For one brief moment, it seemed as if the Legislature knew it had gone too far — that repealing gender identity from the civil rights act was unacceptable. We are a state with a long history of proud civil rights achievements — such as eliminating segregation 100 years before the rest of the country.
Gov. Kim Reynolds decided that if the legislature didn’t end civil rights in Iowa she would personally lead the charge. Her bill HSB 649 would reinstate ‘separate but equal’ and functionally erase transgender people from Iowa Law.
Reynolds says that she wants to protect women.
However, a telling moment happened when the House was reviewing the legislation.
Rep. Sharon Steckman, D- Mason City, asked the governor’s aid whether any domestic violence shelters were consulted what problems and needs they had, and whether the governor had had spoken to any trans Iowans.
The governor’s aide simply responded with a boilerplate text “Just as like the governor and the Legislature did protecting women’s and girls' sports the bill is necessary to protect women.”
Which is an admission that they didn’t consult anyone save the Heritage Foundation and the worst parts of Twitter.
Because the facts are inconvenient to the governor’s feelings. Because there likely are no instances of transwomen going to domestic abuse shelters to abuse women and there are no instances of men pretending to be trans to gain access to these spaces to do the same.
Moreover, anti-trans laws increase harassment of women in women’s spaces as happened after the 2016 North Carolina bathroom bill, because right-wing grifters are always trying to catch a trans in the bathroom (which is just gross) any woman who doesn’t meet their insane and often contradictory criteria for how a woman should look or act is at risk of harassment.
This bill will put men in women’s spaces, though not in the way the governor thinks. Because trans men exist (assigned female at birth and transitioning to male later), the inane wording of this law requires that transmen be put in women’s space.
It’s a stupid bill.
Reynolds and members of the Legislature traffic in the same tired slander that trans women are predators and they fearmonger because that is the only way they can eliminate civil rights in Iowa and hide the failures that their policies have had for Iowans.
The governor’s record for protecting women itself is atrocious, which she well knows. Reynolds deprived Iowa women of bodily autonomy when she personally sought to end abortion rights, knowing full well that these laws make pregnancy more dangerous as they force women to carry unviable pregnancies to the point where they are on the verge of death before they can get abortion care and maybe not even then.
Anti-abortion laws keep the best OBGYNs out of the state. This has a further knock-on effect that screening for cervical, uterine, and ovarian will be delayed or missed, and don’t forget Iowa has one of the highest cancer rates in the U.S. To say nothing of the expanding maternity care deserts that spread throughout Iowa.
When it comes to abusing women rights, Reynolds is one of the biggest offenders If she truly wanted to protect women she would resign because her legacy has produced the single greatest rollback to women’s rights in a century.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that Reynolds dusted off transphobia the moment she knew that her unpopular AEA bill was in trouble. The Iowa House held hearings on both the AEA and gender identity bills on the same day and time with the same result.
The trans community in Iowa is Reynolds’ favorite punching bag because we only make up 0.29% of the population and there’s a whole right-wing media ecosystem ready to slander us.
Reynolds says the only way to protect women’s rights is to eliminate trans rights. Yet this is a false choice. The alibi of tyrants is to claim only they can protect you while destroying the rights and lives of others.
This is what fascism looks like.
Fascism by the simplest definition is conform … or else.
Our government is weaponizing it’s power against its citizens because people have stood up against their policies.
And trans people aren’t the only targets. They attack us overtly, but they are covertly attacking others by moving the following bills to — defund the AEAs (SSB 3073), engage in union busting (SSB 3158), defunding, harming public libraries (HSB 678) and erasing gender parity on state boards (SF2096).
The greatest mistake anyone can make in the face of authoritarianism is to say it doesn’t or can’t affect them. Across the world, authoritarian parties often purge members of their own parties first and systematically attack all who don’t fall in line after.
Personally, speaking as an American — I reject conformity. I reject Reynolds’ attempts to erase us in the eyes of the law. And I sure as heck reject any attempts by this Legislature to reduce queer Iowans to second class status.
Reynolds and her allies in the Legislature no longer represent Iowa’s most sacred values “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.” I ask you to write, post, and call out Gov. Reynolds and remind her that liberty and justice for all is not optional.
It is up to Iowans to stop this and once again I must call upon Iowans to oppose this law in every way possible. Write your representatives, talk about this on social media, stand with the trans community during our darkest hour, and then vote the autocrats out of office in November.
