Iowa Supreme Court Finds State Discriminated Against Trans Employee
filed suit in Polk County court, claiming that the Department of Corrections discriminated against him based on his gender identity, in violation of the Iowa Civil Rights Act.Vroegh’s case was the first jury lawsuit brought under the Iowa Civil Rights Act since it was amended in 2007 to include protections for gender identity. In February 2019, an Iowa jury found that the Department of Corrections had discriminated against Vroegh on the basis of sex and gender identity through its actions, and awarded him $120,000 in damages. The state later appealed the jury’s verdict to the Iowa Supreme Court, which upheld the jury’s verdict on Friday.“This is a historic victory for civil rights in Iowa, because it makes real the promise of nondiscrimination protections in employment that our legislature put in place for transgender Iowans in 2007,” Rita Bettis Austen, legal director for the ACLU of Iowa, said in a statement.