Idaho Republicans’ New Extreme Bathroom Bill Carries 5-Year Prison Sentence, Applies to All Private Businesses

The bill, which passed the House and is poised to pass the Senate, imposes a statewide bathroom ban as strict as the state’s abortion law. It's the harshest anti-trans bill ever proposed.

The Idaho State Capitol in Boise | Image: Wikimedia Commons

Editor’s note: this article has been updated to reflect the new version of this bill, HB 752, which passed the House on March 17th and advanced to the Senate floor on March 23rd after a hearing by the Judiciary and Rules Committee.

Over the past few years, it has become increasingly clear that bathroom laws don’t work. After all, 20 states have now passed at least one bathroom law, and despite the spectacle Republican lawmakers have made, these restrictions haven’t really been enforced outside of a few isolated incidents. A big reason for this is that, with 3 exceptions, none of these laws actually criminalize trans people for their bathroom use and have little effect on those that violate them.

And increasingly, conservatives have begun seeing this lack of deterrence as a problem. In 2023, Florida became the first state to criminalize trans people’s bathroom use, passing a law that provides for up to 1 year of jail time. The next year, Mississippi passed a similar bill but reduced the maximum jail time to 6 months. Utah also passed a bill with criminalization provisions, but they only apply to changing and locker rooms.

Despite this, up until a few months ago, it wasn’t an idea most states were willing to entertain. In 2025, only two were proposed, including one in Democrat-controlled Minnesota, and both failed without even getting a hearing. But this year, 3 have already been introduced—and it’s almost certain that at least one will pass.

Idaho’s bill HB 752 is the most concerning. Unveiled last week, HB 752 builds on the state’s existing K-12 and college bathroom bans—which are essentially the norm in GOP-led states—and not only extends these restrictions to government-owned buildings, but to all private businesses as well. Under it, the first violation is punishable by a maximum of 6 months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine.

However, if a trans person commits a second violation within a 5-year period, the offense would be elevated to a felony with a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison. And even worse, the first conviction doesn’t need to be from within the state. Under the bill, a trans person who uses the bathroom in Idaho but has previously violated “a similar statute in another state or any similar local ordinance” will also face felony charges.

Make no mistake: this is just about the harshest anti-trans law ever proposed. To put into perspective just how severe these provisions are, when Idaho broadened its indecent exposure law last year to more explicitly restrict trans people, it also modified the penalties so that the felony charge and 5-year penalty only apply after the 3rd offense (also including out-of-state and local violations). As such, should HB 752 pass in its current form, Idaho will consider using the ‘wrong’ bathroom a worse crime than indecent exposure.

And that’s not all. The maximum punishment under HB 752, 5 years in prison, is as severe as Idaho’s abortion ban—something Republicans consider to be murder.

Unfortunately, the bill has already gained support. Last Friday, the Idaho House State Affairs Committee voted 11–3 to introduce it to the House floor, with only one Republican—Stephanie Mickelsen—joining both Democrats in opposing it. Even if that rate holds, the bill would still comfortably pass both chambers by a veto-proof majority.

Kansas’ bill SB 244 is a similar story. Initially a bill concerning driver’s licenses and birth certificates, extreme bathroom provisions were snuck in right before its passage through both chambers. Under it, the first violation carries no penalties, the second results in a $1,000 fine, and from the third onwards, trans people can be sentenced to a maximum of 6 months in jail.

Furthermore, it also contains a bounty provision that allows those who were “aggrieved by the invasion of privacy” to sue the trans person in question for up to $1,000. Although the state’s governor, Democrat Laura Kelly, is expected to veto the bill, Republicans have enough votes to override it. As such, it’s likely that Kansas will soon become the 3rd state to criminalize trans people’s bathroom use, and unlike in Florida, the state’s attorney general, Kris Kobach, has a record of strictly enforcing anti-trans laws.

Conversely, the bill proposed in New Hampshire is both the most ‘lenient’ and, as the state’s Republican governor has vetoed narrower bills already, the least likely to become law. The bill, HB 1442, creates a carveout to New Hampshire’s gender identity discrimination protections and states that “it shall be unlawful for any person to assert that their gender identity is a sex other than [their sex assigned at birth] for the purposes of accessing places or services restricted on the basis of sex.” It provides for a fine of up to $1,000 and can potentially be a misdemeanor if the person refuses to leave, but it carries no jail time. Curiously, this provision only applies to trans women, which, even if it did pass, would make it highly vulnerable to a legal challenge.

Taken together, these bills reflect a growing Republican willingness to harshly restrict the lives of transgender Americans. In fact, by the end of the year, it’s widely expected that every state under Republican control except Alaska, Nebraska, New Hampshire, and possibly Missouri will have a bathroom law in effect. A few other states are also expected to tighten their bans.

Moreover, in the coming years, Idaho’s extreme bill may spread. For years, the state has been a testing ground for anti-trans policies, which have a history of proliferating nationwide. Even if it doesn’t go beyond Idaho, other states will no doubt consider similar measures in the future.

That said, its existence alone sends a clear message: Idaho Republicans are hoping to run trans people out of their state. And they are willing to impose their bigotry on the entire state in order to do so.