Meeting Public Comments

Subcommittee meeting and times are as follows:

A bill for an act permitting public schools to designate and allow the use of restrooms and changing facilities only by persons of the same biological sex, and providing a private cause of action.(See HF 622.)

Subcommittee members: Holt-CH, Kaufmann, Wessel-Kroeschell

Date: Tuesday, February 28, 2023

Time: 8:00 AM - 8:30 AM

Location: RM 103, Sup. Ct. Chamber

Names and comments are public records. Remaining information is considered a confidential record.

Comments Submitted:

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02-27-2023

Aime Wichtendahl []

I have to ask? Is all our government do beat up on Transgender people? Is there a scoreboard and you're competing to see who can get the highest score?Does Fox News host hold a potluck and give out gold stars? I have to ask when the GOP went from the party of limited government to the party that needs to inspect your genitals so you can go to the bathroom.Stop playing bathroom cop. Trans kids have a right to go to school without harassment from their government.

02-27-2023

Vanessa La Mar []

I strongly oppose transgender bathroom bans in schools. And you should too. These policies are discriminatory and harmful to transgender students, and they do nothing to improve the safety or wellbeing of anyone in the school community.Transgender students face significant challenges in their daily lives, including discrimination, harassment, and violence. Bathroom bans only serve to exacerbate these issues by denying transgender students access to the facilities that align with their gender identity. This can lead to increased anxiety, isolation, and a sense of being unwelcome in the school community. It is also important to note that bathroom bans are unnecessary from a practical standpoint. There is no evidence to suggest that allowing transgender students to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity leads to an increase in public safety issues. In fact, denying transgender students access to the appropriate bathroom can put them at risk of harassment, assault, and other forms of violence.

02-27-2023

Rachelle La Mar []

Please vote no. These bills are designed to ensure student safety, but they only stigmatize transgender students, putting them more in harms way. It literally puts an already vulnerable group in more danger.Research also shows that, as a result of hostile school climate, transgender students are more likely to abuse drugs than the general population. This places an oversized burden on schoolhealth and publichealth officials and would cause a public health crisis, when we are already struggling with healthcare as it is.State and school districts are now held accountable for high levels of academic attainment and high graduation rates. But the consequences of discrimination, like the discrimination these bills mandate, are real: LGBTQ students who experience discrimination report lower GPAs, higher likelihood of skipping or dropping out of school, higher rates of school discipline, and lower educational aspirations.Enforcing these bills would be prohibitively expensive and timeconsuming for schools and extraordinarily invasive toward transgender students. Teachers and administrators have enough to worry about without policing bathroom usage. This bill makes more work for everyone and hurts Iowans. Vote no.

02-27-2023

Tambi Heiter []

For goodness sake, why cant you people just leave these kids in peace?? Our state has real problems: our educational system has been sold to outofstate interests, we have the worst bridges in the nation, our lake/river/drinking water is disgusting, Des Moines has a lack of affordable housing so more and more students are homeless, our government embraces culture wars and conspiracy theories (just to name a few). We. Are. Failing. Our. Children. And YES, that includes trans children. Enough!!!

02-27-2023

Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter []

I oppose HSB 208. There's no evidence of inappropriate behavior occurring, because people with a sex different from their biological sex using a bathroom with their identified sex. What a bill like this does is continue to other and isolate trans youth. In fact, when forced to use a bathroom based on biological sex, it leads to higher incidences of bullying and violence against trans youth. If we truly want to protect our kids, we will stop discriminatory legislation that removes rights from people just because they are different in some ways from us.

02-27-2023

Cathryn Varga []

Why? Why is this important? We are sending kids to school hungry and in fear of their lives from guns and you are worried about how they pee? Please, we are asking you to do your actual jobs and make Iowa a better kinder place to raise kids, not one with hatred for anyone other than themselves.

02-27-2023

Elizabeth Lundberg []

I am very opposed to this bill. What scaremongers like to suggest could happen in bathrooms without these kinds of laws are things like assault and harassment, which are already illegal. This bill doesnt solve any actually existing problem. What it WOULD do is put people of all genders in actual danger by making random strangers feel entitled to question and examine anyone about their bodies. STOP hunting trans people for sport and find something useful to do.

02-27-2023

Grant Wilson []

Parents face a slew of challenges and uncertainty. As I was at school pickup today, looking at the hustle and bustle of educators and kids, as a father i look at the hopes and anxieties in our district and the last, absolute last thing to ever enter my mind is "gee, i hope the limited resources of government are directed on purpose by paid legislators with the broad charge of communal development, i hope they choose from the expansive field of civic thought.... i hope they have a hearing to hem haw over youth bathrooms"Please tackle real issues instead.

