Criminal transgender bathroom ban is only state law that extends to private businesses, and has steeper penalties than others, ACLU says
Six transgender Idahoans on Thursday sued to attempt to prevent from going into effect a new state law that criminalizes transgender people using bathrooms that align with their gender identity, including in private businesses.
The lawsuit is challenging House Bill 752, which passed the Idaho Legislature this year with support from only Republicans and was signed into law by Gov. Brad Little. The law takes effect July 1.
“H.B. 752 presents transgender Idahoans with an impossible choice: use a restroom that does not align with their gender identity and risk severe physical and psychological harms, or continue to use restrooms in public in accordance with their gender identity and risk a criminal record and imprisonment,” the lawsuit argues. “This law upends public life not only for transgender Idahoans but for everyone who uses public restrooms in Idaho.”
Idaho’s new law will create criminal charges for people who “knowingly and willfully” enter a bathroom or changing room designated for the opposite sex, with some exceptions. The bill would apply in government-owned buildings and places of public accommodations, like private businesses.
A first offense carries a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in prison. A second offense within five years is a felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.
The lawsuit argues that Idaho’s bathroom ban violates due process and equal protection rights in the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment. The lawsuit asks a federal judge to stop the law’s restrictions on transgender people’s bathroom access.
The suing transgender Idahoans are represented by attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU’s Idaho chapter and Lambda Legal. The lawsuit seeks class-action protections for all transgender people whose bathroom access will be restricted by the new law.
The ACLU says that Idaho’s bathroom ban is the only state ban that extends to private businesses — and that Idaho’s ban has the steepest penalties out of the three states that have criminal bathroom bans.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court against Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador and county prosecutors. In a statement, Idaho Attorney General’s Office spokesperson Damon Sidur said “We look forward to defending the law.”
How one transgender woman is bracing for the law
One of the people suing, Emilie Jackson-Edney, is a 77-year-old transgender woman who has lived in Idaho her entire life, the lawsuit says. People perceive her as a female, and call her ma’am, the lawsuit says. For 20 years, she has used the women’s bathroom in public “without issue,” the lawsuit says.
She worries about her safety if she complies with the new law, the lawsuit says.
“She fears that if she were to walk into a space designated for men, it would immediately cause attention and disruption,” the lawsuit says. “She would be worried that she could be exposed to violence by being perceived as a woman in an all-male space or being perceived as a transgender woman because of the law’s new requirements.”
If the law goes into effect, the lawsuit says Jackson-Edney “plans to decrease her time spent in public to reduce the need to use public restrooms,” and she “plans to drink less water and eat less to ensure that she would not need to use public restrooms.”
Republicans say bill protects women, girls, but police say law would be hard to enforce
In debate over the bill, several Republican lawmakers who supported the bill said it was meant to protect women and girls.
“It prevents discomfort and voyeurism escalation and assaults, while preserving single-user options and narrow exceptions so no one is denied access for emergency aid,” said bill sponsor Rep. Cornel Rasor, a Republican from Sagle.
But Sen. Ron Taylor, a Democrat from Hailey, told senators in debate that the bill is about discrimination. He said constituents told him that they’d move out of Idaho if it passed because it would throw their transgender children in jail.
The bill was opposed during the legislative session by some law enforcement groups and several transgender Idahoans.
A 2025 study by the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute found “no evidence of increased harms to people who are not transgender when transgender people are allowed to use restrooms and other gendered facilities according to their identity.” But when trans people are refused access to facilities that align with their gender, the study found that trans people report verbal harassment and physical assault.
The bill builds on a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that the Legislature and governor have approved in recent years.
The bill outlines several exceptions, including to give medical assistance, law enforcement assistance, and if someone “is in dire need of urinating or defecating and such facility is the only facility reasonably available at the time of the person’s use.”
The Idaho Fraternal Order of Police flagged that exception as concerning.
“Officers responding to a complaint would be placed in the difficult position of determining an individual’s biological sex in order to enforce the statute,” Idaho Fraternal Order of Police President Bryan Lovell wrote. “In many circumstances, there is no clear or reasonable way for officers to make that determination without engaging in questioning or investigative actions that could be viewed as invasive and inappropriate.”
Three states — Utah, Florida and Kansas — have criminal bans on trans people using bathrooms that align with their gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group.
This article was written by Kyle Pfannenstiel of the Idaho Capital Sun.