BOISE, ID – Two bills introduced Friday would expand Idaho laws that restrict bathroom access for transgender people and other people whose gender doesn’t align with their birth sex.

One bill, from Rep. Cornel Rasor, would make it a crime for someone to use a restroom, locker room or shower that doesn’t align with their “biological sex.”

The other bill, from the Idaho Family Policy Center, would allow citizens to sue operators of public restrooms — both government agencies and private businesses — that don’t take “reasonable steps” to separate bathrooms based on “biological sex.”

The House State Affairs Committee introduced both bills, setting the stage for future public hearings.

Criminal penalties

Rasor’s bill would make it a misdemeanor for someone to “knowingly and willingly” enter a public restroom that doesn’t align with their “biological sex.” A second offense within five years after the first conviction would be a felony.

“Single-sex facilities have long existed to safeguard female privacy, safety and bodily autonomy from male presence in vulnerable settings,” said Rasor, R-Sagle.

The restrictions would apply to government-owned buildings and places of “public accommodation.” State law defines this latter group as “a business, accommodation, refreshment, entertainment, recreation, or transportation facility of any kind … whose goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages or accommodations are extended, offered, sold, or otherwise made available to the public.”

Rasor said the bill expands on Senate Bill 1100 from 2023. The earlier bill created a “civil cause of action” allowing parents of public school children to sue their school if it allows transgender students to use restrooms or locker rooms that don’t align with their biological sex.

House State Affairs voted 10-3 to introduce the new bill. Rep. Stephanie Mickelsen, R-Idaho Falls, joined the panel’s two Democrats in opposition.

Rep. Monica Church, a Boise Democrat, said the bill criminalizes being in a restroom, even when no other wrongdoing has been committed.

“They have not done anything. They are just in a room,” she said. “We have laws … about peeping Toms, about assault, about rape, about all those things.”

Civil cause of action

The other new bill would create a new civil liability for operators of public restrooms that don’t take “reasonable steps” to separate them by biological sex.

The legislation wouldn’t affect public schools, which SB 1100 already covers. But it would apply a similar “cause of action” to other government buildings and to places of public accommodation.

Sponsoring Rep. Ted Hill, R-Eagle, referred to a recent incident at a Sandpoint YMCA, where a female lifeguard said a “biological male” used the women’s locker room.

The Family Policy Center, a Christian lobbying group, co-authored SB 1100 along with a pending bill that would block local governments from having stricter anti-discrimination policies than the state.

“Now we’re ready to finish the work of protecting every woman in all public buildings — ensuring that they never feel unsafe as a result of biological men invading their restrooms and locker rooms,” center President Blaine Conzatti said in a news release Friday.