USA: Iowa legislature passes bill restricting transgender rights

The Iowa Senate and House of Representatives (House) passed a bill on Thursday that will remove protection from discrimination on “gender identity” grounds from the Iowa Code, effectively restricting transgender rights.

The Senate cleared Senate File (SF) 418 with a 33-15 vote and transferred the bill to the House, which voted 60-36 in favor of the bill. SF 418, which was first introduced by Senator Jason Schultz earlier this week, specifically narrows the definition of “gender” to include only the female or male sex rather than “gender identity, experienced gender, gender expression, or gender role.” The bill also defines “female” and “male” according to the reproductive system that an individual has “through the course of normal development.” Similarly, the bill states that “equal” does not mean “same” or “identical” since, according to the bill, “separate accommodations are not inherently unequal.”

SF 418 then provides that any state law prohibiting discrimination is limited to only prohibiting discrimination “against females or males in relation to similarly situated members of the opposite sex.” In other words, under this section of the bill, state laws prohibiting discrimination would not include the prohibition of discrimination against transgender people.

The bill principally aims to amend areas of the Iowa Code that set out protections against discrimination by removing “gender identity” from those sections. For example, in Section Two of the bill, one provision of the code is amended to remove “gender identity” as a ground protected from discrimination during the hiring process for the Department of Education.

While lawmakers considered the legislation, protestors gathered outside of the Iowa Capitol in opposition to the bill. After the General Assembly passed the bill, Congressman Eric Sorensen stated:

The State of Iowa stripped away the civil rights for some of its citizens today. I am ashamed this is happening in our country today, but I am proud to see the hundreds of people who peacefully protested the vote today. To those who feel the pain of this hate, just know that as one of only 13 out Members of Congress, I will look out for you and fight for you here at home and in Washington, DC.

At a public hearing, Iowa resident David Bush expressed support for the bill, claiming that it contains “common sense protections, especially for women.”

The bill will now be sent to Governor Kim Reynolds, who will choose whether to sign the bill into law or veto it. If Reynolds signs the bill, it will become law in July 2025.

In Montana, the state senate similarly proposed to alter the Montana Code by defining “sex” using binary terms. However, a district court judge struck down the bill as violating equal protection and privacy rights found in the Montana Constitution.

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Austria: Court allows disturbing subject with Vice Chancellor Kogler because of green LGBTIQ policy

More: https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000257603/gericht-erlaubt-verstoerendes-sujet-mit-kogler-wegen-gruener-lgbtiq-politik

US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) releases a groundbreaking report on intersex health, linking the ongoing practice of non-consensual surgery on intersex infants to harmful outcomes and health disparities

More: https://interactadvocates.org/hhs-supports-bodily-autonomy/

USA: Hundreds of LGBTQI+ Resources Censored by the Trump Administration

According to new analysis by the Center for American Progress, more than 350 LGBTQI+ pages, policies, and guides have been removed from the websites of the White House and federal agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Department of Veterans Affairs.

More: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/hundreds-of-lgbtqi-resources-censored-by-the-trump-administration/

Argentina’s right-wing government bans gender-affirming care for under-18s

Protestors during a pro-LGBTQ+ rally in Buenos Aires. (Getty)

Argentina president Javier Milei has announced a ban on trans healthcare for anyone under the age of 18.

The right-wing populist president reportedly implemented a decree on Thursday (6 February), following similar moves in the UK, Sweden and Finland.

“Gender ideology taken to extremes and applied to children by force or psychological coercion clearly constitutes child abuse,” a spokesperson for the president’s office said.

There is no evidence that children are being forced to begin gender-affirming care in Argentina.

The decree also forces transgender prison inmates to be held in jails according to their gender at birth.

More: https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/02/11/javier-milei-trans-healthcare-under-18s/

Interesting Article: Transgender Rights at a Crossroads in the United States (Ryan Thoreson)

In his first month in office, US President Donald Trump has issued a series of sweeping executive orders targeting transgender rights. Thus far, these aim to rigidly define “sex” in federal law, exclude transgender people from military service, ban gender-affirming healthcare for people under the age of 19, restrict support for transgender students in schools, and prohibit transgender women and girls from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity. The orders not only seek to roll back important rights, but functionally aim to erase any recognition of transgender people at the federal level.

More: Thoreson, Ryan: Transgender Rights at a Crossroads in the United States, VerfBlog, 2025/2/13, https://verfassungsblog.de/transgender-rights-at-a-crossroads-in-the-united-states/, DOI: 10.59704/cc4e6489ea14698b.

