Idaho Republicans Seek To Make Transgender Restroom Use A Felony

Idaho governor Brad Little on Tuesday signed a bill that would provide criminal penalties for anyone who uses a restroom based on their gender identity, and not necessarily their biological sexual orientation.

Little signed House Bill 752, which states that no one can “knowingly and willfully” enter a restroom or changing facility that does not align with one’s sex assigned at birth in a government building or place of public accommodation.

A first offense is punishable by up to one year in jail. A second conviction within five years can be charged as a felony, carrying a potential sentence of up to five years in prison.

While the state legislature offered exemptions, such as for emergency response, medical assistance, or when no reasonable alternative facility is available, transgender activists see the state’s GOP’s moves criminalizing trans people.

Only three states — Utah, Florida and Kansas —  have criminal bans on trans people using bathrooms that align with their gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group. 

Idaho’s GOP-controlled state government has also pushed for restrictions that would limit flags celebrating gay pride on government property,

While gay rights advocates railed against the bill, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) also opposed the bill’s passage with the group’s president writing to the legislature explaining law enforcement could now be put into “the difficult position of determining an individual’s biological sex in order to enforce the statute.”

Idaho Republicans claim the bill is designed to protect women and children and assist privacy rights. But GOP state leaders seemed uninterested, gay activists say, in explain how trans individuals threatened women and children in the state in the first place.

The bill passed the state Senate and House by majority vote.

Minus court intervention, the law takes effect July 1.