Student body leaders from Idaho’s four public universities have joined together to sign a letter to Gov. Brad Little strongly disapproving of the two anti-transgender bills he signed into law this spring, both of which are now being challenged in court.

HB 500 forbids transgender women or girls from playing on school sports teams that match their gender identity; HB 509 forbids transgender Idahoans from changing their birth certificates to match their gender identity, which a federal court previously ruled Idaho must allow.

“We as student leaders and as future state leaders are disappointed with your decision to sign HB 500 and HB 509 into law,” the student leaders wrote. “The bills are unnecessary, potentially expensive, and may produce various legal repercussions. They also conflict with the general public’s support for the transgender community.”

The letter is signed by the student body presidents of the University of Idaho, Boise State University, Idaho State University and Lewis-Clark State College, along with other student body leaders from the four schools, including vice presidents and student senators. In all, 28 student leaders signed the letter.

“It is very rare that the governing bodies from all of Idaho’s public universities come together,” said UI student Senator Aaron Bharucha, co-author of the letter. Bharucha and UI student Senator Mary Alice Taylor co-authored the letter.

The signers included 12 student leaders from UI; six from ISU; eight from BSU; and two from LCSC, both of whom noted that they signed on behalf of themselves. They were LCSC’s student body president and vice president.

Bharucha said the issue is one that “has a huge impact on kids.”

“Kids in high school and middle school, it’s traumatizing for them,” he said, “because once you get older, you can understand what bigotry is and how it derives from ignorance, but when you’re younger, it just seems like hatred. It just seems like, ‘These people don’t accept me or like me for who I am.’”

Bharucha said, “It’s not just about sports, it’s not just about a gender marker on a government identification. What this is about is can the transgender community exist and thrive in society in the same way that everybody else can? And the passage of these bills, HB 500 and HB 509, reflects that no, they cannot.”

He said the student leaders decided to send the letter to the governor because, “Whether he can do anything about it or not, at least he knows how we feel, and the general public knows how we feel.”