Transgender

Last March, the Idaho Legislature passed a bill that sets new bathroom policy for Idaho public schools. It requires that students must use the bathroom or locker room that corresponds with the gender they were assigned at birth. The law went into effect in July, but was paused by a district judge last month while a lawsuit works its way through the courts.

Last month, Oregon Rep. Charlie Conrad was the sole Republican state lawmaker to vote in favor of House Bill 2002, which would further protect access to abortion and expand insurance coverage for gender-affirming care.

In an official letter sent to the Department of Health and Welfare, Gov. Brad Little said he doesn’t think state Medicaid should pay for gender-affirming care for adults.

The law, which takes effect July 1, is among dozens of Republican proposals pushing back against transgender rights in statehouses across the U.S.

The Idaho legislature is responding to a policy proposal around LGBTQ+ students in the Caldwell School District with a bill restricting school bathroom use to align with biological sex.

“This idea that children are the vulnerable spot – the way to go after the LGBTQ community – is really taking hold,” says Olivia Hunt, the policy director at the National Center for Transgender Equality.

The mid-October arrest of a Boise man, accused of assault including the use of his vehicle as a weapon, garnered plenty of media attention. A short time later, he was also accused of burning a Pride flag that had been flying outside a Boise home. But what was not widely known at the time of the arrest of Matthew Lehigh, was that his first alleged assault was on a transgender woman at her workplace – the Boise Downtown Public Library.

Among survey respondents across the eight states that make up the Mountain West, about 67% support policies that protect trans individuals from discrimination in jobs, housing or in public spaces. That's compared to 64% nationwide.

Note: the following story contains a mention of self-harm.In May, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request by the State of Idaho, the latest turn in a…

In July, a transgender woman in Idaho will make history. Adree Edmo will become the first trans inmate in the nation to receive gender confirmation…