When asked if she felt safe in Idaho, Amber O’Brien said no.
O’Brien, a transgender woman, said Idaho has never had a history of being kind to people like her.
While O’Brien said Moscow, in general, is a safe place, she said she feels it’s changing.
Vanessa Torrenc, Athene Peterson and Valerie*, who are all transgender women, aren’t hesitant to leave Idaho or the United States if they don’t feel safe here anymore.
“No one should feel the need to have safe houses in different time zones — let alone continents — to escape persecution,” Valerie said.
O’Brien explained that most people within Moscow’s transgender community have a sort of underground railroad of communities.
“Most queer people I know in the area have something of an underground network of areas they can go if things go south — if they need to get away from abuse, assaults. all sorts of things,” Valerie said.
The reason these women feel unsafe: House Bills 500 and 509 and the rhetoric and culture that comes with them.
If passed, HB 500 would not allow transgender women to play in women’s high school or college sports. The bill introduced by Rep. Barbara Erhardt (R-Idaho Falls) states “The legislature finds that there are ‘inherent differences between men and women,’ and that these differences ‘remain cause for celebration, but not for denigration of the members of either sex or for artificial constraints on an individual’s opportunity.’”
HB 509 would not allow transgender people to change their birth certificate’s gender. As of right now, the law allows transgender people in Idaho to change their gender on their birth certificate to reflect their preferred gender identity.
O’Brien said while neither of the bills applies to her — as she was born in Colorado — every friend she has that HB 509 affects is rushing to try and get their birth certificates changed beforehand, including Valerie.
Valerie has not been able to get her birth certificate finalized yet and said she does not have the time to go to the courthouse. She also said the process comes with a financial burden.
According to the National Center for Transgender Equality, to change the gender on an Idaho birth certificate there is a $20 required application fee, as well as a $16 fee for each new birth certificate.
O’Brien added changing the gender on a birth certificate and other legal changes are usually the last thing people in the transgender community do.
“The legal stuff tends to be a lot of hoops to jump through. And so it tends to be kind of one of those things that you put off as long as possible, because s***, nobody’s got time for that,” O’Brien said.
Along with HB 509, Valerie and O’Brien added any of the bills passed in regard to transgender people, whether it be a bathroom bill to not allow people to use the bathroom based on their gender identity or a bill to not allow the transgender community to not have access to hormones, are not written in favor of them.
“That’s what it comes down to these bills, they don’t force us into the wrong gendered spaces they force us out of gendered spaces entirely,” O’Brien said. “And because so many spaces are gendered, it effectively forces us out of public light.”
Julia Keleher, LGBTQA director, said anytime there is anti-LGBTQA legislation, rates of mental illness and self-harm go up.
According to the National Center for Transgender Equality, transgender people are more likely to experience homelessness, violence and economic disparity.
Two out of four transgender women interviewed said they had experienced homelessness themselves.
According to the Center for Suicide Prevention, transgender people are two times more likely to think about and attempt suicide than other members of the LGBTQA community.
“That’s something we don’t want to see,” Keleher said.
Peterson said she feels the government is trying to take away their rights.
“It basically just tells me and the trans community that the state doesn’t care about us. And even that they actively do not like us,” Peterson said.
Peterson added she just wants to live her life and be a productive citizen and said the state is taking that away from her.
“It makes (transgender) people feel like they’re not part of their school. They’re not part of their state. They’re not part of their town,” Keleher said.
Rep. Julianne Young (R-Blackfoot) could not be reached for comment.
*Valerie’s last name is withheld at her request to protect her identity.
Alex Brizee can be reached at [email protected]
Zira Taylor
I'm a trans person, and when I lived in Moscow, I knew Amber O'Brien. She hadn't transitioned yet, but I used to think we were pretty good friends. We were roommates actually, living with another trans person, Lily Halsen, and I have to agree, the state doesn't care about us. I feel very overlooked and kind of thrown under the bus by this particular bill, but also every other one that threatens to make things harder for me and others like me. It's very hard sometimes...