Idaho passes law requiring teachers to misgender trans students

Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) has signed Idaho House Bill 538, a bill that forbids K-12 educators and college professors from “knowingly and intentionally” addressing transgender students by names and pronouns that differ from their birth certificate. The bill also provides legal protections for educators who deliberately misgender trans students.

Little signed the law this week along with House Bill 421, a law redefining gender as being synonymous with sex. The text of H.B. 421 states, “In human beings, there are two, and only two, sexes: male and female. In no case is an individual’s sex determined by stipulation or self-identification.” Both laws will take effect July 1, according to The Hill.

Related: Univ of Idaho law students allege professor & Christian students make them fear for their lives

The professor and students formed a “prayer circle” around queer students protesting an anti-LGBTQ slur left in a classroom. The queer students say they have continued to harass them – with help from a hate group.

While the laws’ Republican supporters say it’s necessary to protect against “unlawful compelled speech,” Democratic opponents say it will enable unprofessional discrimination against others.

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“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,” Idaho state Rep. Lauren Necochea (D) said. “Respectfully addressing people the way they are asking to be addressed is no different.”

Little has signed at least six transphobic laws, including the nation’s first ban on transgender athletes, a law jailing doctors for 10 years if they provide gender-affirming care, a bathroom ban that allows lawsuits against schools that let trans people use bathrooms matching their gender identity, and a law blocking public funds and Medicaid from being used to provide gender-affirming care to trans people of any age.

Little defended the bill as “protecting minors from surgeries or treatments that can irreversibly damage their healthy bodies” in a letter sent to state legislators yesterday. However, Idaho Democratic Party Chair Rep. Lauren Necochea said, “Governor Little just signed away the rights of loving parents to access the medical care they choose for their children.”

The state’s transphobic legislation defines sex as “immutable biological characteristics at birth,” wholly ignoring the existence of intersex children who have sex traits that aren’t entirely male or female. The legislation also states that the mere presence of trans students might inflict “psychological injury” on cisgender peers and increases “the likelihood of sexual assault, molestation, [and] rape,” trans independent journalist Erin Reed pointed out.

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