The Idaho legislature has passed expanded protections for women against men using sex-segregated spaces designated for women and girls, as the number of states with such laws approaches two dozen. 

The Republican-controlled Idaho Senate passed House Bill 752 in a 28-7 vote Friday, sending the legislation to Republican Governor Brad Little’s desk. The vote fell largely along party lines, with all Democrats opposing the measure and all but one Republican supporting it.

The Republican-controlled Idaho House of Representatives approved the bill in a 54-15 vote earlier this month, with all Democrats opposing it and six Republicans breaking from their party to side with Democrats. 

The legislation states that any person “who knowingly and willfully enters a restroom or changing room in a place of public accommodation, as defined in section 67-5902, Idaho Code, that is designated for use by the opposite sex” is “guilty of a misdemeanor and may be imprisoned in the county jail for a period not to exceed one (1) year” on the first offense.

A second offense within a five-year period will result in a felony conviction and a sentence of up to five years in state prison. 

The bill includes exceptions for those performing custodial services, medical assistance, law enforcement assistance, cases where bathrooms and changing rooms ordinarily reserved for members of one sex are temporarily opened to the opposite sex during a sporting event, and minor children accompanied by a parent of the opposite sex. If approved by Little, the legislation will take effect July 1. 

Idaho law defines a place of public accommodation as a “business, accommodation, refreshment, entertainment, recreation, or transportation facility of any kind, whether licensed or not, whose goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages or accommodations are extended, offered, sold, or otherwise made available to the public.” 

Idaho is one of eight states that requires trans-identified individuals to use bathrooms and changing rooms consistent with their sex in K-12 schools and at least some government-owned buildings. The proposed legislation would significantly expand the scope of the existing law. 

House Bill 752 would bring Idaho’s law more in line with those in eight other states that ban trans-identified individuals from using bathrooms and changing rooms aligned with their stated gender identity in all government-owned buildings and spaces, including K-12 schools and colleges. Those states are Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Montana, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. 

An additional five states have similar laws that apply only to K-12 schools: Iowa, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Efforts to require the use of bathrooms and changing rooms based on sex stem from concerns about safety and privacy for women and girls. 

These concerns were amplified in 2021, when a male student’s sexual assault of a female student in a girls’ bathroom at a high school in Loudoun County, Virginia, made national headlines. The incident occurred before members of the county’s school board assured the community that no assault had taken place as it worked to pass a policy allowing trans-identified students to use bathrooms aligned with their stated gender identity, prompting allegations of a cover-up. 

In 2022, female athletes on the women’s swimming team at the University of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit against the school after they were required to share a locker room with Will “Lia” Thomas, a trans-identified male swimmer who competed on the men’s swim team for three years before joining the women’s team. The athletes said Thomas’ presence in the women’s locker room caused “extreme discomfort” because he “still has male body parts and is attracted to women.”

Ryan Foley is a reporter at The Christian Post.

This article originally appeared in The Christian Post.