Idaho's Republican Governor Brad Little has signed a bill banning schools from requiring staff and students to use a transgender student’s chosen name or pronouns.
Idaho House Bill 538 was passed by the Republican-majority legislature last month and signed into law by Gov. Little on Monday.
According to a report from the Idaho Capital Sun, "The bill bars teachers from referring to a student by a name or pronoun that doesn’t align with their birth sex, unless the teacher has parental consent. It also gives teachers the right to sue their district if they’re disciplined for refusing to use a transgender student’s preferred name or pronoun."
“This is a battle line we have to draw,” Idaho Rep. Ted Hill, who sponsored the bill, said of the legislation in March. “This is the battle line. It’s First Amendment rights and that’s the whole issue here.”
Democrats argued that the First Amendment does not allow for "discrimination."
“We expect our publicly funded employees to adhere to a certain standard of respect and decency, and we expect them to refrain from being unkind, uncivil or discriminatory whether it’s to the public or to their coworkers,” Idaho state Rep. Lauren Necochea, a Democrat, said last month, according to a report from The Hill. “Respectfully addressing people the way they are asking to be addressed is no different.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho also lobbied against the legislation. The organization claimed that the law will allow teachers to "persistently and intentionally misgender" students.
The Idaho Family Policy Center praised the move, according to the Capital Sun report.
“Even in school districts with no written compelled pronoun policy, educators feel pressure from administrators, parents and students to use preferred pronouns,” Blaine Conzatti, president of the Idaho Family Policy Center, said in a press release, “and these teachers rightly fear what might happen if they continue disregarding such demands.”
The new law will go into effect on July 1.
Little was the first governor in the nation to sign a law requiring student-athletes to play on sports teams that match their biological sex.
More recently, Gov. Little banned public funds, including Medicaid, from being used for transgender surgeries, hormones, and other treatments. This applies to both minors and adults.
Last year, Gov. Little signed a law making it a felony for doctors to prescribe puberty blockers, hormones, or perform sex change surgeries on minors.