02-27-2023

Loree Horn []

I support HSB 208. Please protect our children and protect their privacy. Young girls should not be forced to share a bathroom facility or locker room with a biological boy or vice versa. This is common sense so sad this has to be legislated.

02-27-2023

Katrina Brocka []

This discussion, and those attached to it, are a waste of tax payer money. As representatives, you are avoiding the real work needed to overcome our current and future infrastructure issues related to education. That you have spent our time on this blatantly biased nonsense is criminal.

02-27-2023

Brandy Cross []

I oppose this bill as it is unnecessary and serves to reduce protections and right of a small vulnerable population of our youth. Children being allowed to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identify does not affect the other children. DO NOT CONTINUE TO SEND MESSAGES to these kids that they don't matter; or their rights are not as important as an other child.

02-27-2023

Eleanor Glewwe []

I strongly oppose this bill. Students should be able to use the school facilities where they feel safest and most comfortable. This bill will further stigmatize transgender students and be detrimental to their academic success and wellbeing.

02-27-2023

Andrea Geary []

To the heartless, morally bankrupt legislators who will pass these bills whilst knowing their actions will result in the death of our children: what is the payoff? Will a $15k ADF donation to your next campaign allow you to sleep at night? Does the promise of a someday cabinet appointment allow you to overlook the fact that youve darkened your familys name & that your ancestors will only speak of you in hushed tones thru grimaces of shame? No logical plea, established scientific fact, or sharing of personal experience will sway you. Each of you: a disgraceful stain upon our state.

02-27-2023

Courtney Collier []

I support HSB 208. I ask you to pass this bill to protect our children while they are at school in the bathrooms and other facilities. This is common sense and proactive legislation that is sadly needed due to the bad decisions being made in school districts across our state and this nation. Do we need a tragedy like occurred recently in Virginia with sexual assault occurring in the bathrooms at school due to foolish policy? I think not. In Iowa we have school district policies recently created allowing persons to use the bathroom no matter their gender. This is both outrageous and dangerous. We must protect our children and if we choose not to, we are complicit in any harm that comes to them in the situation where you have the power to prevent it.

02-27-2023

Lisa Hughes []

Please vote no. If you vote for this bill you will be sending Trans students that identify as female into the male bathroom and those that identify as male into the female bathroom. Do you not see the harm and potential issues coming from that? If you are so concerned with those that identify as female being in the female bathroom or those identify as male being in the male bathroom then fund schools to create individual gender neutral bathrooms instead.Why are you so afraid of the Trans community? Why does it hurt you so mucn that people know who they are and wanting to just live their life in peace. Also, how will the schools be expected to enforce this law? Will they have a teacher standing at the door to ask each student what is on their birth certificate during every break between classes? Do you expect them to check each child they haven't met yet to be sure they aren't lying? You think the teachers don't have enough to do and those public schools won't have the funds to staff bathrooms since you passed the ESA 'voucher' law to take money away from the schools.

02-27-2023

Candella Foley-Finchem [Mental health therapist]

if there is one trans or nonbinary child in your school, and that kid can't go to the bathroom, you've made their school, and their world less safe to exist. And then, as they are feeling less and less safe, many of these kids start to look for a way "out" of this unsafe situation, and suicide starts to look like the only way to be released. Or denying themself of being who they are. The sad reality, is that, by passing legislation like this you don't just make it less safe for trans kids, you make it less safe for all the kids who sometimes feel like they don't fit in. If one kid commits (or even comes really close to committing suicide) the rest of the kids in their grade are now at higher risk for suicide, depression, and other challenges that you don't want to put on your kids... I think it's horrible that you're willing to throw trans kids under the bus, and that you have no concern for their LIVES, but I haven't seen the argument that convinces transphobic people to be kind to trans people. so I give up trying to convince you that you should care about the heartbeats of real kids and look at the real mental health outcomes for those kids. What you don't seem to see, is that it's not just the trans kids who suffer by making the trans kids a target, you actually make mental health and education outcomes worse for all the kids every one who knows a trans kid, everyone who's seen a movie or read a story, or otherwise had empathy for the trans kids which is most of the kids... they all suffer at the loss of your target. Do better! VOTE NO and allow all kids to go to the bathroom in peace. Talk about "Freedom"? Freedom is being able to go pee in peace.

02-27-2023

Elizabeth Lefler []

I urge you to vote against this bill. It is unnecessary, harmful to our most vulnerable kids, and a huge government overreach. Let families and educators make decisions to support individual children.

