(FāVS News) — The predominantly Christian Idaho Legislature recently passed a law banning transgender people from using sex-segregated bathrooms that align with their gender identity, but some Christian leaders in the state argue that the law is not Christian-like at all.

The statute, which goes into effect in July, requires transgender people to only use bathrooms, changing rooms or similar facilities that align with their sex at birth — no matter what gender they identify as.  

Although the measure was passed in March by legislators who start many meetings with a Christian prayer, not all Christians believe the law represents their faith. 

“To hear that the state was actually trying to roll us back in history, instead of move us forward into a spirit of inclusion, was incredibly disheartening,” said Josh Lee, senior pastor with Boise First United Church of Christ. 

The bill doesn’t only affect government spaces like city halls and libraries, but also applies to privately owned places that are generally open for the public, such as stores and religious venues. 

Pastor Bob Lewis with Immanuel Lutheran Church in Boise said the church’s council will need to discuss the law and decide how to move forward as a congregation. 

“I am not going to ask people to sit outside our bathrooms and police them. I can’t do that,” Lewis said. “Our mission and our statement is, ‘We welcome all.’ 

“All means all,” he added. 

Violating the law carries criminal penalties. Anyone convicted of a first violation will receive a misdemeanor, with the potential of up to a year in jail, and anyone convicted of a second violation within five years will receive a felony, with the potential of up to five years in prison. 

There are 11 exceptions to the law, which include providing medical assistance or doing maintenance. 

Eight other states, spread in a broken patchwork line from Idaho to Florida, have passed laws banning transgender people from using facilities that align with their gender identity in all government-owned spaces. Twelve more states have some sort of ban associated with transgender people and bathrooms, according to the Movement Advancement Project think tank. 

Lee, a married gay pastor of an affirming church, said he’s concerned about how Idaho’s law will be enforced in public places where people across political ideologies mingle, such as restaurants. He said he can imagine a situation in which a transgender man with a beard is harassed for using the women’s restroom, even though it would align with his sex at birth. 

Many of the state senators and representatives who spoke in favor of the bill declared it a form of protection, citing the need to keep women and girls safe from “indecent exposure.” 

A 2025 study by the UCLA School of Law Williams Institute, a research center that conducts independent research on LGBTQ+ themes, found that there was no statistically reportable evidence of increased harms to cisgender people when transgender people use the restrooms that align with their gender identity. 

However, the opposite does occur when transgender people are banned from their restroom of choice: 11% of transgender men were verbally harassed in women’s restrooms, and 9% of transgender women were verbally harassed in men’s restrooms, the study found.

When transgender people used the bathroom in alignment with their gender identity, verbal harassment went down to 7%, according to the report. 

State Rep. Clay Handy, R-Burley, said he expected his committee hearings on the bill to be filled with public testimony about transgender people committing voyeurism. 

“I didn’t hear any of that,” said Handy, who voted against the bill. Instead, he said, there was testimony after testimony about how people who are transitioning often have awkward and unpleasant experiences in public bathrooms. 

“To me, this just seems a little bit over the edge,” Handy said. “If we’re just trying to cast stones at transgender people, then I’m not going to be the person to throw the first stone.” 

Other politicians argued that supporting the bill was a moral necessity. 

State Rep. Dale Hawkins, R-Fernwood, said people should support the law to protect women’s spaces rather than considering the viewpoints of “0.4% of the population,” an apparent reference to transgender people. 

“This really is simple,” Hawkins said. “We either are a moral society, or we are not.”

Opponents of the bill have raised logistical questions about how the law will be enforced. The Idaho Fraternal Order of Police told lawmakers that the bill has “significant practical enforcement challenges” for police officers. 

Law enforcement would have to determine someone’s sex assigned at birth, a venture that is often difficult and sometimes impossible without questioning or investigative actions that are invasive and inappropriate, wrote Bryan Lovell, Idaho Fraternal Order of Police president. 

Lee said he thinks the law is part of a Christian nationalist push to make Idaho uninhabitable for people who oppose a conservative agenda. Both Lewis and Lee said they know transgender people who are planning to leave the state, or have already left it, due to policies implemented by the Legislature. 

“We lost them as members of our community, which is disheartening, but at the heart of it is exactly what the Legislature wants,” Lee said. “They want to legislate these people out of the state.” 

During floor debate on the bill, state Sen. Josh Kohl, R-Twin Falls, said the law would help protect Idaho’s “cultural decency.” 

“We don’t want to become like California or New York,” Kohl said. “We want to keep Idaho safe from so many of the cultural influences that are pressing down.” 

Idaho, a historic stronghold for Christian groups that lean conservative, including Latter-day Saints and evangelical Protestants, is often influenced by the conservative politicians who serve in state government. 

In Lee’s mind, believing that Christianity supports exclusionary practices is “heartbreaking.” 

“They will claim that this legislation is coming forward because of faith and desire to be a Christian state, and yet they somehow totally dismiss the words of Jesus where he calls them to love the least of these,” Lee said. “To me, the least of these are anyone who are less than 5% of society — trans, homeless, immigrants. Those are the very people that so much of the legislation is aimed at trying to cast them out.” 

“Jesus said to draw them in,” Lee said. “It is very disheartening.”

Lee said Jesus’ support and inclusion of eunuchs, or castrated men, provides an example of how transgender and intersex people should be treated by Christians. 

“It’s very interesting to think about the ways in which Jesus made space for and cared for people who, because of their gender, were a little ambiguous,” Lee said. “For us, there’s a rich tradition of Jesus welcoming people who typically lived and found themselves in the margins of society.” 

Lee said now is the time for progressive Christians to step up to the microphone. In the political realm, the loudest Christian voices have often been conservative, he said, while progressive Christians have tended to keep their faith private. 

“In doing so, we sort of ceded the faith,” he said. 

Lee said the solution lies partly in progressive Christians being more vocal about their faith in public life. He pointed to former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and Texas state Rep. James Talarico, who is running as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate, as examples of politicians who openly blend progressive Christianity with public service.

“They’re helping us, in many ways, reclaim our identity and faith,” Lee said. “It’s not just conservative Christians representing faith in the public square.”