Students from 14 Iowa school districts plus Iowa State University walked out of class on March 1 to protest a series of bills before the state's legislature that would restrict the rights of Transgender youth.

Among the measures being considered by the Iowa legislature are bills to:
• require schools to out Trans students to their parents,
• forbid the teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation to students up to sixth grade, and
• restrict gender-affirming medical care for minors.

The protest is being organized by two student groups, IowaWTF and Iowa QSA (Queer Straight Alliance). Student activists said that legislative hearings on the bills have ignored the opinions and interests of students.

"We can see that in the public hearings," said Jemma Bullock, an Ankeny High School senior and member of both student groups. "There have been children, psychiatrists, doctors, parents, teachers who have been talking directly to them about how these bills are harming students and will cause things like bullying, depression, anxiety, etc. And they just will not listen."

School officials said that students have a right to protest as long as they were not disruptive.

"Students have the right to engage and speak out on issues that matter to them," said Phil Roeder, Des Moines Public Schools' spokesperson.

"With that right comes responsibilities — such as not disrupting the education of students who do not participate in an event such as a walkout — but we respect and support students when it comes to sharing their voices and ideas on topics important to their lives."

Student organizers said they saw mass support for the protests, including from straight, cisgender students who would not be directly affected by the proposed legislation.

"In past sessions, it was kind of harder to pick out clear exclusions to specific groups or clear attacks on specific groups," said Waverly Zhao, a high school senior and IowaWTF co-founder, "but these bills are laying it out plainly for a lot of people and a lot of students."

While there is widespread support for the walkouts, students are nervous about pushback from school staff if they participate, because of past incidents including an after-school drag show, Bullock said.

"I think that's one thing that I've been facing as a challenge here at Ankeny" when it comes to arranging the protest, she said.

The drag show is now the central event in a lawsuit filed by several Iowa teachers against the Ankeny School District. The show was organized last spring by students as an afterschool event, but according to the Ankeny School District, it did not have official approval.

Students and the teachers who supported the show faced discipline. The teachers are now suing the school district, charging that the disciplinary measures against them amounted to discrimination and humiliation.