Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill Thursday prohibiting transgender girls and women from participating on female sports teams from kindergarten through college.
“This is a victory for girls sports in Iowa,” Reynolds said before signing the legislation, according to NBC affiliate WHO of Des Moines.
The Republican lawmaker was surrounded by young female athletes during the signing ceremony at the Iowa Capitol, according to WHO, and appeared to refer to transgender women and girls as “males” as she addressed the crowd.
“No amount of talent, training or effort can make up for the natural physical advantages males have over females,” she said. “It’s simply a reality of human biology. Forcing females to compete against males is the opposite of inclusivity, and it’s absolutely unfair.”
The measure passed the state Senate 31-17 on Wednesday after passing the state House last month by a vote of 55-39. Only Republicans voted in its favor.
Iowa Safe Schools, an LGBTQ youth advocacy group, called the legislation “a solution in search of a problem” to score “petty political points at the expense of Iowa’s children.”
“Today is a dark day in Iowa’s history and will be remembered by our students, their families, and voters alike,” the organization tweeted.
The law is effective immediately.
Iowa now joins 10 other GOP-led states in limiting transgender students’ ability to participate in school sports. All 11 states passed these measures over the past two years.
Advocates say anti-trans bills have a negative effect on the well-being of LGBTQ youth, even when they don’t become law.
A recent poll conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization, found that 85 percent of transgender and nonbinary youth, and two-thirds of all LGBTQ youth, said recent debates about state laws restricting the rights of trans people have negatively impacted their mental health.
Jo Yurcaba contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
