Idaho officials suggested that DNA testing could be used to enforce the state’s transgender bathroom ban, one of the strictest in the nation. The law applies not only to government-owned buildings but to any place of public accommodation, including privately owned businesses.
The law, which has been challenged in federal court by six transgender Idahoans, is set to take effect on July 1. Under its provisions, anyone who enters a bathroom or changing room that does not align with their assigned sex at birth in a place of public accommodation can be charged with a misdemeanor and face up to a year in jail.
Second and third violations can be charged as felonies, carrying penalties of up to five years in prison. A fourth violation can be prosecuted under the state’s “persistent violator” statute, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and a maximum sentence of life in prison. The law also allows convictions under other states’ bathroom laws to count as prior offenses in Idaho, meaning a person with an out-of-state violation could face stiffer penalties for a first offense.
The transgender plaintiffs are seeking class-action protections to prevent the law from barring transgender people from using bathrooms that match their gender identity. However, they are not challenging the law’s restrictions on access to changing rooms, according to the Idaho Capital Sun.
Kell Olson, an attorney with Lambda Legal, which represents the plaintiffs, argued during a court hearing last week that the law threatens the safety of transgender people in Idaho.
“HB 752 does make Idaho less safe for transgender people,” Olson argued before Chief U.S. District Judge Amanda Brailsford. “It threatens serious and immediate harm, no matter what trans people do.”
In court, Idaho Solicitor General Michael Zarian argued that the law reflects a longstanding policy of protecting people’s privacy by preventing their naked bodies from being seen by others, particularly members of the opposite sex, and maintaining sex-separated bathrooms.
“The point is not that transgender people are more likely to commit safety violations. The point is that men in women’s restrooms are more likely to commit safety violations,” Zarian said, arguing that some men falsely claim to be transgender to gain access to women’s spaces.
Zarian argued that the law protects privacy because people are partially unclothed in bathrooms, many of which have gaps between stalls. He also said lawmakers passed the measure in response to incidents around the state in which people reported feeling uncomfortable.
Brailsford pressed lawyers for both sides on how the law would be enforced in practice, suggesting that checking a person’s ID might not be enough to determine whether they were violating it.
Olson, a transgender man, argued that if officers asked for his ID, it would list him as male, even though he was assigned female at birth. Similarly, most of the plaintiffs have state-issued IDs reflecting their gender identity. As a result, even if they were technically violating the law by using bathrooms that align with their gender identity, police would have no obvious way to determine that based solely on their identification.
Zarian argued that enforcing the law could be straightforward “because there is DNA testing.” When Brailsford asked whether a transgender person would have to consent to such testing, Zarian said not necessarily, though he doubted anyone would be asked to undergo DNA testing on the spot.
Olson countered that compelling someone to submit to DNA testing typically requires a warrant.
Zarian also addressed one of the law’s exemptions, which allows people to use bathrooms designated for another sex if they are in “dire need” of using the restroom. Under questioning from Brailsford, he acknowledged that the standard for determining what constitutes “dire need” is vague, but argued that does not mean the law itself is unconstitutionally vague — a central claim in the plaintiffs’ lawsuit.
Ahead of the law’s passage, the president of the Idaho Fraternal Order of Police wrote to lawmakers warning that the measure would place officers in the difficult position of determining a person’s biological sex in order to arrest suspected violators — a task that could require questioning or investigative actions that “could be viewed as invasive and inappropriate.”
After hearing arguments about how the law would be enforced, Brailsford said she would consider whether to issue a preliminary injunction blocking the state from enforcing the measure while it is being challenged in court. She said she would try to rule quickly.
Following the hearing, Emily Croston, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho, told reporters that state officials had not clearly explained how they would enforce the law.
“I don’t think the state has an answer for how you identify someone’s biological sex,” she said. “Are we just going to look at folks as they enter a restroom and determine whether we think they look enough like a man or a woman? That’s ridiculous.”
Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Olson noted how the bathroom ban could affect transgender people who have already transitioned, pointing out that the law would require him to use the women’s restroom despite his masculine appearance.
“If I just go to a restaurant with my family and want to wash my hands before dinner, this law comes into play,” he said. “Now I have to stop and decide, do I — if this law is in effect — go into the restroom that is illegal now, the men’s room? Or do I walk into the women’s room and take all of the risk that that now comes with, whether that’s assault or harassment, or someone calling the police, because now it looks like I’m violating the law.”
Alexandra Kuzyk was charged with "illegal production and distribution of pornographic materials" for writing a 2022 fan-fiction story about the K-pop group Stray Kids that depicted a same-sex romance and was later discovered by a mother on her daughter's electronic device.
Kuzyk, a 36-year-old photographer and stylist, told the LGBTQ health site Parni+ that there were no printed versions of her fan-fiction stories at the time she was charged. She said the mother discovered the material through her daughter's Telegram subscriptions and took screenshots of LGBTQ-related posts and sex scenes from the fan-fiction site Ficbook.
U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), who is running for the U.S. Senate, was booed by spectators when a contingent representing his office marched in the Boston Pride Parade on June 6, according to videos posted on social media.
Moulton, 47, has mounted a primary challenge against U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, 79, a fellow Massachusetts Democrat and longtime LGBTQ ally -- a bid that, a decade ago, might have been dismissed as a fool's errand.
However, concerns about Markey's age and whether he may decline physically or mentally while in office have made the race appear more competitive than many expected, reflecting broader unease among some Democrats about older politicians serving in elected office.
A grand jury concluded that Syracuse City Judge Felicia Pitts-Davis discriminated against a lesbian couple by refusing to marry them and then attempted to conceal her actions, recommending that she be removed from the bench.
In a June 5 ruling, the Appellate Division of the Fourth Judicial Department ordered that the December 2024 grand jury report be unsealed. The report was made public over the weekend.
"Judge Pitts-Davis laid bare her bigotry towards homosexual people and her willingness to put her personal feelings above her oath as an official charged with discharging the law," the report states.
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