(Radio Iowa) – Local governments would be banned from adopting civil rights protections that are broader than the Iowa Civil Rights Act under a bill advanced by a House subcommittee. Governor Reynolds signed a law last year that removed gender identity as a characteristic protected under Iowa’s civil rights law. Coralville and Iowa City have adopted resolutions providing local protections for gender identity. Katie Freeman, a member of Coralville’s city council, says the bill interferes with local officials’ ability to respond to needs in their community.

“The 2025 legislation is bad enough, but this one continues to overreach right into my town,” Freeman said. “A community, a city, a county have a right to self govern based on the needs of their individual community.” Danny Carroll of The Family Leader urged legislators to pass the bill to strike down those local policies.

“With 99 different counties and over 900 different towns and communities,” Carroll said, “it does make sense that certain issues would have broad and consistent application across the state and not vary from one community to the next or from one county to the next.” Republican Representative Steve Holt says different civil rights protections in different Iowa jurisdictions create confusion for schools and businesses.

Republicans on another House subcommittee OK’d a bill that says Iowans are allowed to raise guide and instruct a child in a manner consisted with the child’s sex at birth. Keenan Crow of One Iowa, an L-G-B-T-Q advocacy group, says the bill would legalize conversation therapy. “Conversion therapy is, in fact, not a therapy at all. It is torture,” Crow said. “The stories I have are too numerous to get through, but these are people who were institutionalized, humiliated, and even put through electro shock therapies in order to change who they were.”

Amber Williams is a lobbyist for the Christian conservative group Inspired Life, says the proposal clarifies Iowa’s child welfare law and protects parents of a child experiencing gender dysphoria. “Parents are responsible for their children and should not fear government intervention for acting in good faith,” she said.”Protecting parental rights is how we protect children and that is why this bill matters.”

Over 150 people gathered in the Iowa Capitol’s rotunda to protest both bills.