The Johnson County Board of Supervisors approved a measure clarifying that sex stereotyping is illegal under the county’s Human Rights ordinance.
The resolution would add a passage noting that discrimination based on sex stereotypes is illegal according to the local ordinance and Iowa Civil Rights Code.
The ordinance prohibits penalizing a person or enforcing stereotypes about how a person should appear, dress, speak, behave, or present themselves based on their sex. The county’s ordinance directs the county attorney to investigate all complaints of civil rights violations under the county’s human rights ordinance.
The first reading of the resolution passed unanimously on Thursday, Aug. 20. Two more readings are required before it becomes part of the county ordinance.
The county’s definition of sex stereotype matches the one Iowa City inserted into their human rights ordinance in July.
Ordinance works around state law prohibiting protections based on gender identity
The ordinance comes after Iowa lawmakers passed a law in March that requires local governments to conform to state civil rights code, prohibiting them from offering protections to characteristics not delineated in the state civil rights code. The law seeks to strip protections against gender-identity discrimination from local code.
Iowa lawmakers removed gender identity as a protected class from the state civil rights code in 2024. Iowa City and Johnson Count responded by reaffirming the protections they granted to transgender individuals in their civil rights code.
The state civil rights code includes protections against discrimination based on sex, which sex stereotyping falls under.
Johnson County was the first Iowa county to protect gender identity as a protected class in January 2007.
Since Iowa lawmakers removed gender identity as a protected class, the first state to do so, the Iowa civil rights code only protects against discrimination based on race, color, creed, marital status, mental disability, national origin, physical disability, race, religion, retaliation, sex, and sexual orientation.
Liam Halawith covers Johnson County local government, the University of Iowa, and crime for the Press-Citizen. Reach him by email at lhalawith@registermedia.com. Follow him on X at @liam_halawith.
This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Johnson County moves to ban discrimination based on sex
Reporting by Liam Halawith, Iowa City Press-Citizen / Iowa City Press-Citizen
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Liam Halawith, Iowa City Press-Citizen | USA TODAY Network
