Montana Adult Trans Bathroom Ban Blocked In Court: "No Evidence" It Protects Women
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.
Some state-owned or funded institutions, including the University of Montana in Missoula, quickly began complying with the law. The university removed gender-inclusive bathroom signage and relabeled them as male and female. The signs were taken down by student activists. University spokesperson Dave Kuntz acknowledged the charged emotions around the issue, stating, “We understand that emotions are charged around this issue, we have a lot of students who are frustrated by this law, we also have a lot who support this law.” Despite that claim, the student lobbyist for the Associated Students of the University of Montana, Hope Morrison, testified against the bill earlier this year, citing campus surveys showing strong support for equal rights for transgender students.
Now, they will be blocked from enforcing the bill, with the judge ruling, “[the state] and their agents, employees, representatives, and successors are temporarily restrained and enjoined from enforcing the act, directly or indirectly.”
Rather than protect women’s safety, operators of domestic violence and homeless shelters testified that the bill would actually endanger the very people it claimed to protect. The legislation would have required state employees to verify each person’s genitals and sex assigned at birth before allowing them to use the bathroom, placing the burden of enforcement squarely on shelter staff. Shelter operators also raised concerns about legal liability under the law. Compounding the issue, the state allocated no funding to retrofit existing facilities, despite many shelters having access to only a single bathroom.
Speaking against the bill earlier this year, representative Zephyr stated, “To me this bill clearly targets trans people… it is clearly laid out to make it harder for transgender Montanans to live in public life… When opponents came in on this bill, cities came in, university employees, representatives for the university’s students, representatives of the domestic violence shelters across the state all said the same thing…this is not an issue… To me, trans people walk through the state of Montana afraid enough already. We want to be able to live our lives in peace.”
The court is expected to hold another hearing on the bill on April 21st in the Missoula County Courthouse.
You can view the full decision here:
May this kind of logic prevail in the other states! 👏🏻👏🏻
After the arrest in Florida, this gives me the slightest glimmer of hope. Not done til we're all equal, all safe.