Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crow, R-Billings, listens to testimony on her bathroom privacy bill in the House Judiciary Committee on Jan. 10, 2025. (Micah Drew / Daily Montanan.)
Viridian Miller is a transgender woman and has characteristics considered both traditionally male and female. She has a low voice, an affinity for teal nail polish, and she likes it that way.
“I’m a trans woman, but I don’t always subscribe to a lot of the patriarchal norms for femininity,” said Miller, of Missoula.
In a hearing on Friday over House Bill 121, another bill to define sex and regulate bathroom use, Miller said the legislation will make public spaces even more dangerous for people who are transgender.
“If this bill is enacted, I will certainly experience unspeakable harm, regardless of what public restroom I choose to use,” Miller said.
Elke West, on the other hand, is a parent of a boy and a girl, and she is homeschooling them, but she wants them to be safe when they visit a museum or go on other outings.
“When my daughter is coming of age and she has to go by herself into a bathroom on a field trip, I want her to not be afraid that somebody else, like a strange male, is waiting outside her bathroom door,” West said.
Sponsored by 35 Republican legislators and supported by Gov. Greg Gianforte, the bill aims to define sex, require public restrooms for males or females, and ensure people use restrooms “designated for their sex” and “external genitalia present at birth.”
Last session, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 458, sponsored by Sen. Carl Glimm, R-Kila, with similar provisions regarding the definitions of sex.
The governor signed it, but the bill was struck down, once by a judge because its title was unclear. In a rule that temporarily blocks numerous state laws and policies, another judge said SB 458 can’t stand because it affects transgender and cisgender people unequally.
At the hearing in the House Judiciary committee, proponents argued the bill was necessary to promote privacy and safety, protect women and children in public restrooms, and fight a national liberal agenda.
“We must put the safety and security of our females, regardless of their age, at a higher regard than the feelings of inclusiveness for those with gender incongruence,” said proponent Erin Laws.
Opponents, however, said if the problem is safety, the bill will only make matters worse for people who are transgender, and laws already protect women and children from violent crimes.
They said costs for local governments and even some private shelters will be significant — one reason a similar bill died seven years ago — especially because the bill would take effect immediately.
Dandilion Cloverdale, with TransVisible Montana, said the bill wrongly implies that people who are transgender are predators, too. And Cloverdale said people know if they’re in the right place.
“I ask that you let people pee in peace and oppose House Bill 121,” Cloverdale said.
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Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras was the first person to testify in support of the bill, and she introduced herself as a mother, grandmother, “and yes, a woman.”
Juras said the bill is among those the governor’s office has been proud to support. She said it brings common sense into laws, protects fairness in women’s sports and protects children from invasive medical treatments.
“In this politically charged culture, acknowledging my own biological sex might be controversial to some members. But acknowledging biological realities should not be complicated or controversial — and neither should this bill,” Juras said.
Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crowe, R-Billings, introduced the bill Friday. Sponsors include House Judiciary committee members and its chairwoman, Rep. Amy Regier, R-Kalispell, and Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell.
According to the Movement Advancement Project, 16 states have some type of restriction on transgender people’s ability to use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity, and two, Florida and Utah, make it a criminal offense.
MAP describes itself as an independent nonprofit think tank that works on equality.
In Montana, the bill would “reaffirm the longstanding meanings of the terms ‘sex,’ ‘male,’ and ‘female’ in law.”
Medical professionals say while people have been expected to have XX or XY pairs of sex chromosomes, many have variations, and sex designations are on a spectrum, not black and white.
Opposing the bill, SK Rossi said one reason the same bill died in 2017 was lawmakers worried not only about the lives of transgender people, but about the fiscal impacts of enforceability, estimated at more than $2 billion at the time.
“If you look at this bill, it’s actually much broader than the 2017 bill and will have greater impact,” said Rossi, with the Montana Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence.
Jennifer Olson, with the Montana League of Cities and Towns, said cost and enforcement were concerns for local government. Is someone supposed to guard each bathroom? If so, for what?
Additionally, opponents noted concern with a date that takes effect immediately, and an allowance for civil actions initiated within two years.
Amanda Curtis, with the Montana Federation of Public Employees, said enforcement in schools was a question, as the Montana Constitution gives that authority to the Board of Public Education for K-12 and Board of Regents for public campuses.
In support of the bill, Cindy Roscoe read Genesis 1:27 to lawmakers, that God created “male and female.” She said she’s a cleaning service professional who doesn’t enter the bathroom when a man is showering or going to the bathroom, and she expects the same respect.
“I have also two daughters, and I do not want a man in my daughter’s restroom,” Roscoe said. “They need that protection just as well as the men need the protection in their bathroom.”
Former collegiate athlete Riley Gaines, who has a national profile and testified remotely, said she was a champion swimmer with a record in the butterfly.
She said she and her teammates were not only forced to compete against a transgender swimmer who bested them, they had to share a locker room with an “intact” male.
“Every single day I learn of more women and girls who have fallen victim to the extreme agenda to erase women,” Gaines said. “It has gone too far, and Montana women should not have to imagine a society where sex-based protections don’t exist.”
The bill would cover bathrooms and changing rooms in correctional centers, juvenile detention facilities, local domestic violence programs, public buildings, and public schools. It includes leased public spaces, and covers libraries, museums, hospitals, and university buildings.
Kelsen Young, head of the Montana Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, said the bill would affect the organization’s programs, required by federal law to provide services regardless of gender or gender identity.
In response to questioning from Rep. Tom France, D-Missoula, Young agreed the bill doesn’t solve problems her programs experience. She said their top priority in shelters is safety.
“We oppose it because it’s not realistic, and it doesn’t actually reflect the reality we have of providing services,” Young said.
People who are transgender are four times more likely than cisgender people — whose gender identity corresponds with their sex — to experience violence, according to a 2021 study from the Williams Institute at the University of California School of Law.
Representatives from the Montana Family Foundation and Alliance Defending Freedom were among the opponents.
Witnesses from the ACLU Montana, Catalyst Montana (formerly Montana Women Vote and the Montana Human Rights Network), Montana Gender Alliance and Disability Rights Montana were among the opponents.
The committee did not take immediate action on the bill Friday.