The U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of the tax and spending bill supported by President Trump early on Thursday morning. A last-minute change to the bill, apparently to make it more appealing to rightwing members of Congress threatening to vote no, targets transgender Americans. An amendment to the bill’s ban on Medicaid paying […]
transgender rights
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa Republicans advance bill with a ban on Medicaid funding for all forms of gender-affirming care
On Wednesday, Iowa Senate Republicans advanced a bill with a provision that would cut off funding for medical treatments for people with gender dysphoria, despite testimony pointing to a medical consensus that stopping access to such treatments can increase the risk of suicide among transgender people. This is the first piece of anti-trans legislation Iowa […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘I can’t get a passport in this country right now’: Iowa City marks Transgender Day of Visibility in the shadow of anti-trans state, national laws
Approximately 100 people gathered at College Green Park in Iowa City on Tuesday for a rally to mark this year’s International Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV). “Visibility is power. Visibility is defiance,” Mandi Remington, founder and director of Corridor Community Action Network (CCAN) and a member of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors, told the […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Responding to the moment, Iowa City’s Transgender Day of Visibility expands to seven days of shows, support groups and direct action
This year has seen a sustained assault on the rights of transgender people from the Trump administration and in Iowa, which became the first state ever to erase part of its civil rights act. Republicans in the Legislature pushed through a bill that eliminated protections on the basis of gender identity, which had been added […]
Posted inOpinion
Letter to the editor: Erasure in Iowa
By Garry Klein, Iowa City Between the Iowa legislature taking transgender protections out in the state’s Civil Rights Act and the University of Iowa deleting cultural communities and programs that serve students, it is apparent that there is an attempt to erase progressive policy and law that protects and serves Iowans that historically have been […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa becomes the first state to erase parts of its Civil Rights Act
Iowa has now made history as the first state to erase parts of its civil rights code to strip protections from some of its citizens. Despite the enormity of cutting gender identity out of the Iowa Civil Rights Act — thereby eliminating rights of transgender and nonbinary Iowans that have been in place for 18 […]
Posted inCommunity/News
GOP bill to eliminate rights of trans Iowans passes subcommittee and committee in less than a day
Hundreds gathered in the hallways and rotunda of the State Capitol to protest the attempt to strip transgender Iowans of civil rights and stop the state government from recognizing the existence of their identities via a bill Republicans are fast-tracking through the Iowa House. “Trans rights are human rights” and “Say no, fight back,” they […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘Pointless, unnecessary and unbelievably cruel’: Rep. Steve Holt proposes bill eliminating civil rights protections for trans people
Iowa would make history by gutting protections enshrined in its Civil Rights Act for almost two decades to make discrimination against transgender Iowans legal, if a bill introduced in the Iowa House on Thursday becomes law. HSB 242 would also alter definitions used in state law to eliminate acknowledging the existence of transgender people as […]
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 […]
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Peak Iowa: Caitlyn Jenner’s alma mater in Lamoni
What do Mormon pioneers and Caitlyn Jenner have in common? Besides a tendency towards backwards beliefs and manslaughter, they share a deep connection to the southwestern Iowa city of Lamoni (pop. 1,974). Though she grew up in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, Jenner was recruited to Lamoni’s Graceland University, a small, private religious school, in 1969 — […]
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Chase Strangio, Grinnell grad, makes history as the first trans person to argue a case before the Supreme Court
The issues before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday in the case of United States v. Skrmetti were of historic importance. Would the court adhere to its decision issued four years ago finding federal protections against discrimination on the basis of sex apply to transgender people as a matter of equal protection before the law? […]
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Brenna Bird joins other Republican AGs to threaten the American Academy of Pediatrics over its support for transgender young people
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird joined a group of other Republican state attorneys general this week in sending a letter to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) accusing the organization of possibly violating consumer protection statutes. The Republican group claims the AAP’s guidance on standards of care for transgender and gender diverse (TGD) young people […]
