New Idaho legislation that goes into effect in July will make it a crime for transgender people to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity.
The law makes it a misdemeanor for someone to “knowingly and willingly” enter a restroom or changing room designated for someone of the opposite sex. A second conviction within five years results in a felony charge that could carry up to a five-year prison sentence.
Proponents say the legislation protects women and girls. But critics say it creates unsafe conditions and criminalizes transgender people for existing in public.
Myndie VanHorn is a founding member of Chroma LCV, a nonprofit that aims to support LGBTQ+ people.
She said she worries the law will encourage harassment of transgender people and, in some cases, people who are not transgender.
“(A woman) who's dressed in more masculine clothing, with short hair, going into a female restroom can be questioned,” she said. “I don't think that there's anything in this bill that is dealing with that.”
Over the past year, multiple cisgender women in other states — that is, women whose gender identity aligns with her sex assigned at birth — have reported being confronted by law enforcement and members of the public for using a women’s restroom. That included an 18-year-old in Minnesota, a 19-year-old in Phoenix, and a lesbian couple in Boston.
In addition to opposition from LGBTQ+ advocates, the legislation, which was signed by Gov. Brad Little on Transgender Day of Visibility, was opposed by some law enforcement officials, including the Idaho Fraternal Order of Police.
Its president, Bryan Lovell, wrote in a statement to legislators that there was no clear way for the law to be enforced without officers “engaging in questioning or investigative actions that could be viewed as invasive and inappropriate.”
Police in Moscow and Lewiston said they were reviewing the law and were not in a position to make a statement on how it would be enforced in the near future.
One nonprofit, Trans Affirm, posted on social media that it has started compiling a list of safe bathrooms for transgender people in Idaho.
Kathy Sprague is the co-founder of the Moscow-based drag performance group TabiKat Productions and board president of Inland Oasis, a nonprofit that supports LGBTQ+ people.
She said she feels the legislation is harmful. Sprague said it would waste taxpayer dollars if it is challenged in court, as she believes it will be.
“(Legislators) need to do some self-reflection because this is harmful, it's divisive, and it's a f---ing waste of everyone's time,” she said.
VanHorn, who hosts a monthly meetup for LGBTQ+ people at her business, said at least one person who attends that event has told VanHorn the legislation makes her hesitant to shop in Idaho.
“I mean, just to be able to go relieve yourself — the potential for a felony count for just going to a bathroom is — that's rough,” VanHorn said.
Research published in 2017 by the National Policing Institute, a nonpartisan and independent nonprofit organization, reviewed cases of sexual assaults in public accommodations where existing laws protected transgender people using the bathroom of their choice.
It found no evidence of sexual assaults taking place in which men, under the guise of being women or transgender, entered women’s bathrooms to commit a sexual assault or otherwise victimize women.
However, a 2015 survey of transgender people by the National Center for Transgender Equality found that one in eight, or 12%, of respondents were verbally harassed, physically attacked or sexually assaulted when accessing or using a restroom in the past year.