02-27-2023

Donella Pauli []

Thank you, Candella for your intelligent comments concerning mental health of our young people!So what group is next, legislators? Who will you pick on next? Leave these students alone! Spend your time and our money on a real problem in Iowa. No one has made you God to judge. Let them go to the bathroom in peace. Most bathrooms offer privacy so what is the problem? How many students do we have in Iowa that fit into your categories? Vote NO on this bill! Please!

02-28-2023

Sheila Johnson []

Please stop trying to fix imaginary problems. Nothing scary is happens when people use restrooms and the only purpose of these bills is to stoke hate and fear. The fear and hate that is being cultivated is what's dangerous to our kids. Please vote no and go focus on really HELPING people.

02-28-2023

Jane Lando []

I urge you to vote no on HSB 208. Why all the aggression on trans kids? You wouldn't want your children treated like that. You are not elected to victimize certain groups. Let school administrators handle this issue.

02-28-2023

Shellie Flockhart []

Vote yes! Keep all of our students safe. Gender specific restrooms, locker rooms, and showers are a safety requirement. As a woman, to ask for anything less is offensive. The separation of bathrooms and locker rooms is needed.We live in a society that just made it thru the Me Too movement. Forcing girls to share locker rooms with biological males is NOT equity. Forcing boys to share locker rooms with biological females is NOT equity. I am tired of men stepping into female spaces and roles. Where are those who fought for womens rights? A man can be Woman of the Year? And now there is a small minority fighting for opposite sex to be in gender specific bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers? No. A boy/man should not legally go in a safe space for girls/women a space that is meant to protect women from a man seeing them naked or violating their personal intimate space. A boy in the girls locker room is a violation of student privacy. A girl in a boys locker room is a violation of student privacy. *I asked my 14 year old son what he thinks about students using each others locker or restrooms. His answer was simplebecause they could end up genderfluid and having sex with each other.*I asked a 15 year old young man What would you think if a girl, with genderdysmorphia came into the boys bathroom or locker room to change? His answer was that he wouldnt be able to use the bathroom or locker room. He would not be able to use the urinal or undress or shower infront of a girleven if transgender. Genderfluid allows use of whatever space.*I asked my 16 year old her thoughts of having a student of the opposite sex, with genderdysmorphia, in her bathroom. She stated that she wouldnt go. She would hold it. She wouldnt change or shower. That she WOULD NOT FEEL SAFE with a student with a penis in the same private space with her. Changing, going to the bathroom, showering. This bill allows a district to accommodate with a singleoccupant restroom, shower, and locker room. This offers a safe space for a person with gender dysmorphia. Please keep my teens safe. Vote YES

02-28-2023

Jennifer Turner []

Please vote yes. Who the opposed are leaving out, are the children who are in this uncomfortable situation. They should not be forced to share locker rooms, bathroom or hotel rooms with those of the opposite sex. We've seen the harm this has caused in other states. This is not an attack, but common sense.

02-28-2023

Amy Dea []

Please support this bill and protect Iowa students! It is not acceptable to leave our students completely defenseless in the bathrooms. We all know that girls have already been raped, intimidated, and abused. This must end! Please support this bill.

02-28-2023

Geralyn Jones []

PLEASE VOTE YES. My PreK daughter shall not be subject to a grown man entering and using the same restroom, changing room etc., regardless of if that man identifies as a woman. Especially when school policy is worded strategically to allow for this to happen without repercussions.

02-28-2023

Mandy Gilbert []

Vote yes! This is common sense legislation to keep females, in particular, safe in personal spaces at school. In my lifetime never did I think the feminists of yesterday that paved the way for women to vote, have Title 9 opportunities in sports, then completely abandon our daughters of today by allowing males to take their privacy away. In my school district the superintendent says if my daughter feels uncomfortable in a bathroom, they can accommodate a single stall or use teachers lounge for her and the nearly 750 female students but the at most 8 students (according to CDC less than 0.5% identify as gender dysphoria) will use the main bathroom. This is insanity. Everyone has observed many males abuse this right and do so for attention, make girls feel uncomfortable or worse, sexual assault. This wave of feminists are saying NO, and reclaiming common sense!

02-28-2023

Madonna Backstrom []

Another hateful bill from the GOP. What exactly is the business problem you are trying to fix with this bill? Perhaps instead of attacking kids you could put your legislative power to good use and focus on actual problems, you know like that little number one killer of children in America? Stop the hate, stop your weird obsession with kids and bathrooms.

02-28-2023

Cara Muta []

Please vote no on this. This literally puts transgender students in harms way. It solves an imaginary problem. There are so many other issues in our state that need the attention of our legislators (water, pipelines, infrastructure, bridges, etc.). For the safety and mental health of transgender youth, please vote No.

