Federal Judge Blocks Idaho’s Trans Restroom Ban
Idaho’s law is similar to laws in at least eight other states that have passed laws in recent years barring transgender students from using school facilities matching their gender identity — although it does not go as far as laws in North Dakota and Florida that go beyond schools to prohibit transgender people from accessing gender-affirming restrooms in some or all government buildingsHowever, Idaho’s law does contain what critics have called a “bounty” — in which cisgender students and their parents may sue schools for up to $5,000 if they find a transgender student using facilities that do not match that student’s assigned sex at birth.
As a result, the plaintiffs have claimed, the law encourages people to seek out and harass transgender students in the hope of finding them violating the law in exchange for a monetary award.Under the now-blocked law, schools would have been required to provide a “reasonable accommodation” for transgender students unwilling or unable to use restrooms matching their assigned sex at birth.
But the plaintiffs in the case have argued that those accommodations are “often inferior to the facilities used by others, located in less accessible locations, and stigmatizing for them to use,” reports NBC News.A similar situation occurred in the case of Virginia transgender student Gavin Grimm, who was forced to use a toilet in a modified broom closet after his local school district barred him from using the boys’ restroom.
The office of Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador has not commented publicly on the ruling, although it is expected to appeal the injunction, in the hope of having the law take effect while the court challenge continues.Lawyers for the plaintiffs praised the injunction as a.
