Culture war on America: Coalition of Democrat attorneys general sue Idaho over gender-separate school bathrooms, school sports

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By BRETT DAVIS | THE CENTER SQUARE

A coalition of 21 Democratic attorneys general, led by Washington state’s Bob Ferguson and New York’s Letitia James, have filed a brief seeking to block an Idaho law that prohibits transgender students from using public school restrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity.

Idaho has a Republican trifecta, with the Republican Party controlling the office of governor and both chambers of the state Legislature

This summer, a lawsuit was filed in federal court on behalf of Boise High School’s Sexuality and Gender Alliance, and Rebecca Roe, a seventh-grade transgender high school senior who is using the moniker to protect her identity. The lawsuit sought to keep Idaho school officials from enforcing Senate Bill 1100, which also allows students to sue schools for $5,000 or more for each instance where they encounter a transgender student in a facility barred by law, according to a Thursday news release from Ferguson’s office.

Last month, federal Judge David Nye denied a request for a preliminary injunction against Idaho school officials to keep them from enforcing the law. 

In response, the plaintiffs asked Nye to put his order on hold while they appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. At the same time, they asked the 9th Circuit to stay the order, which it did on Oct. 26.

“Allowing students to use bathrooms and changing rooms that correspond with their gender identity helps them feel accepted and does not pose a threat to anyone,” Ferguson said in the news release. “In Washington, where the rights of transgender students are protected, public schools report no instances of transgender students harassing others in bathrooms or locker rooms. In contrast, the evidence is overwhelming that prohibiting students from using facilities that correspond to their gender identity causes them very real physical, emotional and mental harm.”

Neighboring Washington is going in the opposite direction of Idaho in terms of transgender issues.

The state’s anti-discrimination law, known as the Washington Law Against Discrimination, explicitly prohibits discrimination because of “gender expression or identity,” including actual or perceived identity.

The Washington State Human Rights Commission, the state agency responsible for enforcing the WLAD, issued regulations in 2015 clarifying that the WLAD protects the right of transgender individuals to use restrooms and other gender-segregated facilities consistent with their gender identity.

In 2021, Washington’s Democratic-controlled Legislature passed a bill – later signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee – that requires insurers to cover gender-affirming surgeries that are prescribed by a person’s doctor and deemed medically necessary.

During this year’s session, lawmakers passed a bill that expands an existing law that allows organizations providing services to unsheltered youth to delay notifying a parent or guardian if there is a compelling reason – such as abuse or neglect – not to inform a parent or guardian. Inslee signed the bill into law.

The law adds gender-affirming treatment – therapy to, in rare cases, surgery – to the reasons youth can seek protected healthcare services.

According to a June 2022 study by the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute, there are more than 33,000 people ages 13 and older in Washington who identify as transgender. The Evergreen State has a total population of more than 7.7 million people.

Attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, D.C. joined the brief.

31 COMMENTS

  1. And just how many so-called “transgender” students are there out there, really, and why is such a monstrously large issue being made of a tiny, tiny minority of students, while throwing the vast, vast majority of students under the bus in the process?

    This entire, so-called “transgender” subject smacks of just another globalist-led, globalist-coordinated effort to subvert and undermine Western society, not to mention sanity itself.

    • I don’t know about a globalist agenda, they may well just be a classic useful idiot tool.

      I absolutely think a large part of this is plain old fashioned social trendiness. Johnny’s trans, I wanna be trans too. Same with bisexuality.

      It’s not like kids and liberals are known for deep thoughts.

    • The crimes against grammar are enough for me.
      Ever try to read an article where the fake news outlets try to respect ‘they/them’
      pronouns? Becomes an unreadable mess.

      Also fun are the articles where you read about ‘woman charged with rape’, and you are forced to read between the lines to grok the truth of it.

      If I’m ever forced to declare pronouns in an official setting (highly doubtful), I’m not going to get mad. I’m just going to write down ‘you/your’ to maximize confusion.

  2. Idaho is doing what the ENTIRE country should be doing. Saying stuff it to the Queer agenda crew, and leaving bathrooms the way they are supposed to be. Men and Women. No other state has a right to come in and bitch about them not catering to the mentally insane. My relatives live there. They will not bend to this at all. They can try to sue all day long. Majority rules still in this upside down world. Idaho has spoken and told the Queer crew they are not accepting it. None of it. I applaud them!!! Like I said, all states need to adopt the same thing or these creatures of immorality will continue to infect more areas. Enough!

  3. What, exactly, is their standing to sue?
    How are children in their states harmed by how Idaho does their business?

