Stories Related to Transgender Bathroom Bill Unlikely To Advance, Key Iowa Lawmaker Says

JOHNSTON — Legislative proposals to bar transgender Iowa students from using bathrooms that match their gender identity appear unlikely to advance in the Iowa House.Republicans in the Iowa Senate recently advanced such a bill, Senate File 224, through its first step in the legislative process. But Rep. Dustin Hite, chairman of the Iowa House Education Committee, said Friday he has no plans to give the bill — or ones like it — a hearing in the House.“The reason I haven’t assigned them a subcommittee is not because I don’t understand the issues of the proponents of those bills, but I also understand the issues on the other sides of those bills,” the New Sharon Republican said at the Friday taping of “Iowa Press” at Iowa PBS studios in Johnston.“And I think when we talk about topics like this, we have to be extremely careful that what we are doing does not come across as hateful,” he said.