DES MOINES, IOWA — The Republican supermajority in the Iowa Legislature is moving forward on another anti-LGBTQ measure, this one a ban on all gender-affirming care for minors in the state.

The bill moved forward in both a house and senate subcommittee on Tuesday. And as it was a subcommittee, members of the public got up to speak on the issue lasting around 45 minutes.

“Teenagers’ ability to accurately assess risk is limited, their brains are simply not developed to fully assess things like adults are,” said Samantha Fett with Moms for Liberty.

“I didn’t nearly survive, when I was 25 I almost stepped in front of a moving train, would have been dead…,” said Aime Wichtendahl, a Hiawatha City Council Member. “But I will keep going and I will keep fighting for those people who can live their lives without government interference.”

Comments went back and forth throughout the panel until lawmakers advanced it through the subcommittee. Lawmakers will need to act quickly if they want to pass this bill this session, as the funnel deadline approaches this Thursday evening.

State Senator Jeff Edler, the chair of the subcommittee, said that there is a mechanism the bill that would allow teenagers who are “too far along” in the transitioning process to continue receiving treatment. That terminology does not yet exist in the bill as is.