Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Friday signed a bill into law that removes certain protections for transgender people from the state’s civil rights code, which opponents claim will put transgender people at risk of discrimination.
The bill makes Iowa the first state to remove certain protections based on gender identity, but comes after Iowa Republicans passed legislation that bans transgender people from using bathrooms, or from playing on sport teams that do not match their biological sex, per the Associated Press. Republicans claimed that the move is to protect biological women.