Fort Dodge Senior High School junior Sofia Bristow is organizing a student walkout to protest the proposed legislation. Dodger students will be among many from high schools across the state participating in similar walkouts and demonstrations.

Bristow is part of Iowa WTF, a grassroots organization led by Iowa youth across the state who are “fed up with the discriminatory legislation that will hurt LGBTQ+ and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) students in the Iowa Legislature.” Iowa WTF and the Iowa Queer Alliance are coordinating the statewide effort at schools including Johnston High School, Urbandale High School, Ankeny High School, Iowa City High School, Valley Southwood and Valley High School.

Bristow wanted to make sure the walkout did not disrupt classroom learning time, so the walkout will happen during a period which is similar to homeroom. The students plan to stay on school property, congregating at the softball field on the east side of the school before returning to class.

“I’m doing it during that time because I don’t want people to use it as a time to just get out of school,” Bristow said.

The bills the students are protesting include:

n House File 8/Senate File 83/Senate File 159: A series of bills that would prohibit any public school, accredited nonpublic school or charter school from using any curriculum in certain grades that relates to gender identity or sexual orientation. The bills vary on whether to include grades K-6 or K-8. SF 83 allows parents and guardians of students to sue a school if it violates the prohibition on gender identity.

n House File 9: A bill that opponents say would “forcibly out” transgender students to possibly unsupportive, or even abusive, parents. HF9 prohibits schools from “facilitating any accommodation that is intended to affirm a student’s gender identity, if that gender identity is different than the sex listed on the student’s official birth certificate” without the written consent of the student’s parent or guardian. This means, unless a parent signs-off on it first, a teacher cannot use a student’s preferred pronouns (she/her, he/him, they/them, etc.) when referring to the student. The bill also prohibits schools from “withholding” information about a student’s gender identity from their parent or guardian, regardless of the student’s wishes or the family’s home situation.

n House File 190: A bill that removes gender identity as a protected class from the Iowa Civil Rights Act.

n Senate Study Bill 1145: A bill from Gov. Kim Reynolds that would remove any sex education curriculum specifically about HIV/AIDS, the sexually transmitted disease HPV and the availability of a vaccine to prevent HPV. The bill mirrors many of the previously-mentioned proposed legislation. This bill would also require school districts to receive prior written consent of the parent or guardian of a student before allowing school employees to address a student by a nickname or by a pronoun that “does not correspond to the biological sex listed” on the student’s birth certificate.

“I’ve always had a strong sense of justice and I’m also a lesbian,” Bristow said. “I’ve been incredibly touched in a very negative way by these bills, especially as I have a transgender girlfriend, and seeing these bills and this effort to attack our community and culture, our health care and education, it absolutely devastates me.”

Bristow uses the pronouns they/them. On Monday, they gave The Messenger a preview of their speech for Wednesday.

“If any of these important bills are to be passed, it will cause unequivocal damage to the quality of life of queer people,” Bristow said. “The ongoing notion that we are perverse groomers and deviant people who have an agenda to harm and indoctrinate children must come to an end. Our rights to live authentically and have access to support, health care and education should not be up for debate.”

Bristow said they plan to pass around a megaphone for others to speak and share their thoughts as well.