Bathroom bill advances
BOISE — The Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee approved a bill Monday criminalizing transgender individuals who use the restroom, locker room or shower room that aligns with their gender identity.
The legislation is one of several efforts brought forward by legislators this session to restrict what facilities a transgender person can use.
House Bill 752, which passed out of the House with a 54-15 margin last week, would make it illegal for anyone to “knowingly and willfully” enter a bathroom or locker room of the opposite sex with limited exceptions. A first violation of the bill constitutes a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail, while subsequent violations are felonies punishable by up to 5 years in jail.
Sen. Ben Toews, R-Coeur d’Alene, who sponsored the bill, said the legislation was a matter of protecting Idahoans’ safety.
“Private spaces such as restrooms, changing areas and showers are sex-separated for a reason,” Toews said. “Individuals in these vulnerable settings have a reasonable expectation of privacy and security.”
The bill includes 10 different exceptions allowing for entry into the opposite-sex bathroom. Those include the performance of custodial duties, rendering medical assistance, providing coaching or training during athletic events, assisting a minor child accompanied by a family member or legal guardian of the denoted sex, and entering a restroom when it is the only facility available, and a person is in “dire need of urinating or defecating."
Sen. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, echoing a concern voiced by the Idaho Fraternal Order of Police, questioned how law enforcement would assess whether there was a “dire” need to use the restroom to align with the bill’s exceptions.
“I have the utmost faith in law enforcement to make the judgment call of whether this was necessary,” Toews said.
Tara Townsell, a resident of Nampa, said the legislation, at its core, creates criminal penalties for simply “existing in a restroom,” without any crime needing to occur.
Townsell, who said she has had the same short-haired appearance for more than 20 years, described instances of being removed from restrooms and needing to show her ID to prove she was in the right restroom. She also recalled being initially denied entry to the maternity ward of a Boise hospital despite being nine months pregnant.
“HB 752 will not make bathrooms safer,” Townsell said, “it will only perpetuate violence and harm.”
Robert Gillis, speaking on behalf of nonprofit group Idaho Tough on Crime, said that while there are existing laws around exposure and prowling, there is no statute “giving women standing inside bathrooms.”
Speaking to what is already occurring in Idaho, Gillis referred to several instances of men charged with placing cameras in women’s bathrooms in cases spanning from Coeur d’Alene to Boise. In each of the cases Gillis mentioned, however, these individuals were prosecuted under existing Idaho statutes.
Carolyn Blackhurst, a Boise resident, spoke against the legislation and said her godson had recently left the state because they no longer felt safe in Idaho in the wake of legislation targeting transgender individuals.
“I am not afraid to share a bathroom with a transgender woman,” Blackhurst said.
Sen. James Ruchti, D-Pocatello, noted that problems voiced by committee members and the public had already been addressed by current statute.
“If we’re gonna do this, let’s just do it, say why we’re doing it,” Ruchti said. “‘As trans people, we prefer that they have separate but equal bathrooms’ — I don’t think that sounds very good."
In a voice vote, the committee sent the legislation to the floor with a “do pass” recommendation. Wintrow and Ruchti, the two Democrats on the committee, both voiced opposition.