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DES MOINES — Aime Wichtendahl hopes her election last fall serves as a repudiation of harmful stereotypes of transgender Iowans and a silver lining and sliver of hope for LGBTQ advocates in what was otherwise a bitterly disappointing election night for them.
Iowa’s first openly transgender state lawmaker discussed with The Gazette the significance of her historic role and the challenges faced by transgender individuals.
The Democratic representative from Hiawatha highlighted the dangers of President Donald Trump’s executive order recognizing two sexes only and the negative impact of Iowa’s laws banning gender-affirming care for minors and restricting bathroom access as schools. Such legislation, Wichtendahl said, creates unnecessary legal complexities and spreads division, while putting women’s safety at risk.
She also emphasized the need for a community-first approach in legislation, focusing on economic development, quality of life and “bread-and-butter” issues such as expanding affordable housing, job opportunities and small-business support in the state.
Q: You recently made history as Iowa’s first openly transgender lawmaker. I guess, what does that distinction mean to you? And what does that signify for transgender Iowans?
A: “You know, hopefully, people see it as a little bit of a repudiation of a lot of the anti-trans stereotypes that certain groups have been trafficking over the years. Because, you know, despite what they may say about me, they have to contend with the fact that I am the honorable Aime J. Wichtendahl, of the great city of Hiawatha, distinguished representative from Linn County. I hope that reevaluates how people see trans people as a whole.”
Wichtendahl added that since the election last fall, several people have contacted her to say they now “see a reason for hope and to know that someone like me was fighting for them.”
Q: And how are you hoping people will, I guess, see transgender people with your representation and your service in the Iowa House?
A: “The fundamental reality of it is that at the end of the day we are just people. We are members of our community, friends, neighbors, family members. We are not like these scary predators that lurk around there on the internet. That’s not who we are as people. Like, we’re your friends. We’re your neighbors. We’re Iowans and we’re American citizens, too. So at the end of the day, I hope that (leads people to) reevaluate those perceptions of transgender people. If nothing else, it gives somebody also a point of reference of what someone who is transgender looks like. … So if nothing else, at least the people who don’t have trans people in their lives, I’m a reference on what someone who is transgender looks like.”
Q: President Donald Trump, during his inaugural address, announced plans to sign an executive order proclaiming that the U.S. government will recognize only two sexes, male and female, in a move that White House officials said “will protect women from radical gender ideology.” What is your reaction to the president’s remarks, and what impact do you foresee his executive order having on transgender people in Iowa and the rest of the country?
A: “I expect that at the end of the day, it will be tied up in a federal rule making process and tied up in the courts before it ever gets done. But, at the end of the day, the immediate thing that it does do is it leads to harassment of women (who do not have overtly feminine characteristics). It certainly leads to greater harassment of trans women and transgender people specifically, and causes more confusion throughout just all aspects of the federal government — anytime anyone has to interact with their government on anything from passports to hospital stays to insurance forms to just all of it.”
She contends the proposal does the very thing Trump and Republicans are trying to prevent, “which is put men in women’s spaces.” For transmen assigned female at birth (think actor Elliot Page and former adult entertainment actor Buck Angel) but who have transitioned to living as male, Wichtendahl asserts the law would force them into women’s spaces, “creating a far more uncomfortable situation than if the government recognized them as men.”
“So far from providing clarity that the people in Washington think it’s going to do, it is going to unleash a torrent of confusion and problems,” Wichtendahl said.
Q: Iowa has enacted laws in recent years that banned gender-affirming care for minors and restricted bathroom access at schools. We’ve also seen repeated attempts over the years, including last year, to remove gender identity protections from the Iowa Civil Rights Act. We also saw a proposal from Gov. Kim Reynolds to define man and woman in Iowa code based on a person’s sex assigned at birth. What proposals or conversations are you seeing or hearing from Republican lawmakers thus far this session?
A: Wichtendahl said House Republicans lawmakers are again discussing efforts to remove gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act. Iowa House lawmakers last year declined to advance a bill that would have removed gender identity protections from the act, following roughly an hour of testimony from transgender Iowans, school safety advocates, lawyers and civil rights activists. Individuals packed a committee room to decry the proposal.
Republican House Speaker Pat Grassley told reporters Thursday there has been interest among the House GOP caucus to again pass legislation stripping gender identity protections from Iowa law, “but at this point in time I don’t think we’ve reached a conclusion on whether we would move forward or not.”
Wichtendahl called any renewed effort to do so “an absolute affront to who we are as Iowans.”
“We put on our flag, ‘Our liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain,’ for a reason. Stripping away rights from Iowa’s own citizens is a very affront to Iowa’s values. The fact that they can’t help themselves but kick the transgender community over and over again, shows a real lack of leadership. It shows a real lack of concern for the Iowa people.”
Q: Gov. Reynolds and Republicans have said women and men possess unique biological differences, and that defining a woman in code has become necessary to protect spaces for women’s health, safety and privacy. I guess, how do you respond to that argument, and why shouldn’t transgender people be excluded from sex segregated spaces like bathrooms, locker rooms and women’s shelters?
A: “Are you going to institute mandatory chromosomal testing? Are you going to mandate invasive gender screening? Because that’s the road you’re going down with all of those things. … You’re going down that road where you are literally, you know, talking about invasive screening for both men and women, but more specifically women. And how do you talk about people who are intersex? It is absolutely ridiculous.”
Q: You also bring a local lens to state government. As a former Hiawatha City Council member, how do you plan on using that experience and perspective through the lawmaking process, particularly when we’re facing a legislative session where Republicans have vowed to provide further property tax relief?
A: “My fear while being at the city of Hiawatha was that the Legislature would do something catastrophically stupid with respect to property taxes.”
She mentioned previous attempts by Republican lawmakers to place limits on local spending and “shunt” pension obligations that local governments pay from a dedicated fund into the general fund, placing several funds under the same cap and putting funding for the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System and other pensions for police and fire in competition with other city responsibilities like public safety, street repair, parks, trails and libraries.
“And I’m not heartened by the fact that Reynolds is bringing in outside help to look at property taxes,” Wichtendahl added.
Reynolds, in her annual Condition of the State address earlier this month, announced the creation of an Iowa task force on government efficiency — similar to the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, planned by Trump. The new task force will work to support DOGE’s efforts at the federal level “to find even greater savings and efficiencies in both state and local government.”
“Because, to pass meaningful property tax reform, we also need to be lean at the local level,” the governor said.
“Personally, I think if you want to talk about property taxes, I think the place to start is (eliminating) unfunded mandates,” Wichtendahl said. “And let’s start having that there, because that would be the one thing that you could do that would, you know, kind of lower the tax burden while removing unnecessary government regulation, which I think is in line with what the governor was saying.”
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