BOISE, Idaho — This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press.
A federal judge allowed Idaho’s “transgender bathroom law” to go into effect Thursday after it had temporarily been blocked. The law requires public schools to only allow students to use bathrooms and changing facilities that correspond to their biological sex and implements a civil penalty for districts that don’t.
Chief U.S. District Court Judge David Nye denied the state’s motion to dismiss the case challenging the law but said that there would be no injunction, so the statute will go into effect 21 days from the decision, according to court documents.
The law has been criticized as discriminatory against transgender students.
“This is a difficult case,” Nye wrote in the decision. “Each of the parties before the Court seek to protect important individual rights. The critical question, however, is what happens when individuals’ rights converge and those rights struggle to co-exist?”
SB 1100 requires schools to make accommodations for students who cannot or don’t want to use the bathroom that corresponds to their biological sex. The lawsuit was brought by a 12-year-old transgender girl in the Boise School District and the Sexuality and Gender Alliance, a student organization representing LGBTQ students.
A previous decision temporarily halted the law from going into effect, opting to maintain the status quo in the state pending a more complete review.”
The bill was drafted by the Idaho Family Policy Center, which describes itself as a “pro-family Christian ministry.”
"All students — but especially our girls — deserve safety in vulnerable places like school bathrooms, changing rooms, and showers,” policy center president Blaine Conzatti said in a press release. “We’re thrilled that the federal judge agreed with what we’ve been saying all along—that this law is constitutionally sound and protects the privacy rights of all students."
Nye wrote in his decision that legal precedent shows the state has a legitimate interest in protecting privacy when it comes to bathrooms and other changing facilities. However, there is no evidence that a transgender student has engaged in behavior that infringes on others’ privacy — a fact neither side disputed, the court writes.
“The issue is not whether any transgender student has affirmatively done anything — good, bad, or otherwise — to another student,” Nye wrote. "The issue is whether a student must, against his or her wishes, be forced to change (or undertake other private duties) in the presence of someone of the opposite sex — even if the person of the opposite sex is doing nothing invasive, dangerous, or threatening.”
He wrote that SB 1100 is based on sex and not gender identity and that it doesn’t inherently discriminate against transgender students.
Lawyers representing the plaintiffs disagree.
“This ruling puts transgender students directly in harm’s way by stigmatizing them as outsiders in their own communities and depriving them of the basic ability to go about their school day like everyone else,” Lambda Legal Senior Counsel Peter Renn said in an emailed statement. “For years, transgender students have been able to use restrooms consistent with their gender at many schools across Idaho, without causing harm to anyone else. This law was always a solution in search of a problem. The vast majority of courts ruling on similar discriminatory laws have struck them down, and the court’s decision here is an outlier that fails to respect the equal dignity of transgender students.”
The judge didn’t find the plaintiffs likely enough to succeed in their claims that he would continue the injunction, but he said their arguments weren’t meritless, which is why he denied the motion to dismiss. The challenge against the law will continue to be argued in court.
This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press, read more on IdahoPress.com.
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