Another state has taken action against the growing trend, under the guise of “inclusion,” to allow students who identify as transgender to use public school restrooms that do not correspond with their biological sex.
The Idaho state legislature advanced Senate Bill 1100 and Republican Gov. Brad Little signed the measure into effect last week. In addition to school bathrooms, other gender-specific facilities — including locker rooms, showers, dressing rooms, and sleeping quarters — are subjected to the same ban.
As the number of transgender children grows, so do efforts — almost exclusively in GOP-led states — to protect students. Legislation similar to Idaho’s new law has been passed in various U.S. states, including recently in Arkansas and Iowa.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders is making sure women are the only people using women's bathroomshttps://t.co/MDnxoQBsDG
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 22, 2023
Some LGBT activists insist that there is no difference between someone who identifies as a particular gender and someone who was born with that gender’s characteristics, but the Idaho bill clarifies: “There are real and inherent physical differences between men and women.”
Citing the “natural right to privacy and safety” to which students are entitled, the recently enacted law bans exposure to individuals of the opposite sex “in a partial or full state of undress.”
Among the potential issues that could arise from allowing trans students to disrobe in the presence of students of another biological sex, the legislation asserts, are “embarrassment, shame, and psychological injury” and an increased “likelihood of sexual assault, molestation, rape, voyeurism, and exhibitionism.”
Therefore, lawmakers and the governor have determined that schools statewide should abide by the “long-standing and widespread practice” of providing facilities separated by biological sex, which SB 1100 states is “protected by federal law, state law, and case law.”
State Rep. Ted Hill, also a Republican, sponsored the bill and defended its contents in a statement to CNN.
“The most important part of this legislation was to recognize the rights of everyone,” he said.
Hill noted that his intention was to provide an environment where girls and boys alike could “be safe and secure in a place where they are most vulnerable.”
The law provides students with legal recourse if they are exposed to someone of the opposite sex while in one of the protected facilities. If successful in court, the resulting lawsuit can provide up to $5,000 in damages per incident.
