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SAFETY IS A RIGHT, NOT A PRIVILEGE
- Cody Sherlock
- Mar 16
- 3 min read
It should be known that there are already a variety of anti-trans laws in Iowa, with new ones being brought to the House right now. Some are as big as Senate File 418 or as small as SF 496. Senate File 418 intends to remove gender identity as a protected class from the Iowa Civil Rights Act. In addition to this, SF 496 banned sexual orientation and gender identity in schools from kindergarten through sixth grade. You may ask, “What does that actually mean?” In simple terms it means there is no legal protection for transgender Iowans in employment, housing, education, credit, and public accommodations. This ranges from hotels, restaurants and even to stores. Letting companies refuse service based purely on gender identity. A law stopping this was set in place since 2007 and in Des Moines since 1991, but that no longer stands true. On February 28th, 2025, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed a bill to get rid of these protections. Despite this, there are still a few cities that were “safe” for transgender citizens until the bill SF 759 got passed on March 10th. The cities that used to include were locations like Cedar Rapids, Coralville, Des Moines, Iowa City, and other places within Johnson County. This bill has since now removed these previous protections, taking it out of the hands of individual counties and forcing them to conform to state law.
Another bill that impacts transgender youth daily is Senate File 538 which bans the use of hormones and hormone blockers for anyone under the age of 18. The implementation of this bill is affecting transgender youth across Iowa, including myself. Bills like this don't protect anyone; it just means transgender students will get more resourceful to survive going out of state to a place that cares. The Trevor Project stated that 67% of transgender teenagers report symptoms of anxiety and 57% report symptoms of depression. Depression can cause hopelessness and loss of interest in hobbies and tiredness. All of these make even the simplest of tasks so much harder. In addition, it also affects school and relationships making it harder to show up and be there for the people around you. On the other hand, anxiety can cause panic attacks, difficulty controlling worry and trouble concentrating. These common symptoms of anxiety make life and school even worse.
Gender dysphoria, which often comes as a part of being transgender, has led to suicide and attempted suicide The Trevor Project has found that around 50% of trans youth ages 13-17 considering suicide and 18% attempting it. It only gets worse when there are anti-transgender laws being passed with the worst findings from The Trevor Project being a 65% increase of attempted suicide. When you just try to live as your true self and that gets stopped it’s hard to find a reason to keep going. Who would want to keep going if they could never be their true self? No one.
As a community we need to protect our students, especially our transgender students. As more of us graduate we should speak out against and protest the voting for these types of damaging bills. This is a matter of lives not just attention seeking behavior.
