A group of Republican lawmakers is proposing removing gender identity as one of the groups protected in the Iowa Civil Rights Act. The Iowa Legislature added gender identity to the Iowa Civil Rights Act in 2007.  One Iowa lobbyist Keenan Crow says the bill to remove it is extreme and mean-spirited.

Representative Skyler Wheeler, a Republican from Orange City, is one of the bill sponsors. He says the goal is to protect women’s rights. State Representative Dean Fisher of Montour is also one of the bill’s sponsors.

However, a Republican committee chair tweeted last night that he won’t allow the bill to advance.