An Iowa Catholic diocese banned preferred pronouns and will force LGBTQ students to go to bathrooms of their biological sex. Advocates say the policy is part of a growing trend causing 'severe harm.'

• An Iowa diocese has implemented a new "gender identity" policy that bans "preferred pronouns."
• Policies like this are part of a growing trend in US Catholic dioceses, LGBTQ advocates said.

A Catholic diocese in Iowa has implemented a new "gender identity" policy that bans the use of "preferred pronouns" and puberty blockers and forces LGBTQ students, staff, and church members to utilize bathrooms associated with their biological sex.

LGBTQ advocates say policies like this are part of a growing trend among Catholic dioceses of the United States that are causing "severe harm" and damage to transgender and non-binary youth.

"There are many, many pitfalls to this," Marianne Duddy-Burke, the executive director of DignityUSA, a Catholic LGBTQ advocacy organization, told Insider on Tuesday.

"It just pushes kids with gender identity questions or gender dysphoria to the margins. It isolates them," Duddy-Burke said, adding that the policies can lead to both depression and anxiety. "It makes them think there's something wrong with them."

The policy from the Diocese of Des Moines — which includes 17 schools and 80 parishes in southwest Iowa — went into effect on Monday.

"These policies are established as binding for diocesan parishes, schools, organizations, and institutions of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Des Moines," the diocese said in a document laying out seven stipulations.

It adds that the policy "applies, but is not limited to, all Church employees, personnel, volunteers, and those entrusted to the care of the Church."

Under the policy, no one "may designate a 'preferred pronoun.'" The diocese said people "must use the bathroom or locker room that matches their biological sex" and "are to follow the dress code or uniform that accords with their biological sex." Participation in school or parish activities "must be consistent with the biological sex of the participant," the diocese said.

The diocese also barred using gender-affirming medical treatments like puberty blockers, saying, "no person is permitted to have on-site or to distribute any medications for the purpose of gender reassignment."

Anyone who may question their gender "should be guided to appropriate ministers and counselors," according to the policy.

LGBTQ advocates estimated that around two dozen of the 194 dioceses and archdioceses in the US have adopted similar policies in recent years. Among them are Wisconsin's Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin's Diocese of Milwaukee, and Nebraska's Diocese of Omaha.

"They are very harmful statements," Francis DeBernardo, the executive director of New Ways Ministry, an advocacy group for LGBTQ Catholics, told Insider. "It can cause severe mental and emotional problems to be rejected like that."

"Transgender young people already have enough pressures on them that they shouldn't be receiving pressure from an institution that is supposed to be helping them," DeBernardo said.

A recent survey by The Trevor Project non-profit found that 45% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered suicide in 2021. Ninety-three percent of surveyed transgender and nonbinary youth said that they've worried about transgender people being denied access to gender-affirming medical care due to state or local laws, according to the survey.

DeBernardo said that policies like that of the Diocese of Des Moines not only "harm" students, but also "harm the church" because it incentivizes people to break away from Catholicism.

A spokesperson for the Diocese of Des Moines told Insider that its "gender identity" policy is the result of the work of a task force put together by Bishop William Joensen.

The diocese said parish and school leaders asked Joensen "to provide guidance on how they should welcome and minister to those coping with gender dysphoria while following Catholic Church teaching."

Joensen "composed a task force for this purpose, and after two years of study, prayer, listening and consultation, a policy was developed that begins with love," the spokesperson said.

However, the policy is anything but love, according to advocates.

"This policy could have deadly consequences in the name of an ideological concern," said Keenan Crow, the policy and advocacy director of the non-profit One Iowa. "We know that when people are constantly misgendered, their risk for adverse mental health outcomes goes up."

If the diocese was "really trying to discern what would be best for folks, I would think that their health, their mental health, their well-being would be top on the list," Crow said.

"Unfortunately, it does not seem to be," said Crow.