From Iowa Safe Schools v. Reynolds, decided today by Eighth Circuit Judge Ralph Erickson, joined by Judges Lavenski Smith and Jonathan Kobes:
[Iowa law] precludes a school district from providing instruction relating to gender identity or sexual orientation to students in kindergarten through grade six [the "Instruction Section"]…. [It also] requires school officials to notify parents if a student asks for the use of a pronoun that does not match the school's registration records or requests an "accommodation that is intended to affirm the student's gender identity" [the "Parental Notification Law"]….
Iowa Code § 279.80(2) provides: "A school district shall not provide any program, curriculum, test, survey, questionnaire, promotion, or instruction relating to gender identity or sexual orientation to students in kindergarten through grade six." When enacted, the statute referred to the definition of gender identity as set forth in § 216.2(12), which defined gender identity as "a gender-related identity of a person, regardless of the person's assigned sex at birth." …
Iowa law defines gender identity as "an individual's subjective identification as male, female, or neither male nor female … [and] shall not be considered a synonym or substitute for sex or gender." Sexual orientation is defined under Iowa law as the "actual or perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality." …
In addressing Plaintiffs' facial challenge, the district court concluded that all but two words in this statute—program and promotion—pass constitutional muster. The court found the words "program" and "promotion" are too broad to refer only to mandatory classroom curriculum and violate the First Amendment by prohibiting school districts and educators from, for example, making extracurricular activities relating to gender identity and sexual orientation available to students in grades six and below.
