Idaho enacts new protections for teachers who don't play the pronoun game — and all the right people are upset

Idaho has enacted new protections for teachers and other public employees who do not use someone's "preferred pronouns."

On Monday, Gov. Brad Little (R) signed H.B. 538 into law. The bill prohibits:

... any governmental entity in the State of Idaho from compelling any public employee or public school student to communicate preferred personal titles and pronouns that do not correspond with the biological sex of the individual seeking to be referred to by such titles or pronouns.

The legislation explains the prohibition is necessary to "ensure that the constitutional right to free speech of every person in the State of Idaho is respected."

Teachers, moreover, are empowered under the law to sue their school district if they are forced to comply with someone's preferred name or pronouns. No student, teacher, or government employee can be disciplined for not using someone's preferred pronouns or for refusing to call someone by a name other than that person's legal name, the law states.

The law takes effect on July 1.

A spokeswoman said Gov. Little signed the Republican-backed bill because he supports policies that advance "free speech and parental rights."

"While Gov. Little expects state employees to treat each other and members of the community with dignity and respect, he does not support government compelling speech at risk of penalty or excluding parents from significant decisions impacting a child’s health and wellbeing," spokeswoman Madison Hardy said.

Progressive organizations, meanwhile, have voiced their opposition to the law.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho claimed the "human cost" of the law is "devastating."

"Transgender people live in and call Idaho home. By creating exclusionary public work and school environments, the state is subjecting them to predictable and dire harm," the organization claimed.

Planned Parenthood said that Gov. Little should be "ashamed" for supporting H.B. 538 and H.B. 421, a bill that would change the legal definition of "sex" in Idaho to "an individual’s biological sex, either male or female."

Mistie DelliCarpini-Tolman, Idaho state director of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, called Little "callous and cruel" for supporting "harmful bills that target LGBTQ+ Idahoans."

"We’re heading in the wrong direction. Our state needs more kindness, compassion, understanding – not permission to discriminate against others," DelliCarpini-Tolman said.

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