When the punishment for using the bathroom which not only fits my true self, but aligns with all of my legal identification, exceeds the punishment meted out to violent criminals, the only answer is that the society and the legislature in the state of Idaho has lost all semblance of humanity.

As Piper so aptly states, this is a trap. This is Scylla and Charybdis, the rock and the monster, where one must choose between possible prison time or probable violence. Which is no choice at all. And as the law applies not just to government buildings, but to essentially all public spaces, this impacts not just our private lives but also one’s employment.

The “legal” justification for these laws is supposed to be safety and privacy - but who’s safety? There is not a single recorded instance of a transgender woman assaulting another woman in a public restroom. On the other hand, statistics show that transgender people are many times more likely to be the victims of violent assaults than the rest of the population. So just who is at risk here? It seems like a no-brainer that forcing a transgender woman to use the men’s restroom is not only placing them at a very strong risk of harassment or potential violence, but it also places the men using that restroom in a situation which is more than likely very uncomfortable for them - not to mention completely humiliating to the transgender woman involved at the very least.

As for privacy, I have never been in a women’s restroom which didn’t have individual stalls with doors on them. I have also never seen a woman exit a stall and walk around the restroom unclothed; rather, they are dressed exactly as they were when the entered the restroom - and exactly as they are when they leave it. Where is the lack of privacy in the women’s restroom?

Contrary to men’s restrooms where there are open urinals without stalls, let alone doors - a severe lack of privacy. Hell, I have seen men’s restrooms which were basically nothing more than a water filled trough mounted on the wall for men to piss into. So the lack of privacy argument applies to men’s rooms, but not women’s rooms - yet they would use the privacy argument to force us into the men’s room.

I would also state that I have used women’s restrooms all over the United States, and in multiple countries, and have NEVER had an issue with anyone while doing so. This is a highly prejudicial legal action looking for a problem - a problem which doesn’t exist.