Poll: More Iowans than not oppose Reynolds’ bill on transgender Iowans’ birth certificates

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More Iowans oppose than favor Gov. Kim Reynolds’ plan to require transgender Iowans’ birth certificates to designate both their sex at birth and their current gender identity, a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll finds

Reynolds, a Republican, drew widespread condemnation from LGBTQ advocacy groups when she introduced House File 2389 in February. The bill also would define “man” and “woman” in state law and make it easier for the state to exclude transgender women from women’s bathrooms and other facilities.

Critics have described it as “erasure” of transgender and nonbinary Iowans, while Reynolds calls the bill a “women’s bill of rights.”

The bill has passed a committee in the Iowa House but it has not been taken up by the full chamber.

The Iowa Poll asked Iowans if they favor or oppose the effort to “require transgender Iowans’ birth certificates to include both their sex at birth and their current gender identity.”

The poll found 49% of Iowa adults oppose the proposal, while 44% favor it. Another 7% are not sure.

The poll of 804 Iowa adults was conducted Feb. 25-28 by Selzer & Co. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

The poll shows a partisan divide in how Iowans view the issue. Half of self-identified Republicans (50%) say they favor the proposal, compared with 42% who oppose it.

Only a third of Democrats (33%) favor the idea, compared to nearly two-thirds (63%) who oppose it.

Political independents are closely divided, with slightly more saying they are opposed (48%) than in favor (45%).

More: What you should know about the Iowa bill that legally defines 'man,' 'woman' and 'sex'

Lucy Giehl, a 62-year-old Democratic poll respondent who lives near Burlington, opposes the idea. She said lawmakers should focus on more pressing issues, like water quality and rising cancer rates.

“I feel like there are so many issues that our legislators could and should be working on that they’re ignoring so that they can pick on LGBTQ people and minorities of all kinds,” she said.

Giehl, a retired teacher who works as a math tutor, said she sees the bill as part of an agenda by Reynolds to “bully” transgender Iowans.

“Why would you require that other than to bully those people?” she said. “I feel like that’s her whole agenda, to marginalize those people more than they already are.”

Reynolds and Iowa Republicans have enacted a slew of bills in recent years placing restrictions on LGBTQ Iowans. In 2022, the governor signed a law banning transgender women and girls from participating in women’s sports.

Last year, the state passed restrictions on which bathrooms transgender students can use at school, prohibitions on teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity from kindergarten through sixth grade, and a ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth under the age of 18.

Jim Fillman, a 67-year-old retired Republican poll respondent from Cascade, said he favors the new birth certificate requirements.

“It doesn’t make sense that somebody can change their gender because they choose to,” he said.

“There’s boys and there’s girls and that’s the way God made us,” Fillman added.

More: Iowans flock to Capitol for heated hearing on Kim Reynolds' bill defining 'man' and 'woman'

What would Kim Reynolds’ bill defining ‘man’ and ‘woman’ do?

Reynolds’ bill says that, for the purposes of state law, the term “sex” means someone’s biological sex assigned at birth. It includes definitions of “male” and “female.”

“A ‘female’ is a person whose biological reproductive system is developed to produce ova and a ‘male’ is a person whose biological reproductive system is developed to fertilize the ova of a female,” the bill states.

The bill says that “the term ‘equal’ does not mean ‘same’ or ‘identical’” and that “separate accommodations are not inherently unequal.”

That language would allow the state to exclude transgender women from women’s facilities, including bathrooms, locker rooms, women’s prisons, domestic violence shelters and rape crisis shelters.

Transgender Iowans seeking a new birth certificate after a gender transition would be required to note their sex at birth, in addition to their current identity.

“A new certificate of birth ... following a change in sex designation, shall include a designation of the sex of the person, as male or female, both at the time of birth and at the time the new certificate of birth is established,” the bill states.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.

About the Iowa Poll

The Iowa Poll, conducted Feb. 25-28, 2024, for The Des Moines Register and Mediacom by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines, is based on telephone interviews with 804 Iowans ages 18 or older. Interviewers with Quantel Research contacted households with randomly selected landline and cell phone numbers supplied by Dynata. Interviews were administered in English. Responses were adjusted by age, sex and congressional district to reflect the general population based on recent American Community Survey estimates.

Questions based on the sample of 804 Iowa adults have a maximum margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. This means that if this survey were repeated using the same questions and the same methodology, 19 times out of 20, the findings would not vary from the true population value by more than plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. Results based on smaller samples of respondents—such as by gender or age—have a larger margin of error.

Republishing the copyright Iowa Poll without credit and, on digital platforms, links to originating content on The Des Moines Register and Mediacom is prohibited.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa Poll: 49% oppose birth certificate requirements for trans Iowans