The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Iowa and Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ-affiliated law firm, filed suit yesterday (Tuesday) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, challenging a state law restricting sexually explicit content and gender identity instruction in Iowa schools. The suit is being filed on behalf of a non-profit LGBTQ organization, Iowa Safe Schools, and seven Iowa families. Senate File (SF) 496, which went into effect on July 1, forbids programs, curriculum, tests, surveys, and instruction related to gender identity or sexual orientation in grades K-6, mandates schools to remove books containing “descriptions or visual depictions of a sex act” with carve-outs for religious texts, and requires parents to be informed when students request to go by different names or pronouns. The plaintiffs are seeking a temporary injunction to block SF496’s implementation and for the law to be ruled unconstitutional by the court. Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a statement Tuesday afternoon in response to the lawsuit. She says, “Protecting children from pornography and sexually explicit content shouldn’t be controversial. The real controversy is that it exists in elementary schools. Books with graphic depictions of sex acts have absolutely no place in our schools. If these books were movies, they’d be rated R. The media cannot even air or print excerpts from these books because the content is offensive and inappropriate, yet they promote the narrative that they’re good for kids.” While the law went into effect on July 1, penalties against schools and teachers found in violation would not have started until after the Christmas break.
