Iowa House passes bill redefining sex, removes gender identity from civil-rights code

DES MOINES — The Iowa House on Wednesday voted to pass Senate File 418, substituted for House File 583, a bill that defines a person’s sex by biological characteristics at birth and removes gender identity as a protected class from the Iowa Civil Rights Act. The measure passed the House on a 60-35 roll-call vote and was immediately messaged to the Senate.

Supporters, led on the floor by the bill’s sponsor, Representative Holt, said the measure restores what they described as an immutable, biological definition of male and female and removes legal uncertainty they say has produced litigation and administrative confusion. "Our liberties we prize and our rights will we will maintain," Holt said in closing remarks before the final vote. Holt also told the chamber, "Women produce ova at some point. Men produce sperm," language that mirrors the bill’s statutory definitions.

Opponents called the bill an erosion of civil rights that would expose transgender and intersex Iowans to discrimination in employment, housing, credit and public accommodations. Lawmakers who opposed the bill said it risks economic harm, harms public health and will prompt legal challenges. Representative Wilburn, who spoke in opposition, urged colleagues to consider constituents who are "our friends, our families, our neighbors." Representative Matson, arguing to retain protections for credit, warned that removing gender-identity protections would make it easier for lenders to treat some Iowans differently: "The ability to function and to be successful in our society relies on…