    This is probably a trial balloon to see how far they can go.

  4. why does the left hate women so deeply?

    And why do so many women support a party that hates them?

  5. Single person bathrooms seems to be the only solution for all the lawsuits. A child of of any gender, real or perceived, should not have to wear diapers in order to avoid strange bathroom experiences. Going to school needs to be about education and nothing else. A forced social agenda has no place in a school and children should not be forced to participate in a social experiment with political motives. And a person should have a right to pee without drama. It doesn’t need to be public event. At the intercity school that I went to, many years ago, using the toilet was not an option unless you had a death wish so I learned to hold it. Not much has really changed, even though there is a practical solution. Guess lawsuits are cheaper.

  6. Or Idaho could pass a law that states your gender identity is what everyone, with the exception of subversives and the mentally ill, in the history of the world identifies you as.

  7. This ends when parents pull their kids out of public schools and use another option. Schools need a certain amount of students to stay open. Fewer students=fewer dollars. Should get the attention of politicians and even the NEA and AFT.

    • Oh “Frank”…

      That’s a unique mix of bigotry and stupidity that is breathtaking bad.

      You do you, boo.

    • As opposed to, what, “frank”, California, the home of too many fruits and nuts to mention in less than six hours, or New York, say, the home of the worse Covidian tyrants that the entire scamdemic farce witnessed?

      Your anecdotal and puerile sophistry is meaningless, just as are almost all of your comments here.

      You may now return to your usual radical leftist channel.

    • Frank:
      I will pay you $100 if you can provide a rational/supportable connection between your comment, and Idaho’s law.
      And, no, correlation is not causation. Give me something with substance. Seriously, I went to school with a well known actor, but that means nothing about my acting ability.

  8. We need to loosen federalism so each state has more sovereignty- or we need to separate into two or more countries.

    I do not want to share a country with these people or be subject to their “laws”. They have made it clear for more then a generation that they do not want to share a country with us as evidenced by many factors- such as cancel culture.

    • “……..we need to separate into two or more countries……..”
      Yeah, that solved all of Asia’s, Africa’s, and Europe’s problems. Instead of a’hole lawyers and judges “deciding” righteousness based upon law, they have dictators ruling based upon warfare.
      Great idea. I thought Lincoln settled that insanity here 160 years ago. I guess some folks will never figure it out.

      • Actually, political separation has solved a great many problems.

        Only a tyrant (such as the woefully lionized Abraham Lincoln) would dare declare that political union can ONLY and EVER be a one-way street — that is the ‘roach motel’ theory of political organization.

      • Settled? As in “the science” is settled?

        Newsflash. Nothing is ever settled. The only constant is change.

  9. How is this any different than what Republican governors are doing? Our state routinely follows the lead of the Republican governor’s agenda – essentially not governing from within our own state and just following a poisonous DC political system. The Democrats are doing it too – it is a race to the bottom.

    • What’s different is the Idaho case does not affect any other state. The majority of the cases Republican Attorneys General join are regarding matters which cross state lines.

  10. Well if states are going to sue other states then there is to much time and money being wasted. These bottom feeders need to worry about their own state and its problems.
    Lawyers are the only ones winning as they have become one of the biggest problems facing us. We need to make lawyers pay 90% taxes to pay the poor people so we can fight back. The lawyers know the average person will fold because of cost and the twisted use of the meaning of words. The game is rigged.

  11. Why are AGs in one state suing other states over policies that have been in place for thousands of years? Our problems definitely include confused people, but they’re magnified by evil lawyers.

  12. Should be interesting to see how the matter of “standing” is resolved.
    .
    If the lawsuit is allowed to proceed, despite plaintiffs’ apparent lack of standing,
    .
    …does this mean that a coup just happened, that a judiciary junta consisting of 21 Democrat attorneys general, led by Washington state’s Bob Ferguson and New York’s Letitia James effectively overthrew the elected state government of Idaho, that their junta effectively rule Idaho though threats of lawsuits, threatening loss of liberty, money, and property?
    .
    How should Alaskans respond if something like this happens in Alaska?

  13. This is being done in Alaska by transgender students that are not Alaskans with law suits against Mat Su parents. These liberal states are running people out of their states to conservative states with the liberal ideas. Run them out including Fairbanks lawers.

    • This has been going on for years. Our state is easy prey because of our tolerance of others. I remember the gay protest when they had to bring in a plane from Frisco to make it happen. One of the news reporters accidentally exposed this before the big hush. It’s a big secret that we really don’t have a large population of confused people. Yet.

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