02-28-2023

Elise Free []

I am the mother of a cis teenage daughter. She has many LGBTQ friends and these friends using the same bathroom is the very least of the "threats" she faces everyday. Going to school, without getting shot, a threat. Walking to her car at night after shopping at the mall, a threat. Getting groped while dancing, walking down the street, on public transportation, all a threat. Using a restroom with someone who is trans, not a threat. At all. There has never, never been a reported incident of a trans person in the US assaulting another person in a public restroom. There are however many incidents of them being assaulted while using restrooms of their assigned gender. Those children, young adults and adults deserve to be safe. Our cis children are safe with them, we owe it to our trans friends to keep them safe as well. Anything else is cruel.

02-28-2023

Samantha Fett []

Please pass this bill and protect children and keep bathrooms and locker rooms safe spaces based on biological sex. As a recent school board member, I cannot count the number of times I have been asked by families what the school policy is on bathrooms. It is hard to speak on a policy that doesnt exist and it's also hard to define one when its proactive. This bill provides the guidelines for school districts to protect children and also address the concerns of parents that the schools will keep their children safe in bathrooms and locker rooms.This is common sense and proactive legislation to prevent a tragedy from happening in Iowa like what have seen in a Virginia school with a sexual assault in the bathroom. Its important for students to feel safe when using the bathroom or other facilities in school including locker rooms. They should not have to worry about who else may have access to them. It's unfair to put that burden on them to stand up to those that want something different. In addition, this is not an attack on transgendered individuals, but rather protection from sexual predators that could exploit laws in order to gain access to women and girls. I would also like to mention that it can protect boys from being in a position where they are falsely accused. This legislation comes from concerns of polices that allow individuals to use a bathroom based on how they identify and their gender expression, but this bill also defines accommodations that can be made in special circumstances so there should be no concern of discrimination. Again, I support this bill because it's about protection.

02-28-2023

Megan Jones []

If this bill were to become law, it would directly and negatively impact my oldest child who is trans. Prior to being able to use the a bathroom that they felt most comfortable with, they would not eat and drink properly during the school day and try to "hold it" all day long, causing them to suffer health consequences. Since speaking with the school nurse and principal about bathroom accommodations, they are a much happier and healthier child during the school day. It gave them (and us, their parents) much comfort knowing the school understood and appreciated their needs. Do not support this bill moving forward.

02-28-2023

Sean McRoberts []

I oppose this bill and the several others that target trans people, especially children, in our state. As you take up these legislative proposals, it is essential that you recognize the impact that our state policies have on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer people, and especially children and youth. This bill has life or death implications for LGBTQ youth."Compared to their heterosexual and cisgender peers, LGBTQ+ youth are at increased risk for having suiciderelated thoughts and behaviors. Identityspecific stressors such as homonegativity and antiqueerness are among the unique factors posited to contribute to this risk and inhibit factors that protect against suicide...Beyond their role as a primary access point for behavioral health services, schools offer a unique opportunity to support suicide prevention by combating minority stressors through promoting positive social relationships and a safe community for LGBTQ+ students." (The roles of school in supporting LGBTQ+ youth: A systematic review and ecological framework for understanding risk for suiciderelated thoughts and behaviorsMarisa E Marraccini, Katherine M Ingram, Shereen C Naser, Sally L Grapin, Emily N Toole, J Conor O'Neill, Andrew J Chin, Robert R Martinez Jr, Dana Griffinhttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35190078/)

02-28-2023

Nathan Morton []

This proposed legislation is paranoid and obsessed with excluding a small minority of students. People had the same sort of freak outs about gays and lesbians using bathrooms and lockerrooms. It is based on paranoia and the idea that trans people are completely changing their identities and subjecting themselves to a lot of abuse for a chance to peek at someone in the bathroom. That is absurd. Any abuse or harrassment that might happen in a school bathroom (by anyone of any gender toward anyone else) is already subject to rules and/or laws about harassment, abuse, and assault. How many parents want some unspecified school official checking their children's genitals to confirm or deny them access to a school restroom?

02-28-2023

Riley Shepard []

Please do not sign this bill into law. I'm a transgender adult who didn't come out until after high school due to discrimination from my peers this law will only isolate and endanger transgender children in school, the place they should be safest. I'm begging you. Please don't endanger trans kids any more than they are already.

02-28-2023

Sam Card []

This bill is disgusting and threatens the safety of many people I care about. If this bill is passed I envision I and many others will leave the state in waves resulting in the biggest worker shortage Iowa has yet seen.

02-28-2023

Laney Guintard []

This bill is a deliberate push back against the hardwon rights of Trans Iowans. As a constituent I oppose measurements of this nature that work to undo progress that Iowa has always worked hard to make for its marginalized communities.