Meeting Public Comments

Melissa Sternhagen [St. Paul Congregational United Church of Christ]

February 16, 2022To the Members of the Senate Education Committee:I am a called and ordained clergy person in the United Church of Christ. I am also a responsible adult. As such, I take seriously the call to protect and advocate for the most vulnerable among us. I am reminded of how the writer of Psalm 82 calls God to "defend the weak and the parentless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Certainly such a call is not simply meant to concern God alone. It is meant to be a concern of Gods people as well.To be sure, our sacred texts speak plainly about the way in which we are to treat one another. We are to love one another as ourselves, we are to recognize the image of the Divine in one another, and we are to protect the most vulnerable among us. Our trans and nonbinary youth and young adults are some of the most vulnerable amongs us in the state of Iowa. I am writing in hope that you will join me in protecting them from the damaging details and provisions that comprise SSB 3146.According to January 2022 data from The Trevor Project, 85% of trans and nonbinary young people reported that following recent news about issues that impact the transgender community has negatively impacted their mental health. If it is true that participation in sports can and does have a positive impact on the selfesteem and mental health of young people, why would the focus be on limiting or eliminating participation for such a vulnerable population? Trans and nonbinary young people are effectively denied the opportunity to participate in school sports at all just as soon as you deny them the opportunity to play on sports teams that align with their gender identity. Which, of course, means that they are also denied the positive impacts mentioned above. Meanwhile, cisgender young people continue to enjoy the positive impacts of participation in sports.Beyond all of the statistics and the quoted scripture, one thing remains sure: For generations we have been discriminating against vulnerable and marginalized people, and for generations we have been getting it wrong. First it was preventing Black people from full participation in sports, then it was women, and then it was gay and lesbian athletes. We continue to be content to discriminate and damage the most vulnerable among us based on a fear or a lack of understanding of the differences that exist in humanity as well as the notion that difference, when included, spoils the experience for others. My siblings, this cannot continue to be so.As a pastor, as a responsible adult, and as a fellow human being, I implore this Senate Education committee to focus its attention on Iowa's slipping educational ranking and its underfunded public schools. I implore this committee to remember the call to love one another as you love yourselves. I implore you to protect some of the most vulnerable among us by refusing to send SSB 3146 beyond your committee for a vote.Sincerely,Rev. Melissa R. SternhagenPastor, St. Paul Congregational United Church of ChristOskaloosa, IA

Terry Heller []

Trans girls participating in sports is a vanishingly small problem that really does not need legislative attention. School officials are perfectly capable of handling problems should any occur. It would make sense to consider legislation were school officials asking the state for guidance. In fact, they seem to be asking instead that you restrain the drive for legislation at this time.My main question, then, is why the rush?What evidence is there that this is a problem to be "nipped in the bud?"I wish I could persuade myself that raising this question has better motives than political grandstanding for rallying a base, but I'm sorry to say that's what it looks like.

Lisa Lima [Democratic Chair of Pottawattamie County]

As a mother of trans children, I oppose this bill that is discriminatory and harmful. Transgender girls ARE girls, transgender women ARE women, transgender boys ARE boys, and transgender men ARE men. They are not "other." Only 1% of a school's population will have trans athletes, therefore there is no real argument that they are taking opportunities away from cisgender students.

Donna Mitchell []

I didnt think our state was this transphobic but it looks like its heading that way. This is the second anti trans sports bill in recent days. Its simple. Kids deserve to play sports. You are not protecting girls sports with these discriminative bills. I am a cis woman and am in no way threatened by trans girls and women participating in womens sports. I strongly oppose ssb 3146. Do not make Iowa a transphobic state!

Harper Sherwood-Reid []

Dear Subcommittee Members, I am highly concerned about the implications of SSB 3146 for transgender and nonbinary youth in the state of Iowa. While I understand the vital importance of fairness and equity, and support the work of the Iowa legislature to ensure equal access for all people to their rights, this bill seems to explicitly target youth for whom the opportunity to participate in sports can be vital. Young people whose gender and sex and birth do not match should have the right to participate in team and individual sports, if perhaps in ways that account for the ways that their bodies are different from those of cisgender youth. To deny trans and nonbinary youth the opportunity to participate in athletics is to alienate them from their peers, prevent them from accessing healthy behaviors, and exclude them from activities that they love. As a crisis line worker, I am intimately familiar with the ways in which these kinds of alienation, lack of health, and isolation from meaningful behaviors and activities have material consequences for gender nonconforming youth, including by putting them at increased risk for suicide and self harm. I urge you to reconsider the terms of this bill to give all Iowa youth the lifegiving opportunity to participate in school athletics.

