Republican Idaho Governor Brad Little on Thursday signed Senate Bill 1100 to ban transgender students from using school restrooms for the opposite biological sex.
Idaho television station KMVT 11 reported Monday that the new law will take effect July 1 and will prohibit transgender students in public schools from using restrooms designed for the opposite biological sex, and that restrooms, locker rooms, showers, lockers Room and overnight accommodation will be separate between biological girls and boys.
According to the report, the law requires schools to “make accommodations” for any student who is unable or unwilling to use a multiple-occupancy facility designed for their biological sex, reports NewsMax.
The report states that students applying for accommodation must submit it in writing and must not include facilities used by students of the opposite biological sex.
“Requiring students to share restrooms and changing facilities with members of the opposite biological sex generates potential embarrassment, shame, and psychological injury to students, as well as increasing the likelihood of sexual assault, molestation, rape, voyeurism, and exhibitionism,” the bill signed last week said, reports NewsMax.
Under the new law, students can take legal action against schools that fail to take “reasonable” steps to ensure that people of the opposite sex do not use opposite-sex facilities, according to the report.
CNN reported that such a lawsuit could result in the student who filed the complaint receiving $5,000 from the school system.
“The most important part of this legislation was to recognize the rights of everyone,” Republican state Rep. Ted Hill told CNN in an email. “Recognized the rights for young girls to be safe and secure in a place where they are most vulnerable, same for the boys to be safe and secure where they are most vulnerable, and the rights for everyone else to be safe, secure and comfortable in a place where they are most vulnerable,” reports NewsMax.
Democratic state Senator Rick just told the news that he voted against the bill because of a provision for a private lawsuit against the public school system.
““I don’t believe it’s helpful to encourage citizens to seek damages whenever they feel aggrieved in the slightest way,” he told CNN in an email, reports NewsMax.
According to a CNN report, the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, has criticized the bill’s passage.
“LGBTQ+ people in Idaho deserve the opportunity to live their lives with dignity and respect. Unfortunately, the bills that Gov. Little is signing into law will make life harder on LGBTQ+ folks across the state,” the group’s state legislative director and senior counsel, Cathryn Oakley, said in a statement to CNN. “These bills will not accomplish anything other than to further alienate and stigmatize those already on the margins of life in this state,” reports NewsMax.
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