In January ILGA Europe submitted their annual contribution to the European Commission’s consultation ahead of this year’s Rule of Law report

The submission includes expert input of their member organisations in 9 EU countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.

After a year of elections across the EU, threats to democracy and the rule of law are growing both in Europe and globally. Our submission highlights more clearly than ever the connection between these threats and the instrumentalisation of LGBTI people.

Disinformation, hate speech, and discriminatory political discourse have surged in many countries, directly impacting the lives of LGBTI people. At the same time, violence and restrictive legislation against LGBTI individuals are increasing, undermining the rule of law.

2025 Rule of Law report – Download

Transgender teens challenge Trump ban on participating in women’s sports

Two transgender girls in New Hampshire brought the first legal action against President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender athletes in women’s sports on Wednesday. The amended complaint is an expansion of a lawsuit filed last August, after a state bill prohibiting transgender girls from participating in female sports was signed into law.

Last September, a federal judge granted the girls’ preliminary injunction against the law—permitting them to compete while the lawsuit continued. Now, however, the highschoolers claim Trump’s executive orders threaten their ability to participate despite the judge’s preliminary relief.

The executive order cites Title IX of the Education Amendments Act and case law as justification for prohibiting the participation of transgender women in women’s sports. It directs the Department of Education to prioritize Title IX enforcement actions and rescinds federal funds from schools that do not comply with the ban. The amended lawsuit, however, claims the ban “wrongly interprets Title IX to exclude protections for transgender people, in direct contradiction to this Court’s order” on the girls’ preliminary injunction.

In addition to the existing charges against the state defendants, the amended suit claims the executive order violates equal protection rights, contradicts statutory law, and exceeds the authority of the president. The plaintiffs argue that the executive orders are discriminatory on their face “because they direct agencies to target investigations and rescind federal funding for entities whose sports programs include transgender girls on girls’ sports teams.” The complaint claims this not only contravenes the Fifth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause but also contradicts Title IX’s prohibition on discrimination in sports participation “on the basis of sex.” Finally, it claims the president cannot unilaterally amend or cancel congressional appropriations, as that exceeds the powers granted to the executive branch.

Several other lawsuits challenging President Trump’s actions have also claimed he has exceeded executive authority. Among these are challenges to the president’s suspension of refugee admissions and termination of federal funding for gender-affirming care (which also argues that the president “cannot directly and unilaterally amend or cancel appropriations Congress has duly enacted”). The American Bar Association released a statement this week criticizing the president’s actions, particularly his efforts to undermine congressional authority by refusing to spend money appropriated by Congress.

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Human rights groups raise concerns over UN framework on sex-based violence

Twenty-three human rights organizations and individuals, including Amnesty International, raised concerns about sex-based violence on Thursday. The report titled, “Forms of Sex-Based Violence Against Women and Girls: New Frontiers and Emerging Issues” comes after the UN Special Rapporteur called for input in the upcoming 59th session of the UN Human Rights Council.

The submission contended that the shift in terminology from “gender-based” to “sex-based” violence is a concerning step. The new framing undermines the decades of progress in addressing violence against women and other vulnerable groups. This approach reverts to an outdated binary understanding that fails to take into account modern scientific development and diverse gender identities.

Additionally, the statement cited research from Nature and the World Health Organization which have demonstrated that the characteristics of sex lie on a spectrum. On this basis, the proposed framework could potentially jeopardize individuals whose experiences fall outside the ambit of traditional binary categories.

Moreover, the organizations suggested that the interpretation of international law misrepresents the thirty years of progress in human rights jurisprudence. Numerous UN bodies and regional human rights mechanisms have increasingly come to recognize the importance of gender identity in shaping instances of discrimination and violence.

The statement concluded that maintaining a gender-based analytical framework as a central aspect of examining violence against women and girls is a more effective approach. Gender-based violence stems from social structures and power dynamics rather than biological determinism. International human rights bodies, including the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), have long recognized the same as essential for addressing structural inequalities and discrimination.

Noting that human rights instruments are “living documents” that must evolve with contemporary challenges, the submission called for a recommitment to inclusive and evidence-based approaches to human rights protection based on the global acknowledgement of the diversity of individual experiences.

In early February when Sara Godfrey, a researcher at the Global Accountability Network, spoke with JURIST, she raised a similar concern on the limitation of focusing on sex-based violence instead of gender-based violence. She contended that focusing on gender is important to capture the true range of harms experienced by victims of gender-based crimes, including violence that goes beyond the scope of sexual violence.

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