A sweeping Idaho bill would criminalize transgender bathroom use in private businesses

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

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 barring transgender people from using bathrooms and changing rooms that align with their gender in schools and, in some cases, other public places. The LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Movement Advancement Project’s tracking of the laws shows that three other states — Florida, Kansas and Utah — have made it a criminal offense in some circumstances to violate the bathroom laws.

But none of the others apply as broadly to private businesses as the Idaho bill, which covers any “place of public accommodation,” meaning any business or facility that serves the public. The state’s Republican supermajority Senate is expected to vote on the bill this week, deciding whether to send it to Gov. Brad Little’s desk.

If the law is passed, anyone who enters a public facility like a bathroom or locker room designated for the opposite sex could be sentenced to a year in jail for a misdemeanor first offense, or up to five years in prison for a felony second offense. That’s a longer sentence than Idaho imposes for a first drunken driving conviction or for displaying offensive sexual material in public.

Protecting those spaces is a “matter of safety” and “decency,” said Republican Sen. Ben Toews told a Senate committee last week.