LGBTQ Iowans rush to secure legal planning, birth certificate changes as new political realities set in

More and more these days, Cedar Rapids attorney Kendra Weston has to explain to married couples the imperative of adopting their own children.

Over the last five months around Iowa, attorneys and advocates like her have been rushing to help hundreds of clients complete certain legal tasks: estate planning, confirmatory adoption for non-birth parents, and updating birth certificates and government identification.

The tasks, which normally would be considered routine, have taken on a new sense of urgency since the last election. When a new Iowa Legislature, Congress and president took office in January, the top issues of concern for many LGBTQ Iowans went beyond the price of eggs or tariffs.

For same-sex couples, gay parents and transgender Iowans, the institutions at stake are the ones their lives are built on: marriage, parental rights, and government documentation that properly matches their identities.

“LGBTQ people have fought long and hard to have the privacy and autonomy over their lives afforded to straight, cisgender people. LGBTQ people have already experienced discrimination and harassment just for being who they are,” said Kendra Weston, founder and executive director of Lavender Legal. “They see politicians ready to erase them and their families.”

Attorneys, advocacy organizations inundated with requests

An increase in anti-LGBTQ legislation and laws has been cause for alarm in the community. New laws like Senate File 418 have demonstrated the fears are no longer hypothetical.

That law, which ends 18 years of protection for transgender Iowans, made Iowa the first state to repeal civil rights protections. The removal of the protected class will take effect in July.

Transgender Iowans are not the only ones confronting a loss of legal rights. In the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas called for the reconsideration of other landmark cases, including Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

Now, with a 6-3 conservative supermajority, that reconsideration is well within the realm of possibilities.

These fears and more have inundated legal aid organizations and advocacy groups, like Lavender Legal in Cedar Rapids and One Iowa in Des Moines, with requests from LGBTQ Iowans to secure their rights as much as possible.

Last fiscal year, Lavender Legal served about 70 clients. So far this year, its two-person staff has served about 200.

“You can lose your family or status just because people don’t value you in society,” Weston said. “They want to make sure they put what they need, legally, in place so they’re not erased tomorrow.”

Max Mowitz, executive director of One Iowa, said he is inundated with dozens of texts, calls and emails every week for legal support and help updating gender markers on birth certificates before July 1, when it will no longer be permitted.

“Overall, the conversations are very scattered and scared,” he said. “I think, overall, people want someone who can help them see what the next step is.”

Same-sex couples, parents prepare for the future

Those processing requests for at least hundreds of Iowans have seen an uptick in two key areas of need: family formation protection, and gender change documentation.

For same-sex couples, the most utilized services are estate planning and confirmatory adoption, for those with children. Many same-sex couples use reproductive technology and medical procedures to start families, meaning that one or both parents aren’t biologically tied to their children.

“These people want to make sure their family is protected in the event something happens to the freedom to marry or their parentage becomes (reliant on biological definitions),” Weston said.

Lavender Legal has served these needs since it was founded in 2020. Now, they have renewed importance.

Alison Gowans and her wife, Rebecca Miller, have gone through both estate planning and the adoption process often referred to as “second parent adoption.” It was important to protect their family and themselves in the event their marriage is, one day, no longer recognized as valid.

“It’s for whether there is a law change, or we run into an official or employee at the bank or hospital who doesn’t feel like they need to recognize that,” said Gowans, a Lavender Legal board member and former reporter at The Gazette. “We wanted to make sure we’re legally protected, regardless of the legal or societal status of our relationship.”

The language included in their estate planning documents is a little different from a heterosexual couple. Their attorney emphasized language for contingencies in which their marriage is no longer recognized — referring to their marriage as a “relationship,” no matter its legal status in the United States.

After Miller gave birth to their first child in January, the couple started the process to make Gowans a legal parent for the child they’re raising together.

“You shouldn’t need to worry about whether you’ll be on the birth certificate. I’ve been part of the process this whole time, I’m married, so I’m a parent already,” Gowans said. “God forbid, if the worst case scenario happened, if something should happen to (Miller,) the last thing I’d want to be doing is fighting for custody of a child and putting the family through that.”

The time when their right to get married was not a guarantee still is within recent memory, so they don’t take the hard-earned rights for granted.

Transgender Iowans move to update birth certificates

Starting July 1, the law removing protections for transgender people from Iowa civil rights code also will bar them from requesting changes to the gender marker on their birth certificates — a critical document used to update driver's licenses, passports and more.

Requests for assistance in the process with the Iowa Bureau of Health Statistics have become a major focus in advocates’ work since the law passed on Feb. 27. Advocates say the process takes about a month to complete.

“I think it will be a marathon until we hit July 1 to get as many people through as we can,” Mowitz said.

He said that while most applying for the change are able to do it successfully, some have run into barriers getting the correct documentation, such as an affidavit from their physicians stating that they are going through gender-affirming care. Mowitz says some applicants have received a letter from the state saying their affidavits aren’t specific enough, or don’t include enough information.

“What the state is looking for in affidavits is getting more and more opaque,” he said.

The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request from The Gazette about the volume of requests or how gender marker changes would be processed until July 1.

Now, accurate birth certificates will be even more critical for trans Iowans looking to update all their documents. Under the Trump administration, passport applicants looking to update their passport to reflect their current gender — the way they present while traveling and crossing borders — are being rejected or given passports with incorrect markers. Some applicants are receiving their old passports damaged from the U.S. Department of State.

One Iowa is advising clients to keep their current, valid passports.

“It’s better to have access to that passport and have it be mismatched with other documentation than to not have it,” Mowitz said.

Why it matters

Mowitz, who is transgender and updated the gender marker on his birth certificate earlier this year, analogized the importance of the document change to those who change their names after getting married.

“You love your partner, you take their last name, and you want that name to be reflected on your identity documents because that’s who you are. That’s important to you,” he said. “I need to be me, and I need to have this document reflect that.”

But more than affirmation, it’s a practical matter. Whether crossing the border, buying a beer, applying for a job or getting pulled over, having a gender marker on state identification than matches one’s physical presentation can be crucial.

Mismatches can leave the ID holder at risk for negative outcomes, including harassment, if the validity of their identity comes into question.

“I live my life as a woman and have for 20 years. If (my) ID says ‘male,’ people are going to question that,” said Iowa Rep. Aime Wichtendahl, the first transgender representative elected to the Iowa Legislature. “They’re going to think it’s fake.”

The Hiawatha representative for District 80 made headlines in February for her speech against the new law, sharing from personal experience. After transitioning, she and her child were evicted from their apartment for no stated reason.

“All we’re asking for is to live our lives,” she told The Gazette. “We’re not asking for the moon.”

Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at elijah.decious@thegazette.com.