Federal district court judge Stephen H. Locher has issued a preliminary injunction against most parts of an Iowa law whose penalties were to take effect yesterday. The law, signed by Governor Kim Reynolds last May, forbids school libraries and classrooms from carrying books describing or showing a “sex act,” with the exception of religious texts like the Bible; prohibits educators from discussing “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” with students from kindergarten through sixth grade; and requires school administrators to notify parents when students ask to change anything relating to their gender identity, such as their names or pronouns. The judge barred the first two provisions, but allowed the parental notification provision to stand.
