Court Battles

Transgender Idahoans sue over bathroom law

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by Ryan Mancini - 04/30/26 8:48 PM ET

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by Ryan Mancini - 04/30/26 8:48 PM ET

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Six transgender Idaho residents on Thursday sued the state over a new law banning them from using sex-designated public restrooms in public buildings and private businesses, asking a federal judge to strike the law from the books.

Lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union and its Idaho-based affiliate, along with Lambda Legal, filed the lawsuit in Boise. Lawyers from Munger, Tolles & Olson and Alturas Law Group represented the six residents: Diego Fable, Amelia Milette, Emilie Jackson-Edney, Daniel Doe, Peter Poe and Zoey Wagner.

Gov. Brad Little (R) signed H.B. 752 into law earlier this month after it passed the Republican-controlled state legislature. It states that any person who knowingly and willfully uses the space designated for use by the opposite biological sex will “be guilty of a misdemeanor and may be imprisoned in the county jail for a period to not exceed one year.”

The first offense is a misdemeanor with up to one year in prison, and the second offense becomes a felony with up to five years in prison. The new law, the only one in the nation that applies to private businesses, defines private businesses as any that are open to the public, including shopping malls, hospitals, libraries, rest stops, airports, and gas stations, among others.

This law is set to go into effect on July 1.

Fable said when the law was put forward, “I felt a heavy lump grow in my chest.” He told The New York Times that the law made life outside of his home impossible.

“Do I comply and use the women’s restroom and risk drama?” he said. “Do I drive all the way home [to a toilet] and then come back?”

Fable transitioned six years ago, saying in a statement from the ACLU that he’s “been enjoying life as a man and using the men’s restrooms hasn’t been a big deal.”

“But this law would force me to use the women’s facilities, and doing so would only invite suspicion, questions, and raised eyebrows,” he said.

Fable said compliance with the law “would be extremely isolating” and requires him to leave his home and friends behind.

Lawyers for Fable and the other plaintiffs argue in the lawsuit that their clients, “like any non-transgender Idahoans… need to use restrooms while they are in public, and they wish to continue doing so without being subject to life-changing criminal penalties or physical and psychological harm for simply using the restroom.”

The ACLU added that the Idaho Fraternal Order of Police and the Idaho Chiefs of Police Association opposed the bill, arguing that there exists no “clear or reasonable way” to determine a person’s sex from birth during a field contact without using “invasive and inappropriate” searches and questioning.

State Rep. Cornel Rasor (R), the bill’s sponsor, told lawmakers in March that the bill would protect women and girls.

“It prevents discomfort and voyeurism escalation and assaults, while preserving single-user options and narrow exceptions so no one is denied access for emergency aid,” he said, The 19th reported.

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