Aime J. Wichtendahl is the first openly transwoman elected in Iowa — serving on the Hiawatha City Council. She is a candidate for the Iowa House in District 80.
www.thegazette.com
Gov. Kim Reynolds decided that if the legislature didn’t end civil rights in Iowa she would personally lead the charge. Her bill HSB 649 would reinstate ‘separate but equal’ and functionally erase transgender people from Iowa Law.
Reynolds says that she wants to protect women.
However, a telling moment happened when the House was reviewing the legislation.
Rep. Sharon Steckman, D- Mason City, asked the governor’s aid whether any domestic violence shelters were consulted what problems and needs they had, and whether the governor had had spoken to any trans Iowans.
The governor’s aide simply responded with a boilerplate text “Just as like the governor and the Legislature did protecting women’s and girls' sports the bill is necessary to protect women.”
Which is an admission that they didn’t consult anyone save the Heritage Foundation and the worst parts of Twitter.
Because the facts are inconvenient to the governor’s feelings. Because there likely are no instances of transwomen going to domestic abuse shelters to abuse women and there are no instances of men pretending to be trans to gain access to these spaces to do the same.
Moreover, anti-trans laws increase harassment of women in women’s spaces as happened after the 2016 North Carolina bathroom bill, because right-wing grifters are always trying to catch a trans in the bathroom (which is just gross) any woman who doesn’t meet their insane and often contradictory criteria for how a woman should look or act is at risk of harassment.
This bill will put men in women’s spaces, though not in the way the governor thinks. Because trans men exist (assigned female at birth and transitioning to male later), the inane wording of this law requires that transmen be put in women’s space.
It’s a stupid bill.
Reynolds and members of the Legislature traffic in the same tired slander that trans women are predators and they fearmonger because that is the only way they can eliminate civil rights in Iowa and hide the failures that their policies have had for Iowans.
The governor’s record for protecting women itself is atrocious, which she well knows. Reynolds deprived Iowa women of bodily autonomy when she personally sought to end abortion rights, knowing full well that these laws make pregnancy more dangerous as they force women to carry unviable pregnancies to the point where they are on the verge of death before they can get abortion care and maybe not even then.
Anti-abortion laws keep the best OBGYNs out of the state. This has a further knock-on effect that screening for cervical, uterine, and ovarian will be delayed or missed, and don’t forget Iowa has one of the highest cancer rates in the U.S. To say nothing of the expanding maternity care deserts that spread throughout Iowa.
When it comes to abusing women rights, Reynolds is one of the biggest offenders If she truly wanted to protect women she would resign because her legacy has produced the single greatest rollback to women’s rights in a century.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that Reynolds dusted off transphobia the moment she knew that her unpopular AEA bill was in trouble. The Iowa House held hearings on both the AEA and gender identity bills on the same day and time with the same result.
The trans community in Iowa is Reynolds’ favorite punching bag because we only make up 0.29% of the population and there’s a whole right-wing media ecosystem ready to slander us.
Reynolds says the only way to protect women’s rights is to eliminate trans rights. Yet this is a false choice. The alibi of tyrants is to claim only they can protect you while destroying the rights and lives of others.
This is what fascism looks like.
Fascism by the simplest definition is conform … or else.
Our government is weaponizing it’s power against its citizens because people have stood up against their policies.
And trans people aren’t the only targets. They attack us overtly, but they are covertly attacking others by moving the following bills to — defund the AEAs (SSB 3073), engage in union busting (SSB 3158), defunding, harming public libraries (HSB 678) and erasing gender parity on state boards (SF2096).
The greatest mistake anyone can make in the face of authoritarianism is to say it doesn’t or can’t affect them. Across the world, authoritarian parties often purge members of their own parties first and systematically attack all who don’t fall in line after.
Personally, speaking as an American — I reject conformity. I reject Reynolds’ attempts to erase us in the eyes of the law. And I sure as heck reject any attempts by this Legislature to reduce queer Iowans to second class status.
Reynolds and her allies in the Legislature no longer represent Iowa’s most sacred values “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.” I ask you to write, post, and call out Gov. Reynolds and remind her that liberty and justice for all is not optional.
It is up to Iowans to stop this and once again I must call upon Iowans to oppose this law in every way possible. Write your representatives, talk about this on social media, stand with the trans community during our darkest hour, and then vote the autocrats out of office in November.
Aime J. Wichtendahl is the first openly transwoman elected in Iowa — serving on the Hiawatha City Council. She is a candidate for the Iowa House in District 80.
Opinion: Gov. Reynolds leads a full assault on civil rights in Iowa
Demonstrators opposed to House File 2082 gather during a Judiciary Committee hearing on the bill in the Iowa State Capitol …
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