BOISE, IDAHO – Idaho lawmakers are considering a bill that would make it a crime for transgender people to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity — even inside privately owned businesses.
At least 19 states, including Idaho, already have laws prohibiting transgender people from using bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender in schools and, in some cases, other public places. The LGBTQ+ Movement Advancement Project’s tracking of laws shows that three other states — Florida, Kansas Utah – Made violating bathroom laws a criminal offense in some circumstances.
But none of the other laws apply to private businesses as broadly as Idaho’s bill, which covers any “place of public accommodation,” meaning any business or facility serving the public. The state’s Republican-majority Senate is expected to vote on the bill this week, deciding whether to send it to Gov. Brad Little’s desk.
If the law passes, anyone entering a public facility such as a bathroom or locker room designated for the opposite sex could be sentenced to one year in prison for a misdemeanor first offense, or up to five years in prison for a second offense. This is a longer sentence than Idaho imposes for a first conviction for driving under the influence or for displaying sexually offensive material in public.
Republican Senator Ben Toews told a Senate committee last week that protecting those spaces is “a matter of safety” and “decency.”
“Private areas like restrooms, changing areas and showers are separated by gender for a reason,” Toews said. “Individuals in these vulnerable environments have reasonable expectations of privacy and security.”
The bill includes several exceptions. Athletic trainers, people who respond to emergencies, people who supervise inmates, guardians, and people who help children who need bathroom assistance obtain a permit. The same applies to someone who is “in dire need” of a bathroom, if the bathroom he or she is using is the only one reasonably available at that time.
Law enforcement groups, including the Idaho Fraternal Order of Police and the Idaho Police Chiefs Association, oppose the bill, which they say would put officers in impossible situations, tasking them with visually determining someone’s biological sex or level of “dire need.” The Idaho Sheriffs’ Association asked lawmakers to first ask any suspected offenders to leave the bathroom before contacting authorities, but lawmakers refused.
Heron Greensmith, deputy policy director at the Transgender Law Center, said the “dire need” exception can be particularly difficult to assert — and that the idea that a person can only use public restrooms in an emergency is dehumanizing.
“How can one prove that he was about to defecate on the floor?” They asked.
John Bueno, a transgender student at the University of Idaho and a member of the student group LGBT Inclusion Association, said the school has plenty of single-use restrooms, which helps mitigate the bill’s logistical impacts. But she said the legislation would likely lead to more unwanted “profiling” of people, whether they are transgender or not.
“This cultural attitude of having other Americans habitually attack each other and do this kind of ‘investigation’ — that’s what these types of bills are promoting,” Bueno said.
Bueno said it all goes back to trying to deprive transgender people of their rights.
“This will increasingly deter LGBT individuals from Idaho universities and the state as a whole,” she said. “And that’s probably the primary goal.”
Nixon Matthews, a transgender man with a beard, told a panel of lawmakers last week that the bill would force him to enter a women’s restroom, where his masculine appearance puts him at risk of aggression from people who think he’s prying.
“It creates a crime — but it’s not based on behavior or harm,” Matthews said. “It depends on presence, and to justify that you have to accept that someone being alone is traumatic and harmful enough to criminalize.”
That could make it harder for transgender people to work, said Boise resident Laura Folgert.
“People might be able to hold it for an hour if they’re at a restaurant for lunch or at a grocery store,” she told lawmakers during a committee hearing. “They can’t be expected to hold it for a full eight hours.”
That’s the point of these types of laws, Greensmith said, “to make it unacceptable to go to the movies, or to go to the doctor, or to go to the bank.”
Supporters say that’s not the case.
Sandpoint resident Susan Tapert said the bill is about “maintaining clear, enforceable boundaries” so women and children feel safe.
“If we lose the ability to protect based on biological sex, we lose our most effective tool for preventing harassment, voyeurism and other sexual crimes before they happen,” she said.
She later continued: “This legislation is not about how an individual identifies, nor does it seek to target or offend the transgender community. Rather, it supports a global standard for privacy.”
Bathrooms aren’t the only place where lawmakers are imposing restrictions on transgender people in the name of protecting women and girls. At least 25 states prohibit transgender women and girls from participating in certain women’s and girls’ sports competitions. At least 27 states have laws restricting or prohibiting gender-affirming care for minors.
Expand all of these policies President Donald Trump’s prioritiesalso.
only Arrests were widely reported A person accused of violating transgender bathroom restrictions was part of a protest in Florida last year.
___ Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, New Jersey.