New Iowa laws affecting trans youth likely to face legal challenges

DES MOINES, Iowa (KCRG) - Iowa is one of a growing number of states to pass laws affecting transgender youth, but experts say these new laws may face legal challenges.

Legal experts anticipate two newly signed Iowa laws could face lawsuits from groups like One Iowa or the ACLU. One bans gender-affirming care for minors, while the other requires students to use the bathroom or locker room of their birth gender.

Opponents say the laws are in violation of state and possibly federally protected rights.

Mark Kende, the Director of the Constitutional Law Center at Drake University, says the bathroom bill in particular may also face a challenge under the Iowa Civil Rights Act and possibly the federal Civil Rights Act.

The U-S Supreme Court hasn’t definitively decided if the word sex in terms of sex discrimination applies to transgender people.

Kende says three lawsuits on legislation similar to Iowa’s bathroom bill have made it to federal appeals courts - with two ruling in favor of transgender students, and one ruled in favor of the school.

“The US Supreme Court took the word sex in the sex discrimination of federal statute and said that just doesn’t prohibit sex discrimination, but the word sex also covers and prohibits sexual orientation discrimination. So that kind of extension. If that was done, here would certainly help transgender individuals.”

Kende says likely not a matter of if, but when these laws will face a court challenge.

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