Passing the House just earlier this week, Idaho House Bill 752 would make it a crime for any transgender person to knowingly and willfully enter the public bathroom that aligns with their gender identity.
Debated for nearly two hours in the Idaho House Judiciary, Rules, and Administration Committee on Monday, the republican Representative Cornell Rasor sponsored bill was approved by house republicans in a 54-15 vote. “This is a simple bill about using the bathroom of your biology,” Rasor states. “It extends these biological sex protections, and it upholds a multigeneration understanding of protecting women and girls.” The bill now heads to the Idaho state senate under republican control, 29-6, for further consideration.
The House-passed Bill would apply to all government buildings and public spaces, including but not limited to gas station rest stops, libraries, restaurants, hospitals, city centers, parks, and other businesses. “Any person who knowingly and willfully enters a restroom or changing room in a government-owned building or place of public accommodation,” The bill declares, “ That is designed for use by the opposite biological sex of such person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and may be imprisoned.”
Idaho’s proposed bill would not only represent one of the strongest restrictions on transgender people in the country but also make those individuals’ very existence a crime. “Say one of the men here walks into the men’s bathroom, and you see me walk into a stall, and you know I’m trans, and since you’re all law-abiding citizens, you’re gonna call 911. You’ll say, ‘Hello 911, there’s a person in the bathroom, they’re peeing right now. I’m scared. please come and arrest them,’ and since this is the best use of police time, they’re gonna zip right over in record speed.
“Think about the situation they’re walking into. I look like a man. Everyone in the restroom sees a bearded man using the men’s bathroom. But the only reason I’m being investigated is because someone knows or thinks that I’m trans. And if that officer decides I violated this law, I could go to jail for up to a year. For peeing, washing my hands, or even being in the bathroom to grab a tissue.” Nikson Matthews, a transgender Idahoan, testifies. “Trans people make up .4% of Idaho’s population. In the past five years, this body has passed 17 laws targeting trans rights. Five this session. So I just ask when is it enough? When do we reach the point when it’s been enough?”
While there have been an innumerable number of transgender bathroom bans across the nation, House Bill 752 would be the first and strictest of its kind, targeting the individual who uses the bathroom rather than the business or agency. Florida currently has similar legislation, under Florida’s safety in private spaces act, those in the transgender community can be charged with a second-degree misdemeanor for using public restrooms that don’t align with their sex assigned at birth, carrying penalties of up to 60 days in jail, accompanied by a $500 fine. Violation of House bill 752, in stark contrast, could lead to a felony conviction for those charged with repeated offenses in a five year period, punishable up to five years in prison, or a year in a county jail for a first occurrence misdemeanor.
Voting no on the bill, democratic Representative Chris Mathias talked about how harmful the bill is. “The truth of the matter is—and I know a lot of people don’t want to say it, but—forcing people who don’t look like the sex that they were born with, or transgender folks, forcing them to use other people’s bathrooms is going to put a lot of people in danger,” says Mathias.
Everyone deserves access to safety and privacy when using the bathroom. There is no evidence that allowing transgender people access to bathrooms aligning with their gender identity jeopardizes safety and privacy, yet this legislation fuels a dangerous and harmful narrative against those minority individuals, allowing for “hate crimes” and discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community to be normalized.
