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Iowa Gov. Reynolds signed HF 2416, banning transgender girls and women from school sports

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed HF 2416 into law on March 3, 2022, barring transgender girls and women from competing on female sports teams in the state's K-12 public and accredited nonpublic schools, community colleges, and Board of Regents universities. The Iowa House had passed the bill 55-39 on February 21 and the Senate passed a substitute 31-17 on March 2, with the law taking immediate effect as Iowa Acts Chapter 1003.

Jurisdiction
Iowa
Location
Des Moines, Iowa

Abuses documented

Actors

On March 3, 2022, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed HF 2416 into law, barring transgender girls and women from competing on female sports teams in Iowa's K-12 public and accredited nonpublic schools, as well as its community colleges and Board of Regents universities. The law restricts eligibility for girls'-and-women's-designated teams to students whose sex assigned at birth is female, covering athletic competition from grade school through NCAA- and NAIA-affiliated college sports.

The Iowa House passed the bill, formerly HF 2309, 55-39 on February 21, 2022; the Senate passed a substitute, SF 2342, 31-17 on March 2. Reynolds signed it the next day with an immediate effective date, and it was published as Iowa Acts Chapter 1003. Sponsors, including floor manager Rep. Skyler Wheeler, framed the law as protecting women's sports; the effect was to categorically exclude transgender girls and women from competing consistent with their gender identity.

Why we recorded this

Equal protection under law requires that government not exclude people from public programs based on protected characteristics such as sex and gender identity. Iowa's HF 2416 barred transgender girls and women from competing on female sports teams in K-12 schools, community colleges, and public universities, based solely on sex assigned at birth. This archive records when a government enacts policy that disadvantages a class of people because of who they are, part of a nationwide wave of state laws excluding transgender youth from an ordinary aspect of school life.

Sources

  1. Bill History for House File 2416 — 89th General Assembly — Iowa Legislature primary accessed July 17, 2026
  2. Iowa lawmakers approve bill targeting transgender athletes — The Gazette secondary accessed July 17, 2026
  3. Transgender girls and women now barred from female sports in Iowa — Iowa Public Radio secondary accessed July 17, 2026

See also