Iowa Governor Signs Bill to Ban Trans Girls from Women’s Sports in Schools

Iowa, like many other states around the country, has joined the discriminatory trend of pushing legislation against trans people, especially teenagers.

On March 3, Governor Kim Reynolds signed a bill that will immediately ban trans girls in schools from women’s sports. The bill prohibits any transgender girl or woman from competing in women’s sports in Iowa schools, colleges, and universities. 

“Forcing females to compete against males is the opposite of inclusivity, and it’s absolutely unfair,” Reynolds said at the ceremony. 

The bill requires that the state’s athletic programs be “based on the sex at birth of the participating students.” This means that trans athletes that want to compete would have to join mixed-gender teams or a team that doesn’t match their gender. 

The bill especially targets trans girls, since it specifically bans them from entering women’s sports, specifying that “only female students, based on their sex, may participate in any team, sport, or athletic event designated as being for females, women, or girls.”

Reynolds, a republican, said in a news conference in February that she believes it’s not fair to allow transgender women and girls to compete in girl’s sports, despite expert testimony and science that asserts testosterone levels don’t automatically equate to superior athletic performance.

“Girls have dreams and aspirations of earning a scholarship to help pay for college. Girls have dreams and aspirations of one day competing in the Olympics,” Reynolds says. “So it’s a fairness issue.”

When signing the bill under the Iowa Capitol’s rotunda, Reynolds says that “great things happen when women have access to the fair and equal playing field they deserve,” conveniently ignoring transmisogyny and the inequity and dangers many trans women, especially trans women of color, face in today’s world.

Reynolds was accompanied by cis women athletes at the signing ceremony. 

Reynolds signature puts Iowa among 10 other Republican-led states that have passes laws restricting transgender athletes in recent years, as stated by USA Today