The term “gender identity” had been added to the state’s civil rights law in 2007. In removing it, Iowa officials have codified that biological sex – not a spectrum of self-identified gender – is what governs legal protections in Iowa. The new law, which described “gender identity” as an individual’s “subjective identification,” now directs the state to use objective distinctions based on reproductive systems as the way to provide fair treatment in areas such as education, employment, public accommodations, athletics, and more.
SF 418 defines sex as “the state of being either male or female as observed or clinically verified at birth.” The law’s text further defines “male” and “female” as an individual who normally will, has, or would have had “the reproductive system that at some point produces sperm” or an “egg,” respectively.
SF 418 also defines “man,” “woman,” “father,” “mother,” “boy,” and “girl” all along male and female lines. Under the law, the term “gender” is only to be used to reference the natural differences between males and females and is to be regarded as a “synonym for sex,” not “gender identity.”
The legislation also prevents changes to birth certificates for individuals attempting to change their gender through medical interventions while ensuring that Iowa’s school curriculum does not promote “gender theory or sexual orientation” to students from kindergarten through the sixth grade. The law then addressed how people with the rare disorder of having both male and female anatomy, commonly called “intersex,” are already protected. Any “person born with a medically verifiable diagnosis of disorder or difference of sex development shall be provided the legal protections and accommodations afforded under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and applicable state law,” the law reads.