Katie Imborek []

I am a physician and Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. I am the coDirector of the University of Iowa Health Care LGBTQ Clinic. I submit these comments on behalf of myself, as an Iowan and expert in the medical care of transgender persons. I am not commenting on behalf of UI Health Care. I am here to vehemently express my opposition to this discriminatory and harmful legislation. The UI Health Care LGBTQ Clinic has cared for nearly 10,000 Iowans since its inception in 2012, with over 70% of them identifying as transgender or gender nonbinary. Our team consists of family doctors, internists, pediatricians, pediatric endocrinologists, gynecologists, urologists, and mental health providers. We have cared for more than 1,000 transgender and nonbinary youth. We are the definitive experts in transgender medical care in the state of Iowa. After discussing with all members of our LGBTQ clinic team, we collectively can think of 3 transgender girls who are participating in high school sports. Let me repeat, 3 total trans girls who currently play sports at the high school level in the state of Iowa. This proposed bill purports to solve a problem that does not actually exist. There are not droves of transgender girls who are actively taking away the opportunity to play from their cisgender or nontransgender classmates. There is a however a clear problem that does exist, and that is disparate mental health outcomes for transgender youth. I saw several transgender teens in my clinic this week. Unfortunately, more than a few of them had recently been hospitalized for thoughts of suicide. I wish that I could say this week was an anomaly, but the reality is that transgender patients are at an exceedingly high risk for poor mental health outcomes. A 2020 survey of over 40,000 LGBTQ youth found rates of depression and anxiety more than 4 times that often reported for cisgender or nontransgender youth and an alarming 52% of trans and nonbinary youth who had considered attempting suicide in the 12 months prior. I want to clearly communicate that there is nothing inherent to being transgender or receiving medical care to affirm ones gender that increases an adolescents risk for mental illness. The American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement from 2018 makes this very clear when the authors concluded, There is no evidence that risk for mental illness is inherently attributable to ones identity of transgender. Rather, it is believed to be multifactorial, stemming from an internal conflict between ones appearance and identity, limited availability of mental health services, low access to health care providers with expertise in caring for youth who identify as transgender, discrimination, stigma, and social rejection. In summary, the mere proposal of bills such as this, bills that would codify discrimination against an already marginalized group of children, are the very reasons there are differences in rates of mental illness between transgender and cisgender youth. You know what could actually make a positive difference and improve the mental health of trans kids? The opportunity to play sports on a team that affirms their gender. I implore you to vote against this bill and instead use your power and your privilege to protect the children who are most at risk.

Lisa Riggin []

Trans girls are girls and should be allowed to participate in girls sports. I fully support their rights to be who they are, and not who someone who doesnt really care about them says they should be. We are all watching.

Linda Powers []

I am strongly opposed to this legislation

Sandy Wilson []

I am in favor of SSB 3146. It is discrimination against women and girls to require them to compete against biological males for scholarships and other opportunities afforded to elite athletes. Move the bill forward.

Samantha Fett []

I strongly support this bill as we need to protect female sports at all levels. This bill is not about discrimination but about protecting women and girls from their hard work and they deserve to play on a fair playing field. Remember we compete with our bodies not our selfproclaimed identities. All of the opportunities for girls were created because we recognized the physical differences between girls and boys, why would we go backwards? Please pass this legislation, school districts and sports organizations are looking for leadership on this issue.

Jenn Turner []

Save Girls sports! There are stories all across this country where girls are losing opportunities to biological males. This will happen here too.

Emmanuel Parel []

I am writing a comment regarding the SSB 3416 bill. This bill is absolutely unfair for trans girls. They deserve to play the sports they enjoy, and shouldnt be discriminated against for doing so. Please do not go through with this bill.

Brian Carter [Iowa United Methodist Church Legislative Advocacy Team]

I am Brian Carter,lobbyist for the United Methodist Church. We are registered as against this bill. The reason is simple, God so loved the world, that God sent God's only Son, that whoever believes in should not parish but have everlasting life. God sent God' Son into the world not to condemn the world but that world through him would be saved." Every person is loved by God. There is no longer Greek and Jew, female and male, no longer slave and free, but you are all one in Christ Jesus."The Social Principles of the church declares; We deplore acts of hate or violence against groups or persons based on race, color, national origin, ethnicity, age, gender, disability, status, economic condition, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religious affiliation.I have friends and family members who are homosexual. They are part of God's family and deserve to be treated as equals and as persons of sacred worth. I also have a friend who is transgender. She was born as a male, and over the years she grew to understand that she was always a woman. I support her in her new lifewhich she has lived for nearly 20 years.Laws such as this bill are based on prejudice, fear, and falsehood. I urge you to support our trans brothers and sisters and don't make their lives more difficult.

