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February 28, 2025

Protests Erupt as Iowa Republicans Eliminate Civil Rights Protections for Transgender People
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In Iowa, hundreds of protesters took to the Capitol building in Des
Moines to defend trans rights as lawmakers passed an unprecedented bill
stripping civil rights protections based on gender identity. Iowa state
Representative Aime Wichtendahl - the first transgender woman elected to
Iowa's Legislature - spoke out against the bill from the House floor.

Rep. Aime Wichtendahl: "This bill revokes protections to our jobs, our
homes and our ability to access credit. In other words, it deprives us
of our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. I bring this up because
the purpose of this bill, and the purpose of every anti-trans bill, is
to further erase us from public life and to stigmatize our existence.
The sum total of every anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ bill is to make our
existence illegal."



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