Two bills aimed at restricting the rights of people who identify as transgender have cleared the Idaho legislature and are on the way to Republican Governor Brad Little's desk for his signature.

House Bill 500 bans transgender women and girls from playing on female high school and college sports teams. The legislation would apply to all publicly sponsored sports teams.

Supporters of the bill said that it is needed because transgender women and girls have a physical advantage. Opponents argue that the bill would subject transgender athletes to invasive tests.

The bill, titled the “Fairness in Women's Sports Act,” was sponsored by Senator Mary Souza and Representative Barbara Ehardt.

Ehardt, a Republican, worked with the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) to craft the bill. The Arizona-based group is opposed to LGBT rights.

According to the Idaho Press, when asked about the bill's constitutional problems that would make it difficult to defend in court, Senator Souza, a Republican, said that the ADF “will be responsible for any legal defense fees.”

The second bill, the “Idaho Vital Statistics Act” or House Bill 509, would make it impossible for transgender people to change their gender marker on a birth certificate.

In 2018, a judge issued a court order requiring Idaho to allow transgender individuals to change the gender marker on their birth certificates.

Peter Renn at Lambda Legal said in a statement that lawmakers were “explicitly defying a court order and exposing Idaho taxpayers to footing the bill” for its legal consequences.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest LGBT rights advocate, called on Little to veto House Bill 500.

“If HB 500 becomes law, Idaho will be the first state to have such a retrogressive, invasive and patently anti-transgender law on the books,” HRC President Alphonso David said in a statement. “In states across the country, extreme lawmakers are targeting transgender youth and seeking to discriminate against them through any legislative vehicle possible. These elected officials and the groups backing them are proposing a ‘solution’ in search of a problem – and using transgender kids as pawns to stoke division at a time when our elected leaders should be finding ways to unite us. If HB 500 becomes law, it will send a strong message to trans youth that they are less than their peers and not deserving of community and acceptance. We implore Governor Little and other legislative leaders to stand up and reject this discriminatory measure.”