OPINION: Iowa has failed this Pride Month

Iowa Capital Dispatch reported earlier this month on how a federally-funded health care center in Iowa made the difficult choice of terminating gender-affirming care for its transgender patients. Why? Federal funding could be pulled if they continued, meaning some programs which affect other patients would be terminated as well.

What a disappointing thing to see this Pride Month.

While I don’t blame the center, Primary Health Care, for making the decision, it certainly is a shame it apparently had to be done. It’s a case of having to cut access to a portion of your patients for some supposed net good for a larger portion. Yet, it seems trans people always get the short end of that deal.

One PHC executive said the choice was made due to two executive orders President Donald Trump made in his first week in office. One of them ordered health care clinics to stop transition care for children and teenagers through 18 years of age, which is an increasingly important time for trans children to see mental health issues.

The other sought to remove the concept of transgender persons altogether, repeatedly misunderstanding the differences between gender and sex and eventually cut federal funding to anything which has to do with “gender ideology,” whatever that means.

This executive order has the chilling line, “Gender ideology is internally inconsistent, in that it diminishes sex as an identifiable or useful category but nevertheless maintains that it is possible for a person to be born in the wrong sexed body.”

Unfortunately to the opinions of the Trump administration, it is possible for someone to be born in the wrong body. Gender dysphoria is a real distress for many people. This isn’t costumes and makeup; this is a real sense that the body they have isn’t right. Without care, they live in an existence where they’re constantly presented as someone they are not.

When does gender dysphoria happen most often? Young children. A study in 2020 by researchers from the University of California found almost all trans children felt dysphoria by the age of seven. A 2019 study observed youth aged 12-22 with dysphoria reported 30.3% of them had undergone at least one suicide attempt.

Iowa, in what has become an ugly conversation since the pandemic, has repeatedly tried to ban transgender people, specifically children, from participating in the activities they choose. This is mostly aimed at trans girls, which the state perceives as some looming threat, relentlessly restricting their rights.

In 2021, Iowa tried to take away Medicare coverage for gender-confirmation surgery. In 2022, trans girls and women were prohibited from playing in K-12 teams and colleges. In 2023, the state banned transgender students’ use of bathrooms and locker rooms which conflicted with their sex at birth.

Some of these received pushback from the judicial system, rightfully so. It’s a violation of their civil rights as citizens of Iowa and citizens of the United States. What does Iowa do when they can’t beat the existence of civil rights? Take them away, of course.

This year in February, Iowa passed a measure to remove protections from discrimination on the basis of gender identity outlined in the Iowa Civil Rights Act. Despite Gov. Kim Reynolds claiming this was done in the interest of protecting women, it’s a clear step toward limiting the presence of trans people in Iowa.

Max Mowitz from the LGBTQ advocacy group One Iowa said it best, “This law sends a devastating message: that transgender Iowans are not worthy of the same rights, dignity and protections as their neighbors.”

The right to exist isn’t a debate. The presence of anti-trans TV ads during the last election cycle claimed that this minority group of around 1% of the U.S. population was a threat to local communities. They are not.

Those $215 million of ads are being targeted at 1.6 million trans people, a little over $134 per trans person. The allocation is even larger for trans athletes.

In the K-12 system in 2023, there were only five trans athletes nationwide. In 2024, NCAA President Charlie Baker said he knew of “less than 10″ trans athletes in the NCAA system out of 510,000. Imagine, 15 trans athletes, and $215 million in just TV ads to stop them from playing.

Trans people deserve the care they need. While dysphoria is discussed most often, I always like mentioning there’s also the existence of gender euphoria. This is the feeling of comfort and joy trans people feel when their identity is personally confirmed. It’s satisfaction, enjoyment, relief, happiness, confidence, contentment and peace.

For all trans people, their gender-affirming journey is done to finally feel comfortable in their body. To feel no more distress and find acceptance in their normal lives. It’s what pride has been about for decades.

Trans people deserve to live their lives and keep their civil rights. It’s unbelievable Iowa can’t accept that.