As of last Friday, all proposed anti-LGBTQIA+ bills in the Iowa Legislature have been labeled as dead.

All 14 of the bills that were introduced in this legislative session, in both the House and the Senate, did not make it through the first legislative funnel, according to Keenan Crow, director of policy and advocacy for One Iowa.

“Iowa’s legislature has funnel deadlines,” Crow said. “What a funnel deadline means is that if your bill does not clear a set of criteria by a certain time, then it is no longer debatable for that particular legislative session.”

Crow said the first funnel deadline requires a bill to move through both the committee and subcommittee of the chamber that it was introduced in by a certain time. The end of the timeline was last Friday.

“None of these bills were able to make it through a full committee, and therefore are not able to be debated for the rest of the legislative session,” Crow said.

Crow said that although the bills themselves cannot be debated in this legislative session, the ideas behind the bills can.

“Just because a particular bill can no longer be debated in this session does not mean that the idea can no longer be debated in this session,” Crow said. “They can add it as an amendment to another bill. The most likely scenario is that they add it as some sort of a line item on a budget bill because budget bills are funnel-proof.”

Though some of the bills were assigned to subcommittees, none of them had completed their subcommittees before the end date of the funnel.

SF508 was introduced on April 4, 2019, by the Committee on Local Government.

This bill relates to the standard of judicial review when a state action burdens a person’s exercise of religion.

Under current law, a court is not required to apply heightened scrutiny when reviewing a law that burdens a person’s exercise of religion when such law is generally applicable. The bill provides that a court shall apply the compelling interest test set forth in Sherbert v. Verner, 37427 U.S. 398 (1963) and Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972) in such cases, so state action cannot substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion unless it is demonstrated that applying the law of general applicability is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest and is the least restrictive means of furthering that interest. The bill provides that a person whose exercise of religion has been burdened by state action may assert such violation as a claim or defense in a judicial or administrative proceeding.

On Jan. 15, the bill was reassigned a subcommittee, and the subcommittee recommended passage on Feb. 13.

HF258 was introduced on Feb. 6, 2019, by Rep. Sandy Salmon, Rep. Steven Holt, Rep. Tedd Gassman, Rep. Terry Baxter, Rep. Stan Gustafson, Rep. Jeff Shipley, Rep. Skyler Wheeler, Rep. Jon Jacobsen, Rep. Anne Osmundson, Rep. David Kerr, Rep. Tom Moore, Rep. Shannon Lundgren, Rep. Andy McKean, Rep. Cecil Dolecheck, Rep. Dean Fisher, Rep. Robert Bacon and Rep. Phil Thompson.

This bill acts the same as SF508.

The bill never made it to a subcommittee.

HF2130 was introduced on Jan. 27 by Salmon.

This bill defines “bona fide religious purpose” under the Iowa Civil Rights Act of 1965 as any lawful purpose that furthers a sincerely held religious belief, whether or not compelled by or central to a system of religious belief, and without regard to the correctness, validity or plausibility of the religious belief. The term shall be interpreted broadly, with any and all ambiguities resolved in favor of the bona fide religious institution professing the religious belief. The term, which pertains to certain exceptions to the Act relating to employment, accommodations or services, education and housing, was not previously defined.

On Feb. 17, the bill was assigned to a subcommittee.

SF2213 was introduced on Feb. 10 by Sen. Jake Chapman.

This bill prohibits a healthcare professional from engaging in certain practices upon a minor and from causing such practices to be performed upon a minor for the purpose of attempting to change the minor’s sex or for the purpose of affirming the minor’s perception of the minor’s sex if that perception is inconsistent with the minor’s sex. A health care professional who violates the bill commits a class “B” felony.

A class “B” felony is punishable by confinement for no more than 25 years. The bill’s prohibitions do not apply to a healthcare professional acting in accordance with a good-faith medical decision of a parent of a minor born with a medically verifiable genetic disorder of sexual development.

On Feb. 11, the bill was assigned to a subcommittee.

HF2164 was introduced on Jan. 29 by Rep. Thomas Gerhold, Rep. Tom Jeneary, Fisher, Osmundson, Baxter, Gassman, Thompson, Wheeler and Salmon.

The Iowa State Daily previously reported on this bill. Holt, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, announced on Twitter the day of the bill’s introduction that he would not be advancing this bill.

The Iowa State Daily also reported on the remaining eight bills.

HF2201 was assigned to a subcommittee on Feb. 6, and the subcommittee recommended amendment and passage on Feb. 12.

SF2130 was assigned to a subcommittee on Feb. 6.

SF2193 and SF2194 were assigned to subcommittees on Feb. 11.

Bills HF2202, HF2274, HF2272 and HF2273 were never assigned to a subcommittee.