DES MOINES — About 150 LGBTQ students were kicked out of the Iowa State Capitol after trying to use the bathroom on Thursday.
According to the Des Moines Register, students with Iowa Safe Schools, an advocacy group for LGBTQ students, were told by state police that they couldn’t use the restroom of their gender identity. When Iowa Safe Schools executive director Nate Monson told the police that the students could use the restroom, he was told that wasn’t the law.
DES MOINES — A bill that would have removed transgender people from the state’s civil rights law was stopped before it even got to a subcommittee.
The Associated Press reported on Thursday that State Rep. Steven Holt, Repubilican chairman of the state House Judiciary Committee, would not allow the bill to move forward.
“It’s dead,” Holt told the AP. “It just would have had a lot of unintended consequences.”
DES MOINES — A group of Republican state representatives want to repeal any protections for transgender people by removing them from the Iowa Civil Rights Act.
State Representatives Dean Fisher, Anne Osmundson, Terry Baxter, Tedd Gassman, Thomas Gerhold, Phil Thompson, Tom Jeneary, Skyler Wheeler, and Sandy Salmon released HF 2164 on Wednesday.
LGBTQ rights group One Iowa quickly condemned the bill.
DES MOINES — Republican lawmakers in Iowa have proposed a bill to limit the flags can be flown on the statehouse after a transgender flag was flown on the Transgender Day of Rememberance last year.
DES MOINES — California’s government has banned taxpayer-paid travel to Iowa in reaction to the state passing a law barring the use of Medicaid for transition-related healthcare.
DES MOINES — One Iowa, a statewide LGBTQ organization, will host the Midwest LGBTQ Older Adults Conference on Wednesday, August 7 from 8 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. at the Goodwill of Central Iowa Headquarters in Johnston. Formerly known as the LGBTQ Senior Summit, this annual event provides workshops and networking opportunities to address the needs of older LGBTQ people in Iowa. This year’s theme is “Legacy and Empowerment”, and older LGBTQ individuals and service providers who work with them are encouraged to attend and connect with one another. “76 percent of LGBTQ adults are anxious about having ‘adequate family and/or social supports to rely on as they age’ according to 2018 AARP data,” One Iowa Interim Executive Director Courtney Reyes said. “That number is far too high, and that’s why we’ve worked with our LGBTQ Older Adult Advisory Council to develop a conference specifically targeting areas of highest concern for this community.
DES MOINES — A judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging a law that exempts gender-confirmation surgeries from being covered by Iowa’s Medicaid program. Courthouse News reported that Polk County District Judge David Porter dismissed the suit on Thursday, saying the issues were not ready for judicial review. The new website reported that Mika Covington, Aiden Vasquez and One Iowa argued in their May 31 complaint that the state’s ban on Medicaid coverage of sex-reassignment surgery violates their equal protection rights under the Iowa Constitution by “intentionally singling out transgender Iowans as a class for discrimination in public accommodations through the provision of publicly funded healthcare under the Iowa Civil Rights Act.”
From Courthouse News:
Covington and Vasquez had not yet sought or been denied Medicaid coverage, so they must first appeal the state’s Medicaid rules at the administrative level before challenging them in court, he wrote in a 13-page order. The complaint named as defendants Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Department of Human Services, or DHS. A spokesman for the governor did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
