NAMPA, Idaho — A federal judge has ruled that Idaho's law requiring public school students to use the bathroom corresponding to their assigned sex at birth can take effect.
For some people, the question of which bathroom to use, men's or women's, is pretty clear. But that's not the case for everyone – specifically our transgendered community, and a new ruling is making that harder.
According to a recent ruling, SB-1100 - Commonly called the Bathroom Bill - can now be enforced across the state of Idaho.
This latest ruling comes after Federal Judge David Nye denied the request to keep the law from being enforced until the current lawsuit is resolved.
It's a move that some are celebrating.
"We are thrilled that the federal judge said in his decision what we've been saying all along which is that this law is constitutionally sound and that it protects the privacy of rights of every student,” says Blaine Conzatti.
Blaine Conzatti is with Idaho Family Policy Center, the group that initially drafted the bill.
He says the goal is to protect student safety and privacy.
Conzatti continues, "We want every child to feel safe at school, children cannot excel academically if they don't feel safe in vulnerable places like bathrooms or showering areas so this law protects the rights of all students by ensuring that everyone is safe in those vulnerable places."
The bill will require schools to maintain separate bathrooms and changing facilities for men and women. Students would be required to use facilities based on the sex they were assigned at birth and not the gender they identify as.
For some students, the enforcement of this law comes at a cost.
Roman Hueterman says, "I can definitely speak from experience that I've gotten weird looks and have been physically harassed about it, and with everything that's going on and when we continue to talk about it and make it a much bigger deal than it needs to be it's only going to escalate even more and I can only see that getting worse for trans students."
Roman Heuterman is a transgender student at Bora High School. He's experienced the many obstacles trans students have to go through every day including something as simple as using the bathroom.
"It's going to be dangerous for the physical and mental well-being of trans students especially if they are already putting in the gender support plan there's a little bit of hope that they would be able to use that bathroom or use that name or pronouns and when we're not allowing that, that makes that help go away like the little light at the end of the tunnel, gone," Heuterman says.
Although the law says schools must provide a "reasonable accommodation" for transgender students ... the family of a student who filed the original lawsuit this summer says it violates students' right to privacy.
As this lawsuit plays out in court, schools across the state can currently enforce this law. Idaho News 6 has reached out to different districts for comments.
The Boise School District provided the following memo that was sent to principals, counselors and social workers:
