BOISE, ID – Two transgender persons filed a federal lawsuit Friday, challenging a 2025 Idaho law restricting the use of gender-specific campus facilities.
The lawsuit centers on House Bill 264, which requires colleges and universities to designate restrooms, changing rooms and dormitories “for the exclusive use by either females or males.”
The plaintiffs are a transgender student at Boise State University who identifies as male, and a transgender person who spends significant time on the University of Idaho campus and identifies as female. Their lawsuit specifically challenges the restroom restrictions.
They say the two campuses have only a small number of restrooms that are open to all users, regardless of sex. They say they have used restrooms aligned to their gender identity, for years, and without incident. If they are forced to use restrooms consistent with their sex assigned at birth, the plaintiffs say they would be outed as transgender in their campus communities.
“HB 264, if it remains in effect at the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year, will prohibit BSU and U of I from allowing plaintiffs to continue using restrooms that align with their gender identities and how they are perceived on campus,” the lawsuit says.
The Boise State student plaintiff is not “out as transgender to most people on campus,” according to a statement filed with the federal court last week.
“It would be impossible for me to use the women’s restrooms, as I appear and sound male,” the student said. “I believe it would put me at risk for harassment and violence to enter a restroom designated for females.”
The second plaintiff — identified in court documents by the pseudonym Sophie Smith — is seeking to pursue the lawsuit anonymously. “Sophie frequently uses the women’s restrooms at U of I without incident,” according to the lawsuit. “She does so with the permission of administrators, to whom she previously came out as transgender.”
The lawsuit claims HB 264 violates the plaintiffs’ rights to equal protection and privacy under the 14th Amendment; violates federal workplace protections; and violates Title IX, which forbids discrimination in schools on the basis of sex.
The lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order by Aug. 25, the first day of classes at Boise State and the U of I.
The lawsuit names a list of defendants: the State Board of Education and its members; state superintendent Debbie Critchfield; Boise State and interim President Jeremiah Shinn; and the U of I and President C. Scott Green.
HB 264’s legislative sponsor went onto social media Sunday to predict the lawsuit will fail.
Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, argues that the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has allowed Idaho’s 2023 K-12 bathroom law to go into effect. This law prohibits transgender students from using bathrooms aligned with their gender identity.
The 2025 law, Ehardt said in a Facebook comment, “is EXACTLY LIKE THAT, just for higher ed!”
Ehardt’s HB 264 passed the Legislature along party lines. Gov. Brad Little signed it into law in April.
Originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org.
