It’s Mar. 3, 2025.

Amie here. It’s gotten pretty bleak for our transgender friends here in Iowa. In this newsletter, Starting Line’s Avery Staker and I are gonna talk about:

1. what just happened,
2. fighting for civil rights when they’re your own,
3. and what we can do about it.

1. Here’s what happened last week:

 

On Thursday, a public hearing was held for Senate File 418, a bill that would remove gender identity as a protected class under the Iowa Civil Rights Act.

 

The vast majority of public comments—over 97%—were in opposition to the bill. (thanks to ISL reader Hope Sievers for compiling this!)

 

And a record-setting crowd of more than 2,500 Iowans came out to protest it.

The first-in-the-nation bill strips transgender and nonbinary Iowans of all civil rights protections—exposing an already vulnerable population to legal discrimination in housing, on the job, at the doctor’s office, at the bank, and more.

 

Both the Iowa Senate and House—which have Republican supermajorities—passed the bill along party lines last week, and Gov. Kim Reynolds signed it into law over the weekend.

 

It will not go into effect until July 1, but once it does, it will mean trans and nonbinary folks can be legally fired, thrown out of their apartment, and denied health care and bank loans.

2. Covering the news of your civil rights being taken away:

by Avery Staker

 

I was at the State Capitol more than I would’ve liked to be last week. There I was, a trans nonbinary Iowan, clocked in and fighting for my rights, shoulders weighed with the personal, professional, and political.

 

The funny thing about times like last week, as in times when LGBTQ+ people face state-sanctioned bigotry, is that those are the times when I see most of my friends. In between chants, we’re embracing, asking each other how we are, responding with forlorn looks and a half-hearted “I’m okay.” We’re catching up as if we had happened upon each other at a bar on a Friday night. Instead, it’s 11 a.m. on a Tuesday when we should be at work, and we’re fighting for our civil rights.

It’s a dissonant feeling, seeing the most beautiful people you know in a building where so much legislative violence is inflicted upon us.

 

But I take it as a choice.

 

As heavy as the reason we are there together is—which I assure you is heavier than you think—we are choosing to be there for each other. We are choosing to embrace, check in, hold each other in the hardest of times. None of us can bear that weight alone, so—instinctually—we bear it together at the source. That is the only choice we have.

 

A lot of those friends will be moving away soon, and I intend to help them when I can. Living in a state of fear is no way to live. But a love like this knows no distance. Be it San Diego, Minneapolis, or Canada, wherever these friends are is where a divine, transcendent love I know lives. Thrives. As a friend of mine once wrote, “That, they cannot vote on.”

 

Trans people are beautiful. Trans people are divine. Trans people are forever. Hatred, no matter how official, cannot rival that.

3. What now?

 

As Avery mentioned, some folks are seeing the extreme Christian Nationalist turn our state is making and choosing to leave Iowa. It’s a valid response to lawmakers literally stripping folks of rights, and emboldening and enshrining bigotry and legalized discrimination of them and people they care about into law.

 

But staying here and fighting this nonsense? Also super valid.

 

If you’re ready to fight, here are three things you can do right now to help our trans and nonbinary neighbors:

Rep. Aime Wichtendahl (D-Hiawatha), the first and only trans elected official in the Iowa State Legislature, speaks during floor debate on Iowa’s bill stripping discrimination protections from trans adults.

1. Uplift trans voices.

 

You know who knows best about what’s at stake for trans folks, what trans folks are feeling, and what trans folks need right now? Trans folks themselves.

 

You probably know at least one trans person (if you don’t, hey, you know Avery!). Have you checked on them? Message them right now. Ask them what they need. Reshare posts they’ve shared on social media.

Evander Lane Ellsbury, a trans Iowan, speaks during a committee hearing on Iowa’s bill stripping discrimination protections from trans adults.

Not everyone is comfortable being vocal when they’re being targeted, however, so look to Iowa’s trans leaders as well.

 

Comment on and share videos from Iowa Rep. Aime Wichtendahl of Hiawatha, the state’s first transgender lawmaker who has not shied away from calling out Republicans for these extremist bills. Comment on and share posts and videos from Johnson County Supervisor V Fixmer-Oraiz.

 

These leaders are boldly standing up for themselves and the rights of folks like them. Sharing their messages means more Iowans seeing them.

Johnson County Supervisor V Fixmer-Oraiz speaks at the Iowa Capitol protest on Feb. 27, 2025. (Avery Staker/Iowa Starting Line)

2. Stand with them.

 

Trans and nonbinary folks are a very small percentage of our population, and thus do not have the numbers to fight this alone.

 

Show them they’re not alone with your actions.

 

Show up to rallies and protests. Call or write your legislators. Share your support on your favorite social media platforms. Get supportive shirts, hats, buttons, pins, and/or car magnets and display them prominently. Ask for and use people’s pronouns. (Better yet, share yours first.) Speak up against transphobia everywhere you see it, whether that’s targeted at friends or strangers.

 

Make it clear you do not think Iowa’s backsliding is OK.

Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague (pictured) leading the Iowa Capitol protestors in song on Feb. 27, 2025. (Avery Staker/Iowa Starting Line)

3. Donate to them.

 

Even when they were protected from discrimination in Iowa, trans folks were still more likely to live in poverty because of “unofficial” discrimination. It’ll likely get worse going forward for a bit.

 

Add to your trans friends’ Venmo accounts. Donate to the Iowa Trans Mutual Aid Fund to directly help trans Iowans who need it. Pay attention to other mutual aid requests and budget a little each month to help. Folks might need help getting out of our state, or they might need help getting groceries this week, or they might just need a mani/pedi/massage to destress. It all matters.

 

Taking care of each other builds and strengthens our community. It reminds folks that we see them and care for them. At a time when they feel the state is against them, be a little light in the darkness.

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