BOISE, Idaho — This story originally appeared in The Idaho Press.
The Idaho House voted on party lines Friday on a bill to prevent retribution for state employees or students for not using preferred pronouns; it also prohibits teachers from using transgender or nonbinary students’ preferred pronouns or a different name than their legal name without parental consent.
HB 538 sponsor Rep. Ted Hill, R-Eagle, said the bill is meant to prevent compelled speech, especially for teachers. He said people were getting bullied into being forced to use pronouns of people that are inconsistent with their biological sex.
The bill allows for “any person who is harmed” by a government employer to sue their employer for violation.
“This is a battle line we have to draw,” Hill said. “This is the battle line. It’s First Amendment rights and that’s the whole issue here.”
House Assistant Minority Leader Lauren Necochea, D-Boise, argued the First Amendment isn’t designed to protect employees from acting unprofessional or discriminatory while working.
“We expect our publicly funded employees to adhere to a certain standard of respect and decency, and we expect them to refrain from being unkind, uncivil or discriminatory whether it’s to the public or to their coworkers,” Necochea said. “Respectfully addressing people the way they are asking to be addressed is no different.”
Some said that the bill was necessary because students and teachers were being penalized for unintentionally misgendering students in the hallways.
Rep. Brent Crane, R-Nampa, voted in favor of the bill and said he had asked Hill to include law enforcement in addition to teachers because a police officer he knew said he had confusion when dealing with a subject of an investigation who preferred to go by they/them.
Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, said she had been working on the legislation over the summer because of complaints she’d received. She said it was also important that parents be notified if their child wanted to go by a different pronoun or name.
“A parent needs to be notified, a parent needs to be part of the solution for a child who is having an identity crisis for whatever reason,” Horman said.
The bill states that public school or higher education employees “shall not knowingly and intentionally address an unemancipated minor student by a name other than the student’s legal name or a derivative thereof, or by a preferred personal title or pronoun that is inconsistent with the student’s sex, without the written permission of the student’s parent or guardian.”
Rep. Lori McCann, R-Lewiston, asked if the First Amendment rights of the students who are asking to be called by another name or pronoun are also being protected.
“I believe in constitutional rights,” McCann said. “And I believe that it needs to go both ways.”
Hill responded that people may still opt to use people’s preferred pronouns.
“I will recognize that gender,” Hill said. “I will recognize your pronoun. I’ll do whatever you want, just don’t shove it down my throat and make me do it.
Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates released a statement condemning the passage of the bill, referring to it as the “Don’t Say They Bill.”
HB 538 had been on the House’s third-reading calendar, which is the order of business where votes take place on the floor, since Feb. 19 and has been repeatedly held. Hill began to open debate on the bill on Thursday, but during so he appeared to have a health problem and House Speaker Mike Moyle put the body at ease.
Moyle suggested Hill get medical attention. Hill said Friday on the House floor he had experienced complications due to an existing cancer.
The bill passed 58-11 with one member absent and now goes to the Senate.
This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press, read more on IdahoPress.com.
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