Over 8,000 transgender and nonbinary people live in Idaho, according to estimates from the Williams Institute.
They include students, fast food workers, artists, cooks, readers, a prison worker, musicians and grocery store clerks. They’re karaoke junkies, video game players and runners. And they’ve been targeted by a series of laws Idaho legislators passed in the past four years that limit their identities in public life and restrict their access to medical care.
In 2020, Idaho lawmakers passed a first-in-the-nation bill that banned trans women and girls from participating in female sports. Since then, legislators have passed bills that bar gender-affirming care for minors ; prohibit students from using bathrooms that don’t correspond to their sex at birth; ban public funds from being used for gender-affirming care; require teachers to get parent approval to use a student’s pronouns that differ from their sex at birth; and define gender as a synonym for sex . Several of these laws are caught up in litigation, but some have gone into effect.