The ban on classroom discussions or lessons acknowledging the identity of anyone except straight, cisgendered individuals, imposed by Gov. Reynolds on K-6 Iowa schools in 2023, would be extended to cover all school instruction through the end of high school under a bill advanced by an Iowa House subcommittee on Wednesday.
“This bill prohibits school districts, charter schools, and innovation zone schools from providing any program, curriculum, test, survey, questionnaire, promotion, or instruction relating to gender identity or sexual orientation to students in grades 7 through 12, extending the current prohibition that applies to 6 such students in kindergarten through grade 6,” the text of HSB 84 explains.
Such broad language would seem to prohibit instruction related to all genders and sexual orientations, but as the Republican members of the legislature made clear in 2023 when advancing the K-6 bill, SF 496, the prohibitions only apply to topics involving LGBTQ individuals and issues.
Rep. Skyler Wheeler, the Hull Republican who chaired the subcommittee, also made it clear who and what HSB 84 is targeting during the meeting on Wednesday afternoon.
“I am tired of having parents sending pictures of classrooms with rainbow flags and transgender flags, some of which are bigger and longer and displayed much more boldly than the American flag or an Iowa flag,” he said.
Wheeler has been a leader in the Iowa House on anti-LGBTQ bills, especially ones targeting trans people, in recent years. He introduced HSB 84 in January.
“The bottom line is we have to get back to the basics in education,” Wheeler said. “We have to get rid of the distractions. This is a distraction. Get back to reading, writing, math, history, science, which obviously confirms that there are only two genders.”
That, of course, is not true. Scientists who actually study gender are clear that it is a complex issue. Despite his invocation of science, that’s not what Wheeler bases his approach to legislating on.
“My worldview begins with the Bible and taking it in its literal form,” he told Little Village in a 2018 email. “Using the Bible as my compass, I come to conclusions that life is precious, marriage is one natural man and one natural woman, taxes should not be overbearing, and the government’s job is to reward those who abide by the law and punish those who do not. As a state legislator, I will use the Bible as my starting point for making decisions on what legislation I should support and which I should oppose.”
Rep. Elinor Levin, an Iowa City Democrat, was the only educator on the three-member subcommittee and is one of the few openly LGBTQ members of the Iowa Legislature. (Wheeler works for a Christian nonprofit, and the other Republican representative, Henry Stone of Forest City, is an RV sales consultant.)
“We heard the phrase, ‘let’s teach truth.’ I would love to do that,” Levin said, before sketching out some of the ways the bill would gag teachers.
“I won’t be able to … teach my students fully about World War II because some of the folks who were targeted in the Nazi concentration camps were queer individuals. I would not be able to teach fully about the AIDS crisis. I would not be able to teach about the Stonewall riots. I would not be able to teach about any number of historical subjects going back to ancient history, because there is some reference to queer identity or to any gender identity or sexual orientation within that historical context.”
Levin also questioned the advisability of extending SF 496’s classroom prohibitions to middle and high schools when that earlier bill, which also included a sweeping ban on books with “descriptions or visual depictions of a sex act” (except for the Bible and other religious texts) in Iowa school districts, is still the subject of court challenges.
Wheeler dismissed those concerns.
HSB 84 is one of 19 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced so far in the legislative session that started four weeks ago, according to a bill tracker published by One Iowa Action.
Max Mowitz, the executive director of One Iowa, the Des Moines-based nonprofit that advocates on behalf of LGBTQ Iowans, addressed the impact HSB 84’s prohibitions would have on students when he testified at the subcommittee hearing.
“The development of grades 7-12, those folks are experiencing puberty and adolescence,” he said. “They’re dating. They’re developing their identities. And this is a time when lack of information on LGBTQ people would be confusing, as young folks learn about themselves. And I understand that that’s the concept of the bill, that’s what you all are going for.”
Amber Williams, policy liaison for Inspired Life, told the subcommittee that learning about their identities is something students should do with their parents or “faith leaders.” Inspired Life describes itself as “an organization working to help men and women, marriages, parents, children, leaders, educators, givers, and business owners live truly God.”
According to Williams, the bill’s restrictions on teachers would benefit teachers.
“Teachers should not be burdened with these sensitive discussions, and students should not be subjected to concepts that may conflict with their family’s values,” she said.
Williams is familiar to manny lawmakers at the State Capitol as a leader of the Polk County Chapter of Moms for Liberty, but she appeared before the subcommittee on Wednesday in her capacity as a registered lobbyist for Inspired Life.
Chuck Hurley, a lobbyist for The Family Leader, assured subcommittee members that concerns over the bill having a negative impact on students were unfounded.
“If this bill passes, bullying is still punishable in the schools,” Hurley said. “We remove a divisive topic from the schools and we put it back where it should be: with parents, family and friends.”
The Family Leader, a rightwing Christian political group, is one of the most powerful conservative organizations in the state. It was formed by groups that had opposed same-sex marriage before the 2009 Iowa Supreme Court decision recognizing their validity, and it continues to fight against LGBTQ rights.
Bethany Snyder, the mother of a student in Urbandale, spoke to the subcommittee about the damage the bill would do to both LGBTQ students and their families by prohibiting the acknowledgement of their existence.
“LGBTQ students who already face higher risks of bullying, suicide and mental health, would be sent a clear message, you don’t exist, you don’t belong, and we don’t want to talk about you,” she said. “As a lesbian mom, I know firsthand how damaging that message is.”
“Our child exists, our families exist. Our kids exist. Pretending otherwise won’t change that, it just causes harm.”
The bill passed out of the subcommittee with the support of both Wheeler and Stone. Levin opposed it.
HSB 84 now goes to the House Education Committee for consideration. Rep. Wheeler is the chair of that committee.
