Back in 2007 Iowa introduced Chapter 216 of the Iowa Civil Rights Act. In this act, Iowa would now include gender identity when questioning discrimination and such. However, the freedoms of being able to use the restroom of one's aligned gender is being brought into question. In the past, the idea was shot down yet this is the For the first time the idea reached the Iowa Legislature. The Bill would require transgender people in Iowa schools to use bathrooms that correspond to the sex listed on their birth certificates and it won a subcommittee vote in the Iowa Senate. A similar bill was passed in North Carolina, but we need to stop this from happening to other states.
Senator Jim Carlin states, "The intention or purpose behind this bill is not any animus or hatred towards anybody in the LGBT community. It’s important to note that the concern is not so much with transgender individuals likely to be sexual predators but that sexual predators could exploit such laws by posing as transgender in order to gain access to women and girls," Yet, there haven't been reported bathroom-related incidents since gender identity protections were added to the Iowa Civil Rights Act. The bill does not want to get rid of sexual predators, it wants to take away the rights of many transgender folk.
The goal of this petition is to show the Senate and the United States as a whole, that this is not what is desired but the public. The public wants to be able to use the restroom in peace no matter gender identity and don't want laws that impose on the rights of those.