March 31st is the annual Transgender Day of Visibility. It was on that day, as trans Idahoans and their allies held a rally at the state capitol, that Idaho Gov. Butch Otter signed House Bill 752, the nation’s strictest criminalization of bathroom use by transgender people. The ban applies not only to government and public buildings, but also to any private building accommodating the public.
Henceforth, if a transgender person “knowingly and willfully” enters a bathroom or locker room that doesn’t correspond to their sex as an infant, they are committing a misdemeanor that will land them up to a year in jail. Do it a second time (and your first strike can be from any state that bans it) and it’s a felony with up to five years imprisonment.
In jail or prison facilities corresponding to their baby bits, of course.
In the Legislature, there were the debates that included the usual Gem State transphobia, like Sen. Josh Kohl (R-Twin Falls) who opined, “Trans women aren’t women, they’re men and they need to be treated as such.”
Surprisingly, though, there was at least one Idaho Republican with some common sense, Sen. Jim Guthrie (R-Pocatello), who noted, “If they go in the bathroom of their biological sex, they’re going to upset a lot of people and freak people out. If they go in the bathroom that is consistent with their looks — they are knowingly and willingly going into the bathroom — that is breaking the law.”
Exactly! What’s going to happen when busty 5’10” blonde Stephanie in dress and heels saunters on up to urinal in the men’s room? How are the women going to react when a hirsute 5’3″ short king Stephen comes moseying on through the women’s room? Would either restroom’s occupants have even noticed if Stephanie and Stephen had used the restroom they present as?
Furthermore, not every Stephanie and Stephen are trans. What about the cis Roberta who’s got a short haircut and masculine features and cis Robert who’s got soft features and gynecomastia? Cisgender people who aren’t easily recognized as such will also be caught up in these bans.
And finally, as Idaho’s Fraternal Order of Police and Chiefs of Police Association pointed out, who’s going to enforce this thing? Are we going to call cops to the restroom to force Stephanie and Stephen and Robert and Roberta to drop trou? Are they going to be the ones to determine if someone was acting “knowingly and willfully” or if they were covered by one of the law’s many exceptions, such as determining if the restroom was the “only facility reasonably available” or “in dire need of urinating or defecating?”
Can you imagine? “Ma’am, I’m afraid I’m going to need to inspect your genitals. Also, on a scale of one to ten, where one is empty and ten is currently shitting yourself, how badly did you need to defecate?”
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