Iowa’s LGBTQ book ban challenged in federal appeals court

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (KCRG) - Attorneys argued the constitutional viability of Iowa’s “Don’t Say LGBTQ” law in federal court in St. Louis Tuesday morning.

The controversial legislation, SF 496, mandates major changes to what teachers and students can say about LGBTQ topics in public schools.

Three major aspects of the law have been temporarily blocked. Those were the subject of Tuesday’s arguments:

• Banning all books that contain sexual depictions from school libraries.
• Bar instruction or programming about gender identity or sexual orientation for students who are in kindergarten through sixth grades.
• Require educators to tell parents if a student asks to change their name or pronouns related to gender identity.

Generally, the ACLU is accusing the law of being too vague to enforce.

“We’ve heard from educators and across the state really that in every in every instance where the schools have sought guidance about ‘what does this exactly mean, how are we supposed to really interpret it?’” Nathan Maxwell with Lambda Legal said, regarding the bill. “Local council is saying, ‘Well, we don’t know what to do either.’”

General Solicitor Eric Wessan argues the bill doesn’t tread on constitutional rights and that school staff should be able to make decisions based on the law.

“I have more faith in them,” Wessan said, regarding educators, criticizing an injunction keeping the law blocked.

The law is also being challenged by Penguin Randomhouse.

It is now up to the judges to make a decision.