Waterloo Times

Andrew Dunn, a Democrat candidate for a seat representing Iowa House District 90, praised the decision of a judge that overturned a Republican-backed denial of Medicaid surgeries for transgender people requesting a sex reassignment.

Dunn is a community organizer, nonprofit leader and a seventh generation Iowa native.

"Thank you to the ACLU of Iowa and Mika Covington for fighting to ensure all Iowans’ civil rights are protected and are able to receive vital health care services,” Dunn said in a Facebook post. 

Mika Covington, a former field organizer for Bernie Sanders, is president of the Next Generation of Cystinosis, a nonprofit intended to combat a rare cell dysfunction. Covington is a transgender activist.

Iowa Judge William Kelly on Nov. 22 ordered the Iowa Department of Human Services to provide sex reassignment surgeries for gender dysphoria, a condition where a person endures psychological distress because their birth gender conflicts with their later gender identity, The Associated Press reported.

The ruling overturns a state law enacted by Republicans in 2019 that prohibited Medicaid coverage for sex reassignment surgeries.

Kelly said the Republican-backed Medicaid denial violated state law and the Iowa Constitution. In April, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the denial of medical services.

Roughly 12 states exclude such coverage while 18 states include it. The remainder have not addressed the issue, the AP reported.

Rita Bettis Austen, legal director for ACLU of Iowa, called the judgement a historic win for the civil rights of Iowa residents.

“It recognizes what we’ve long known, that transgender Iowans must not be discriminated against, and that they are protected by the Iowa Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection, as well as by the Iowa Civil Rights Act," Austen said, AP reported.