Transgender Idahoans won’t be able to change the gender listed on their birth certificates, if the Idaho Republican Party gets its way.
A party-line vote sent House Bill 509 out of committee on Friday morning, setting up a full House vote expected sometime next week.
If approved, Democrats warn the law would violate a federal court decision from 2018.
That ruling said a similar birth certificate policy in Idaho was unconstitutional and discriminatory.
Currently, only Tennessee and Ohio have similar birth certificate laws.
Both states are being sued over their policies.
“This legislation flies in the face of a court decision and is really a legal disaster," said Rep. John Gannon [D-Boise], who sits on the State Affairs committee that approved the bill.
Two years have passed since the decision without any significant issues. But passing the new policy could create one for state workers, who would have to choose between following state law or a federal court decision.
Attorney Peter Renn led the lawsuit that struck down Idaho’s previous policy.
“Changing the rule that is currently in place is a solution in search of a problem and it makes no sense to turn back the clock and make Idaho an outlier in the country once again. So it’s baffling to me that the state would want to put its own employees in the impossible position of either following a statute or following a court order, because they can’t do both," he said.
Two North Idaho Republican representatives - Vito Barbieri and Heather Scott - sit on the committee that forwarded the bill. Neither returned requests for comment.