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The ruling is the first such ruling to block an adult transgender bathroom ban in the United States.
On Wednesday, a Montana judge blocked the state from enforcing a bathroom ban targeting transgender and intersex adults, which would have barred them from accessing many public restrooms. The bill—one of the first major anti-trans measures to receive a hearing in any state this year—passed the Montana House of Representatives on a party-line 58–42 vote earlier this year and was signed into law by Governor Greg Gianforte on March 27. It faced intense opposition during hearings, including concerns about its direct impact on the state’s two transgender legislators, Representatives SJ Howell and Zooey Zephyr. Now, the law cannot be enforced, with the judge ruling that it was driven by anti-transgender animus and that the state failed to provide evidence it would achieve its stated goal of “protecting women.”
“Decisions about how to express a person’s gender identity are personal and private, as is information about a person’s transgender or intersex status, anatomy, genetics, and medical history,” said the judge. “The Act fails strict scrutiny because it is motivated by animus and supported by no evidence that its restrictions advance its purported purpose to protect women’s safety and privacy.”
The judge also ruled that the ban relied on an unscientific definition of sex that effectively barred intersex people from using any bathroom at all: “Under the Act, however, transgender people cannot use sex-separated facilities that correspond with their gender identity and intersex people cannot use sex-separated facilities at all.”
House Bill 121 bans transgender people from using restrooms that align with their gender identity in all “public buildings,” broadly defined as any facility “owned or leased by a public agency.” This sweeping definition includes rest stops, public colleges and universities, schools, libraries, museums, state airports, publicly owned hospitals, park restrooms, and more. The law went into effect immediately upon Governor Greg Gianforte’s signature, forcing many transgender people across the state out of public restrooms overnight.
BUT... But... can't you make a law that takes away a person's civil rights and equal protection under the law simply because it makes a tiny handful of other people feel icky...?!?!
Yeah no. You can't. Ain't constitutional. Sorry. Laws can't be based on bigoted, baseless, imaginary harm. You have to show actual harm that the law would protect people from. And there is none to show. At all. Ever From anywhere.
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