Utah Launches "Snitch Line" To Report Trans People In Bathrooms; Memes Flood In

The move is the latest in a series of states that have tried to launch ways to report transgender issues to authorities; such attempts in other states have not been successful.

Photo by Alex Moliski on Unsplash

On Wednesday evening, the Utah Public Auditor released a form to report transgender individuals encountered in changing rooms and restrooms to state authorities. The form, titled "Alleged Government Violations of Utah Code 63G Chapter 31: Distinctions Based on Sex," is in response to a law enacted earlier this year. This law bans transgender people from using restrooms that match their gender identity in schools, as well as locker rooms and similar facilities in public buildings across the state. Utah is the latest in a series of states that have attempted to launch "snitch lines" targeting transgender people. Previous attempts have failed after being flooded with memes from activists opposing the use of community reporting to target transgender individuals.

Earlier this year, House Bill 257, which bans transgender individuals from using restrooms and changing rooms in a variety of locations, sparked intense debate due to its broad scope and strange enforcement mechanisms. The bill applies to any public building, including the Salt Lake City airport, and says that transgender people could be held liable if they cause “affront or alarm.” It also explicitly prohibits transgender individuals from using restrooms that match their gender identity in schools and also bans them from public changing rooms unless they have amended their birth certificates and undergone gender reassignment surgery. Importantly, many states do not permit changes to birth certificates, creating significant confusion about which transgender individuals can use certain bathrooms and where.

One major question during debate of the bill was over how the bill would be enforced. In many states, for example, cisgender people have been reported to authorities for using the bathroom simply because they defied gender stereotypes. Numerous citizens testified to this concern in Utah. Within months of the bill passing, Utah public officials proved this point correct when some accused a cisgender basketball player of being transgender. Now, it appears that those charged with enforcing the policy have decided on a mechanism to do so: a publicly available snitch form to target transgender people.

The snitch form requests details on encounters with transgender individuals in “privacy spaces.” It asks citizens to report the government entity responsible for the "failure" to prevent the encounter or to report the encounter to law enforcement. Those “failures” can cost any government entity $10,000 dollars per day, including schools and colleges. The form enables people to upload pictures and provide evidence of "incidents." It requires a name and email address, but a phone number and home address is not necessary.

Reactions to the form’s release were immediate and predictable: multiple users started flooding in fake reports. One person submitted a report of “beavers” in their bathroom at 3 AM. Another posted a picture of a character from The Bee Movie, an allusion to other snitch forms against transgender people that were flooded with scripts for that movie. One person reported Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders as a trans person. Another reported an allegation of Representative Matthew Gaetz harassing girls outside of a locker room.

The reactions were remarkably similar to other attempts to target transgender people using snitch forms. In February, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita released a snitch line to report schools. Instead, it received copies of Godzilla holding a trans flag. In March of 2023, the Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey launched a website for reporting gender affirming care clinics. Within a month, the website was taken down after being flooded with the “Bee Movie” script. In Virginia, Governor Glenn Youngkin launched a tip line to report “divisive teaching practices.” That tip line received very few legitimate reports, and instead was flooded by “GenZ for Change” activists. The website was taken down quietly a the end of the year. After Freedom of Information Act requests were submitted to the state for reports, Youngkin initially but then relented after being sued. In a batch of 350 emails obtained of thousands submitted, accusations submitted included “sympathy to immigrants” and dissatisfaction with the epic poem “Beowulf.”

As for this snitch form, it appears it is already receiving significant pushback. At least one prominent transgender individual, Ari Drennen of Media Matters, noted that the site was already seeing glitches and errors, potentially from the number of people flooding the form with memes.

There are no reports of legitimate complaints through the system as of Thursday. You can find the form at the following URL: https://ut-sao-special-prod.web.app/sex_basis_complaint.html.