- Rekha Basu is a longtime syndicated columnist, editorial writer and reporter, whose work has appeared in all but two U.S. states.
The long list of actions Iowa’s governor has taken in recent years to ban almost anything pertaining to transgender people might leave some to conclude that she has an unhealthy obsession with gender identity. But it would be reckless to publicly ascribe a personal motivation to an elected official’s acts in office, without adequate proof.
Which is also why Gov. Kim Reynolds has no standing to create new legal definitions of males and females under Iowa law. Her effort lacks scientific basis, social and cultural context and — most of all — need. Yet no sooner had the state Capitol erupted in cheers from hundreds of attendees responding to the early death of a House bill (House File 2082) to scrap gender identity protection from Iowa’s civil rights law, than Reynolds was pushing her measure to redefine men and women.
The governor cannot, with a stroke of the pen, wipe out what centuries of history, decades of civil rights struggle and growing medical and psychological awareness tell us. The World Health Organization recently announced it’s developing evidence-based guidelines on caring for the health of “trans and gender diverse” people. That includes promoting health policies that support “gender-inclusive care, and legal recognition of self-determined gender identity.” It includes training health care workers to provide the requisite care, including hormones.