charge back then, and this had bipartisan support, and the law is meant to prevent discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodations and more.
CHANG: OK.
SOSTARIC: Now Republicans are saying that if gender identity stays in the civil rights law, it could make it easier to overturn other laws they've been passing to limit transgender rights. Here's an example of what supporters are saying about it. Ryan Benn is a lobbyist for The Family Leader, a very influential Christian conservative group in Iowa. He says putting gender identity in the Civil Rights Act has had dreadful results because transgender women have been allowed into women's bathrooms and sports teams.
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RYAN BENN: Let's make Iowa the first state to correct course. It's time to come back to our senses, and it is right and good for our laws to recognize the real difference between men and women.
SOSTARIC: And the Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, signed the bill into law this afternoon.
CHANG: OK, so there's no question this new law erodes the civil rights of transgender people. Can you just tell us, how are transgender rights advocates responding right now?
SOSTARIC: Well, they say this will make it easier to discriminate against transgender people, to do things like deny them housing, jobs, maybe even hotel rooms. And opponents of the bill say that it effectively erases transgender people from state law and public life and just sends an overall message that they're not welcome in the state. I called the national LGBTQ rights group Lambda Legal today and talked to Whit Washington, a senior attorney for the Nonbinary and Transgender Rights Project. They say Iowa was one of the first states to put protections for transgender people into its civil rights law.
WHIT WASHINGTON: To see an early adopter of the protection be an early adopter of turning their backs on an already vulnerable population is upsetting.
SOSTARIC: Washington and other opponents of the bill say this could also be a slippery slope to taking other protected characteristics out of the civil rights law. And some Republican activists have been asking state lawmakers to take sexual orientation out too.
CHANG: On that point, do you think other states might take Iowa's lead here on removing civil rights protections for transgender people?
SOSTARIC: Well, Washington with Lambda Legal says this could open the door to more states taking gender identity out of their Civil Rights Act. About half of states have specific civil rights protections for transgender people in their laws. Most of those are Democratic-led states, so they may be less likely to do this, but advocates are concerned given what's going on around the country.
CHANG: OK, and real quick, looking at transgender rights more broadly, how does what's happening in Iowa fit in with what you're seeing across the U.S. now?
SOSTARIC: Yeah, Republican states, including Iowa, have passed laws regarding access to bathrooms, banning trans athletes in women's sports, and more. Lambda Legal says there were more than 450 bills proposed this year across the country to limit transgender rights. And some Democrats and transgender activists say that Republicans are demonizing a vulnerable, small population, and they'll keep fighting these efforts.
CHANG: That is Katarina Sostaric of Iowa Public Radio. Thank you, Katarina.
SOSTARIC: Thanks, Ailsa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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