New legislation will ban transgender girls and women from competing in women’s sports at Iowa schools, colleges and universities. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the legislation into law on Thursday, a day after the Iowa Senate passed it, and the law will immediately take effect.
Under the new state law, House File 2416, school-sponsored athletic events must be designated for men’s, women’s or coeducational sport. For an athlete to compete in a women’s sport, they must have female marked as the sex on their birth certificate; men’s sports have no such requirement. Students can also sue if they suffer “direct or indirect harm” from a school violating the law.
Iowa is now the 11th state to pass a law limiting the athletic participation of transgender girls and women. After signing the legislation, Reynolds said it added to Iowa’s “impressive legacy of advancing women’s equality.”
“Great things happen when women have access to the fair and equal playing field they deserve,” Reynolds said, per the Des Moines Register. “But what would it say about a commitment to this principle if we let actual playing fields — the courts, fields, rinks, pools and tracks of youth and collegiate sports — be tilted in favor of biological males with inherent physical advantages?”
Iowa Safe Schools executive director Becky Smith, who held the transgender flag during the signing at the Iowa Capitol, acknowledges the law has changed the playing field – but not in favor of transgender girls and women.
“It’s really just a reminder that transgender students matter, that they’re here, that they are not going anywhere,” Smith said. “And despite the fact that their rights are being infringed upon by the passage of this bill we stand with them, we have not forgotten them and the fight continues for LGBTQ youth across the state.”
While Iowa’s new legislation is now in effect, its legal hurdles likely aren’t over. Similar laws have been a subject of court battles in Florida, Idaho, Tennessee and West Virginia over the last two years.
