- Homosexuality
- ⚢✔ Legal
- Gay Marriage
- ⚭✔ Legal
- Censorship
- ✖ State-enforced
- Changing Gender
- ✖ Legal, but requires medical diagnosis
- Gender-Affirming Care
- ✖ Legal, but banned for minors
- Non-Binary Gender Recognition
- ✖ Not legally recognized
- Discrimination
- ✔ Illegal
- Employment Discrimination
- ✔ Sexual orientation and gender identity
- Housing Discrimination
- ✔ Sexual orientation and gender identity
- Adoption
- ✔ Legal
- Intersex Infant Surgery
- ✖ Not banned
- Military
- ✔ Legal
- Donating Blood
- ✔ Legal
- Conversion Therapy
- Varies by Region
- Age of Consent
- Unknown
Public Opinion
Surveys in Iowa have shown mixed views towards LGBTQ+ rights and issues.
Perception of LGBTQ+ People
Survey results from 5 LGBTQ+ Equaldex users who lived in or visited Iowa.
Overall
Perceived Safety**Survey results represent personal perceptions of safety and may not be indicative of current actual conditions.
Equal Treatment
Visibility & Representation
Culture
Services
History
Censorship of LGBT issues in Iowa is state-enforced.
Right to change legal gender in Iowa is legal, but requires medical diagnosis.
Gender-affirming care in Iowa is legal, but banned for minors.
Legal recognition of non-binary gender in Iowa is not legally recognized.
LGBT discrimination in Iowa is illegal.
LGBT employment discrimination in Iowa is sexual orientation and gender identity.
In 2025, Iowa’s governor signed a bill that removed gender identity from the list of protected classes in employment discrimination. However, once this legislation goes into effect, it will have no effect on employment discrimination because gender identity and sexual orientation have been protected federally since 2020.
LGBT housing discrimination in Iowa is sexual orientation and gender identity.
Same-sex adoption in Iowa is legal.
Intersex infant surgery in Iowa is not banned.
Serving openly in military in Iowa is legal.
From now on, The U.S. military will prohibit transgender individuals from enlisting, and will cease providing or supporting gender transition procedures for service members.
In January of 2025, President Trump signed an executive order that bans transgender people from serving in the military. However, before his executive order can take effect, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth needs to submit a plan on how the military will implement the order.
Blood donations by MSMs in Iowa is legal.
Conversion therapy in Iowa is varies by region.
Davenport became the first city in Iowa to ban conversion therapy by minors with a vote 82 by the Davenport City Council.
The Linn County Board of Supervisors also passed a ban affecting the scope of it's unincorporated areas.
Some cities such as Des Moines Iowa repealed their bans after challenges by Christian organizations.
State law supersedes local laws and the ban is at risk of being rendered defunct if state legislatures were to nullify the legitimacy of the scope of these laws.
In 2024, a bill prohibiting local jurisdictions from passing their own conversion therapy bans was pending in the Senate.