Iowa became the first US state to remove gender identity protections from its civil rights code on Friday when Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law a bill that opponents say will expose transgender people and other Iowans to discrimination in all aspects of daily life.

Governor Kim Reynolds (R., Iowa) signed a bill into law on Friday to remove gender identity as a protected class from the state’s civil rights code, which previously equated sex discrimination to discrimination based on gender identity.

Iowa lawmakers have passed a new law that removes protections for gender identity from the state's civil rights code