Idaho state lawmakers are considering a bill that would make it a felony for trans-identified people to use restrooms that do not correspond to their birth sex.
Other states have passed similar laws, but this bill goes further than those other states have implemented, according to NBC News:
Idaho lawmakers are considering a bill that would make it a crime for transgender people to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity — even inside privately owned businesses.
At least 19 states, including Idaho, already have laws barring transgender people from using bathrooms and changing rooms that align with their gender in schools and, in some cases, other public places. The LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Movement Advancement Project’s tracking of the laws shows that three other states — Florida, Kansas and Utah — have made it a criminal offense in some circumstances to violate the bathroom laws.
But none of the others apply as broadly to private businesses as the Idaho bill, which covers any “place of public accommodation,” meaning any business or facility that serves the public. The state’s Republican supermajority Senate is expected to vote on the bill this week, deciding whether to send it to Gov. Brad Little’s desk.
Idaho will become the first state to criminalize men in women’s locker rooms. I co-wrote HB 752 with Cornel Rasor. It just passed committee to head to the senate floor. Already passed the House. #idpol #idleg
— Scott Herndon (@HerndonforIdaho) March 23, 2026
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If the law is passed, anyone who enters a bathroom or locker room labeled for the opposite sex could face felony charges and up to a year in jail for a misdemeanor first offense. A second offense could land someone in prison for up to five years.
The measure carves out an exception for those who are in “dire need” and that restroom “is the only one that is reasonably available at the time.”
Republican state Sen. Ben Toews told a Senate committee that these areas “are sex-separated for a reason” and that people “in these vulnerable settings have a reasonable expectation of privacy and security.”
Idaho Senate Judiciary Committee just advanced House Bill 752 — a bill that would make it a crime for biological males to enter women’s restrooms, locker rooms, or changing facilities in government buildings and public places.
— CURE (@CUREpolicy) March 26, 2026
First offense: misdemeanor (up to 1 year).
Repeat…
Critics argue that the measure would be dangerous and difficult to enforce. The Idaho Fraternal Order of Police and the Idaho Chiefs of Police Association said it would place officers in “impossible positions” by forcing them to visually determine a person’s sex or assess whether they were in “dire need” of a restroom.
Idaho passed a bill making it a felony for transgender people to use bathrooms. It will pass in the state senate. It will set a fresh precedent in making public spaces illegal for people based upon their appearance
— Miss Gender (@girldrawsghosts) March 17, 2026
Cís people will, of course, ignore it.https://t.co/KFO99A9w2R
Sheriffs urged lawmakers to at least require that suspected violators be asked to leave before calling the authorities.
Civil rights advocates point out that the “dire need” exception is unrealistic. Heron Greenesmith of the Transgender Law Center said, “How does one prove that one was going to poop on the floor?” and pointed out that the rules are meant to “make it untenable to go to the movies, to go to the doctor, to go to the bank.”
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