Riding high off delivering a tepid response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union earlier this week, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds decided to use her opportunity in the national spotlight to push transphobia. Reynolds signed into law on Thursday HF 2416, which bars transgender female athletes from competing in women’s and girl’s sports in schools, from K-12 all the way up to universities, including those affiliated with the NCAA, NAIA, and community colleges. Reynolds, whose penmanship hews closer to a child’s than her actual understanding of protecting her state’s youth, gloated about signing the act into law, which takes effect immediately.
“This is a victory for girls’ sports in Iowa,” Reynolds said in a press release, adding that “no amount of talent, training or effort can make up for the natural physical advantages males have over females.” “It’s simply a reality of human biology,” Reynolds said, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Students can only participate in sports that match the gender assigned to their birth certificate at birth, which effectively shuts the door to transgender athlete participation. Iowa is the second state to enact such disturbingly discriminatory legislation, with South Dakota adopting a similar law last month. There are now 11 states with anti-trans athlete legislation signed into law across the country—including Texas, a state that is now being advised by Gov. Greg Abbott to investigate parents of trans children for child abuse. Luckily, a judge blocked such investigations from going into effect.
Openly calling out transphobia for what it is and demonizing those who support quite literally putting the lives of the transgender community at risk is, at this point, absolutely worth it. Take the students of a class at University of North Texas who were having none of what House candidate Jeff Younger had come prepared with.
Younger, who is so transphobic that he demonized his own child and supports a governor willing to deadname her, came to campus to promote criminalizing gender-affirming health care. If Younger is anything like Iowa’s Reynolds, the speech would’ve been about as informative as the produce sticker on an apple, and not nearly as well-thought-out. I get more out of Younger being called a fascist than I do with even a thorough reading of the transphobic drivel driving his campaign as he competes for the Texas State House and the designation of “most hateful father of the year.” There is no reason outright bigotry should be considered political savvy for Republicans. Keep calling out the fucking fascists and fight back against the states doing the most harm to the transgender community. Because, by definition, only a fascist would support such blatant oppression and transphobia.