Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) on Thursday signed a bill that will ban transgender women and girls from participating on sports teams that correspond with their gender identity.
The bill, known as House File 2416, was sent to Reynolds’s desk after it passed the Republican-controlled state legislature. The bill passed the state House in February and the state Senate on Wednesday.
The legislation, which goes into effect immediately, stipulates 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.”
The bill defines sex as the “biological sex” listed on the students’ birth certificate, and prohibits transgender girls at the school, community college and college level from participating on a sports team that corresponds with their gender identity.
Reynolds, who delivered the Republican rebuttal to President Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, argued in support of the law because it was a “fairness issue,” according to the Des Moines register.
She stated that transgender girls have athletic advantages over cisgender girls.
Reynolds’s signature comes just one day after a lawsuit brought on behalf of a family of a transgender child by the ACLU and Lambda Legal alleged that Texas officials were investigating a parent for helping their child gain access to gender-affirming care.
Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott (R) had previously directed the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate some instances of gender-affirming care after his attorney general, Ken Paxton (R), said some treatments amounted to child abuse.
Iowa Senate Minority Leader Zach Wahls (D) called the decision for the governor to sign the bill, “appalling,” according to the Register.
“She is showing once again that she’s more interested in scoring political points than caring about the impact of legislation on some of the most marginalized kids in our society,” he said in a statement.