Pride flags, bathroom rules: Idaho laws are ‘frightening,’ trans advocates say

BOISE – Scar Rulien, a 19-year-old Boise State University student, had been taking testosterone for around six months when he entered a women’s bathroom.

Born female, Rulien thought it continued to be his safest option at that point in his transition, he told the Idaho Statesman. But a woman yelled at him for using the restroom and told him he shouldn’t be there, he said.

Rulien has been trying to avoid women’s bathrooms since. All he wants, he said, is to go to the bathroom without fearing for his safety.

Under a new law, he may have to put himself in those uncomfortable situations. House Bill 264, which Gov. Brad Little signed into law, banned people at Idaho colleges and other institutions from using restrooms, dorms and changing rooms that don’t match their biological sex. The law also contains a private cause of action allowing people to sue universities if they encounter someone of the opposite sex in those spaces.

That bill and others were part of what some advocates said was a particularly harsh legislative session for transgender and nonbinary Idahoans.

“A lot of these bills have the side effect of making it harder for trans people to exist in public spaces,” said Rulien, who is a board member of the Idaho nonprofit Trans Affirm. The group works to connect trans people with helpful resources, Rulien said.

Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, cosponsored the bathroom bill and dismissed Rulien’s concerns in an interview with the Idaho Statesman. No one would care if someone who looks like a man goes into a male restroom, she said, adding that she’s concerned with people who are born male using a female restroom.

“Women want our spaces to be private for women,” Ehardt said.

Other bills Idaho lawmakers passed this year that alarmed LGBTQ+ advocates prohibited classroom discussion about gender identity and sexual orientation and prevented flying LGBTQ+ Pride flags in schools.

This legislative session “has been one of the most dehumanizing for our trans and nonbinary siblings and community members,” said Chelsea Gaona-Lincoln, the volunteer executive director of Add The Words, a group focused on advocacy education and connection for Idaho’s LGBTQ+ population.

Idaho has been at the forefront of laws targeting the rights of LGBTQ+ people, and was the first to ban trans female athletes from competing in women’s sports. Lawmakers in recent years also banned puberty blockers and other gender-affirming care for kids, barred public funds like Medicaid from paying for gender-affirming care, and forbid teachers from using pronouns that don’t match students’ assigned sex at birth. Many of the laws have been challenged in court.

Advocate: Bathroom bill exposes trans women to hate crimes

Ehardt made a couple of attempts this year at what LGBTQ+ advocates called the “bathroom bounty bill.” After two failed bills, she introduced House Bill 264 with Sen. Cindy Carlson, R-Riggins, which Little signed into law in April.

The new law takes effect in July and allows people to sue colleges, shelters or correctional facilities if they find themselves in a bathroom or placed in sleeping quarters with someone of the opposite sex.

The law prohibits college students from entering a dorm room that doesn’t match their biological sex and bans all-gender bathrooms, though single-occupancy bathrooms are still allowed.

Some fear the new law will expose trans women to hate crimes when they’re using men’s bathrooms, said Kirsten Strough, board chair at The Community Center, a Boise safe space for LGBTQ+ people.

“It’s scary,” Strough told the Statesman.

It’s unclear how the bill will affect certain colleges’ housing arrangements.

Boise State spokesperson Stephany Galbreaith said the school is still assessing the bill and its impacts on its coed dorms. Boise State’s residence halls are coed by floor, Galbreaith told the Statesman.

Pride incident prompts indecent exposure bill

In some cases, elected officials this year directly cited interactions with transgender people as reasons behind their bills.

That was the case with House Bill 270, which broadened the state’s definition of indecent exposure to include exposing female breasts and male breasts “that have been medically or hormonally altered to appear like developing or developed female breasts.” The bill, which Little signed in March, also banned toys resembling genitals. Indecent exposure is a felony crime.

Nampa City Council Member Sebastian Griffin, who helped bring the bill, in hearings said he saw someone topless in public at Canyon County Pride last year. When Griffin went over to ask police why it was allowed, he said officers told him they couldn’t do anything because the topless person was male.

Griffin told the Statesman the legislation applies to everybody equally.

Nampa Police Deputy Chief Curt Shankel told the Statesman that no officer reported people exposing their full breasts or wearing pasties. After the event, Shankel said he saw photos on social media of one person wearing pasties.

Sen. Brandon Shippy, R- New Plymouth, on the floor said he would vote against the legislation because it affirmed transender people. Shippy did not respond to a request for comment.

Those discussions were prime examples of the anti-trans sentiment from lawmakers, Gaona-Lincoln told the Statesman.

“We have spent a while listening to them continuously demoralize and erase trans and queer people, and just when you think they couldn’t go further,” Gaona-Lincoln said.

Idaho bans Pride flags on public property

Lawmakers also passed House Bill 41 that bans flags like LGBTQ+ flags from flying in schools or public buildings. Boise Mayor Lauren McLean and the city spokesperson told news outlets that the city will continue to fly the Pride flag at City Hall.

The bill’s statement of purpose said it will keep classrooms “comfortable and free from partisan politics.” But critics said it would chill free speech and make students feel less accepted.

Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, said in a debate on the Senate floor that Pride flags can help send a signal to LGBTQ+ students that they are welcome.

“I do fear that this might unintentionally target them and have the impact of further alienating them,” Wintrow said.

Later in the session, lawmakers voted on two resolutions to celebrate “traditional family values month.”

The resolutions defined traditional families as including “a natural mother and father,” and decried the “unprecedented attack” on traditional values and gender roles. The motions were adopted along party lines.

Nicole Leahy, secretary of the board of The Community Center, said seeing the Legislature’s anti-transgender bills this year were “frightening.” Leahy said lawmakers were emboldening people to amp up assaults on the transgender community.

The Idaho House also passed a resolution calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse its decision on same-sex marriage, Obergefell v. Hodges. The bill never made it to the Senate floor.

“Transgender people are human beings,” Leahy said. “We have value. We deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.”