(Radio Iowa) – A bill to remove gender identity protections from the Iowa Civil Rights Act is eligible for debate in the Iowa House Thursday and will be considered by a Senate subcommittee today (Tuesday). Representative Brian Meyer, a Democrat from Des Moines, says Republicans should be addressing other priorities like housing and child care.

“I give you credit, when you want to move quick on culture wars, you guys move like a flash,” Meyer said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” All but one Republican on the House Judiciary Committee approved the bill late Monday afternoon. All the Democrats on the panel voted no. Representative Lindsay James is a Democrat from Dubuque.

“When you love folks in the LGBTQ community, these kinds of bills make you sick to your stomach because this bill is legalizing discrimination against vulnerable folks,” James said. Republican Representative Steven Holt of Denison says having gender identity listed in the Iowa Civil Rights Act elevates the rights of transgender Iowans above others.

“Liberal Democrats have bought into an ideology that erases women,” Holt said. “Liberal Democrats who once championed women’s rights and helped forge women’s sports and Title IX…are now perfectly O.K. with erasing women,” Holt said. “That men should be allowed to invade the bathrooms and private spaces of biological females, thereby erasing their rights — that’s the discrimination that’s happening right now.”

Hundreds of people gathered in the Capitol yesterday (Monday) to protest the bill. They shouted at Republicans who voted for the bill. It’s possible the bill could pass both the House and Senate before the end of the week.