Des Moines, Iowa — Governor Kim Reynolds asked Republican legislators to pass a bill to prohibit transgender athletes from competing in girls sports, but House Speaker Pat Grassley says they ran out of time.
The 2021 legislative session ended very late Wednesday evening. Reynolds says letting biological males who identify as females compete in volleyball, softball and other girls sports in Iowa is unfair to girls who’re trying for college scholarships. While the issue was tabled in the 2021 session, Grassley says there remains a level of support among Republicans for the ban.
Governor Reynolds publicly revealed her request for the transathlete ban three weeks ago during a Fox News forum with other G-O-P governors. House Democratic Leader Todd Prichard of Charles City says that’s part of a pattern.
Representative Jennifer Konfrst of Windsor Heights, the second-ranking Democrat in the House, says it’s a divisive policy that hurts Iowa’s reputation and transgender students.
Nearly two months ago, South Dakota’s governor issued an executive order banning transgender athletes from girls sports in public high schools and public colleges and universities and similar legislation has been introduced in more than two dozen other states.
