Idaho's Controversial Bills on Transgender Rights and Menstrual Equity

Idaho Governor Brad Little has signed Senate Bill 1100, which requires all public schools to maintain separate restrooms and changing facilities designated as either "male" or "female" only, based on biological sex. The bill allows a person who encounters someone of the opposite sex in a public-school bathroom, locker room or sleeping quarters to sue the school district for $5,000 for each instance. The new law will pre-empt any ordinance or rule adopted by a city, county or local school district within Idaho "that purports to permit or require public schools to allow persons to use facilities designated for the other sex." The bill has been criticized by transgender rights advocates as government-endorsed discrimination.