Erika Hendel []

I spent 5 years in Iowa and am devastated to seen the legislations that are being put forward to discriminate and target trans girls and trans youth. This is a vulnerable population of kids that experience high rates of bullying, harassment, and violence. The continued othering of them through law has sobering impacts on youth who are already at higher risk of suicidal ideation. Please look at these girls as they are children who deserve protection as well. Not others to be viewed as lesser than.

Dani Ausen []

This is a solution looking for a problem. The reasons I have heard cited for this bill are to "protect girls' sports" as if we currently have a problem with male identified children playing sports. We don't have that problem. Only girls are participating in girls' sports (because trans girls are girls), and this has been legal and there have been no problems. I know this because if their had been problems, we would be hearing about them.Instead, we hear hurtful talking points that are not true."Boys will take away scholarships and championships from girls." This is not happening. It's not true. Why? Because most trans athletes are just typical children. They are mostly average athletes, because most kids are average athletes."Girls will be unsafe in lockers rooms."This much loved and disgusting talking point is once again just simply not true. If it was, people would be splashing around cases of women being assaulted by trans women in bathrooms. They aren't telling these stories because they aren't true.What is actually happening? Bullying. Even just putting this bill on the docket is bullying. I have watched my trans friends, who are adults, struggling through the news coverage. It's othering and demoralizing. This is a culture war issue, and it's only going to serve to hurt the most vulnerable: trans kids, who already have astronomical rates of depression and suicide. Who already get bullied by their peers. Who just want to do something normal, like play softball after school.So why don't you scrap this harmful and unnecessary legislation and fix something that actually IS a problem? Like raising the minimum wage? Or making sure Iowans can afford food and housing?

Johna Clancy []

I am support of this bill. A persons biological makeup does not change. They are still biologically a girl or biologically a boy. So a boy identifying as a girl and competing in girls sports would always have a competitive advantage over biological girls.

Judah Richardson []

I oppose SSB 3146. Iowa needs the best players on the field for recruiting, sports prowess, and gameplay quality, regardless of their identity. SSB 3146 would damage the competitiveness of the state's sports.

Paul Deaton [Self]

I oppose SSB 3146. To discriminate against a protected class of school children is unfair and unnecessary. The idea transgender females are who they are because they want to participate in Title IX school activities is ludicrous. There is no reason to foster a bullying environment for children in schools as this legislation inevitably would. Transgender children are children. The legislature should leave children alone.

Terry Pearce []

I support this bill .I am astonished that society has diminished to the point that legislation is needed to ensure that Girl's sports is for girls and boy's sports are for boys . The "other" community is always crying that they are offended when people including teachers coaches do not address them by the correct pronoun that they claim to identify as, and yet they also demand that they be accepted and allowed to participate in a sport that does not acknowledge their claimed identity. I believe that every human has an equal right to free speech and all other constitutional rights . They are free to claim and identify as anything they want but they do not have the right to change the law of nature that girls are girls and boys are boys . They should be free to form sport competitions for specifically for Others but do not have the right for Girls to compete against Girls.

Patsy Martinson []

Myth: Trans girls shouldn't participate in girls' and women's athletics because it will ruin those sports for others.There is a long history of excluding people from sports because they're different and because they would "spoil" sports: 70 years ago Black people were excluded from sports for that same reason. 50 years ago women were excluded from sports programs. More recently, there has been resistance to openly gay girls and boys participating in team sports.The bottom line is that trans girls are girls and should participate in girls sports. They are not boys and they are not an "other" that should be excluded.

Beth Speltz []

Please oppose this discriminatory bill which would be so harmful to some of our most vulnerable youth. Trans kids are still kids.

Carol Swanson []

Senators.SSB 3146, restricting transgender girls from high school sports is discriminatory. What do you fear? Do you know that some transgender people change their body so it aligns with their identity (taking hormones and having surgery) these girls are just as female as I am.You seem to be spending a lot of time telling schools/students/parents and guardians, what to do! If you have concerns about transgender youth who are not changing their bodies, talk to the coaches and athletic directors in your school districts to find out their experiences and ideas. Then talk with experts in the emotional and intellectual wellbeing of transgender students. Then you'll know more than you know now. This bill is another example of overreach by Republican legislators trying to control us by legislating your moral or ethical standards instead of guarding rights of the public at large and adequately funding public education. Overreach, restriction, discrimination . . . Iowa Republicans. Sincerely, Carol Swanson