Most of the session, I have shared all the budget woes and extreme cuts to public services including health care, public safety, and infrastructure. And those awful bills continue to come, but some particularly offensive and oppressive bills have finally hit the Senate where I have had to confront hateful, ugly attitudes that are harming the LGBTQ community.
H752 and H822 are bad bills in a series of even worse bills that erode individual freedoms, particularly for those who do not conform to narrow legislative definitions of gender or sexual orientation.
Once again, these bills do NOTHING to address the significant challenges confronting Idahoans—skyrocketing gas, beef, and grocery prices, unaffordable housing, a lack of child care, and limited access to medical care, in particular due to the criminalization of medicine by the legislature.
Instead of focusing on these real problems, the GOP controlled legislature is preoccupied — obsessed — with legislation that affects a mere 0.4 percent of the population. Over the past six years, this legislature has introduced or passed 23 bills targeting the LGBTQ+ community, with 17 directly impacting trans people. If all bills introduced this session were to pass, that number would climb to 30.
Yet, they repeatedly ignore the significant opposition these bills receive!
H752 — a bigoted bill that criminalizes trans people who “knowingly and willfully” use a “public accommodation,” like a restroom, if it doesn’t coincide with their sex designated at birth.
- 304 Total signed in
- 256 were Opposed
- 48 were in Favor
- 85% Opposition
H822 — criminalizes medical providers, counselors, and teachers who don’t tell a parent or guardian within 72 hours if a minor confides in them about using a different nickname, pronoun or other social transition or if they support a child’s “social transition.”
- 226 Total signed in
- 216 were Opposed
- 8 were in Favor
- 95% Opposition
And in the case of H752 there was only 22 minutes of testimony allowed!!!!!! SHAMEFUL.
So, only a handful of people were able to testify, which makes the process a farce and flies in the face of what “the people” deserve in their government.
Public Testimony Should Matter
Public testimony is one of the most important ways Idahoans participate in their government.
- It is time taken off work.
- It is rearranging schedules.
- It is choosing to show up and speak, sometimes about deeply personal experiences.
When hundreds of people engage at this level, we have a responsibility to listen carefully, yet we continue to just gloss over people and their views and just vote according to predetermined doctrine.
The Bigger Concern
What we are seeing this session is a pattern. Bills with significant social and legal implications are moving forward despite substantial public concern. We should not be rushing through legislation that has this kind of impact without fully understanding the consequences.”
That puts us in a position where we risk:
- Undermining trust in the legislative process
- Passing policies that do not reflect the lived realities of Idahoansa
- Creating legal and financial consequences that could have been avoided
We should be slowing down. Asking better questions. Making sure we fully understand the impact before moving forward. We can do better than this. Idahoans deserve thoughtful, careful policymaking — not rushed decisions on deeply personal issues.”
What We Heard
Testifiers came forward from all walks of life. Parents. Students. Professionals. Community members. People sharing lived experiences. People trying to understand how these policies would impact their families.
Across both bills, several themes consistently emerged:
- Concerns about government overreach into personal and private matters
- Questions about how these laws would actually be enforced in real world settings
- Impacts to safety, dignity, and privacy
- The risk of unintended consequences for vulnerable populations
- Potential legal challenges and costs to the state
Even among those who supported aspects of the bills, there were important questions about implementation and real world impact. We are talking about real people, real families, and real consequences, not theoretical policy.
H752 is an especially egregious affront because it ironically utilizes the very definition of “public accommodations” found in the Idaho Human Rights Act. This means we are citing the Human Rights Act—the very legislation that prohibits discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations—within a measure that is inherently discriminatory.
In 2015, this legislature was very close to enacting laws that would have prevented discrimination against gay and transgender people in housing, employment, and public accommodations. Now, 11 years later, we are instead creating laws that actively discriminate against these same groups—the exact opposite of what was previously considered.
Proponents claim bills like H752 increase safety for women and girls.
However, 2025 research from UCLA School of Law analyzed reports of violent victimization by strangers nationwide and found no evidence that such victimization increased in places where transgender people could legally use restrooms matching their gender identity.
It is sickening to see the safety of women being used as a discriminatory excuse against transgender people. This tactic echoes the rhetoric employed during the Jim Crow era and the horrific history of lynching Black men in America.
The real threat of violence women and girls face is not from strangers in public restrooms, but overwhelmingly from people they know, primarily in intimate partner relationships. According to the CDC 1 in 4 women will experience sexual or physical violence from someone she knows. In Idaho, this translates to over 250,000 women and girls—enough to fill eight BSU football stadiums.
If the goal is truly to protect women and girls, we must address the root causes of this endemic violence – patriarchal power and control. Passing bills that enshrine the “traditional family,” creating non-scientific definitions of sex and gender, introducing bills to end gay marriage, etc. Instead, bills like these misdirect our focus, perhaps to avoid confronting our own uncomfortable truths about traditional culture that is saturated with sexism, racism, and homophobia.
These bills continue to alienate our citizens and compel them to seek opportunities elsewhere, fleeing Idaho for safer places to live. True freedom requires compassion, honesty, and tolerance, allowing every individual to live authentically and choose their own path in our state.