About 150 people rallied at the Iowa State Capitol on Saturday to protest a bill that would stop Iowa universities and community colleges from hiring people on H-1B visas if they come from one of seven countries. HF 2513’s prohibition applies to any H-1B visa holder “who is also a citizen of a nation designated […]
Rep. Skyler Wheeler
Posted inStatewide
‘Chipping away at the rights of Iowans’: House passes bill to eliminate local civil rights protections for trans people
On Thursday, the Iowa House approved a bill that prohibits local governments from having any civil rights ordinances that provide greater protections for rights than state law does. Eliminating the power of local governments to protect the rights of transgender and nonbinary people is one of Gov. Kim Reynolds’ stated priorities for her final legislative session as governor.
Posted inCommunity/News
Conversion therapy, affirmative action bills pass Iowa House
The Iowa House passed two measures Wednesday that Democrats and opponents said would harm marginalized populations, including transgender Iowans, throughout the state. HF 2557 creates exemptions to the definitions of “child abuse” and “child endangerment” in Iowa Code for a parent’s response to a child whose gender identity does not align with their sex assigned […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa House Republicans advance bills to eliminate local civil rights protections, allow parents to force LGBTQ kids into ‘conversion therapy’
Republican members of two Iowa House Judiciary subcommittees advanced two bills on Monday that continue the anti-LGBTQ agenda Gov. Kim Reynolds and legislative Republicans have enshrined in state law since 2022. As the hearings were underway, supporters of transgender rights and advocates for LGBTQ Iowans protested in the rotunda and halls of the State Capitol. […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa House Republicans advance bill making it a crime to allow minors to ‘view a drag show’
Over 100 protesters gathered in the hallways of the Iowa State Capitol on Tuesday, chanting, “Trans rights are human rights” and “Hey hey, ho ho transphobia has got to go,” as lawmakers on an Iowa House subcommittee considered the latest bill targeting transgender Iowans. According to the explanatory section of HSB 158, the bill is […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa House Republicans advance bill to extend ban on LGBTQ topics in elementary schools to middle and high schools
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 […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Poll shows opposition to Gov. Reynolds’ proposal to change transgender Iowans’ birth certificates
A plurality of Iowans oppose Gov. Kim Reynolds’ effort to change how the state issues birth certificates in order to identify transgender people, according to a new Iowa Poll. In the survey of 804 adults conducted by Selzer & Co. for the Des Moines Register and Mediacom, 49 percent opposed the proposed change, while 44 […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Hundreds declare ‘we will not go silently’ as supporters of Gov. Reynolds’ HF 2389 complain trans people ‘need to go’; bill advances
It’s funnel week at the Iowa Capitol, so by Friday a bill needs to be approved by a committee in either the House or Senate to be considered for passage this legislative session. It’s supposedly a fixed deadline, but it’s really just an observed custom, because there are existing exceptions for certain bills — such […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘Shouldn’t we be working on something more important in education?’: Republicans in House ed committee fast-track Gov. Reynolds’ bill targeting trans Iowans’ ID
Just a few days after Gov. Kim Reynolds introduced a sweeping bill targeting transgender and nonbinary Iowans, that bill is now eligible for a floor vote in the Iowa House. HSB 649, which the governor filed last Thursday, was approved by the House Education Committee on Tuesday on a party-line vote. All of the committee’s […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘Mean-spirited’ bill restricting how teachers can support transgender students moves quickly through Iowa House
On Tuesday afternoon, the three members of an Iowa House subcommittee listened to an hour of testimony on HF 9, a bill aimed at preventing teachers and other school staff from acknowledging the identities of transgender students unless they first receive parental permission to do so. With only a few exceptions, the speakers testified strongly […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Surrounded by children, Gov. Reynolds signs bill banning transgender girls from playing girls sports in all Iowa schools
“Our state has an impressive legacy of advancing women’s equality,” Gov. Kim Reynolds said on Thursday, just before she signed into law a bill banning transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s sports in Iowa schools, colleges and universities. HF 2416 restricts participation on all school or college girls sports teams and in all […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa House Republicans approve ban on transgender girls in girls’ sports, extending the ban to colleges and universities
The Iowa House approved a bill to ban transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports at schools on Monday night, after amending it to extend the ban to community colleges and public and private universities. HF 2416 only received support from Republicans when it was passed by a subcommittee and the House Education Committee, but […]
