(SALT LAKE CITY) — Transgender activists flooded a Utah tip line set up to alert state officials about possible violations of a new bathroom law with thousands of reports of fraud in an effort to protect trans residents and their allies from any legitimate complaints that could lead to an investigation.
The attack prompted the state official charged under the law with managing the tip line, Utah Auditor John Dougall, to regret being stuck with the complicated task of filtering false complaints while also facing backlash for enforcing a law he had no role in the approval.
“No auditor audits so they can be bathroom monitors,” Dougall said Tuesday. “I think there were much better ways for the Legislature to address their concerns rather than this clumsy approach.”
In the week since its launch, the online tip line has received more than 10,000 submissions, none of which appear legitimate, he said. The form asks people to report public school employees who knowingly allow someone to use facilities designated for the opposite sex.
Utah residents and visitors are required by law to use restrooms and locker rooms in government-owned buildings that correspond to their birth sex. As of last Wednesday, schools and agencies that do not comply with the new restrictions can be fined up to $10,000 per day for each violation.
While its advocacy efforts have failed to stop Republican lawmakers in many states from passing restrictions for transgender people, the community has had success in interfering with the often ill-conceived enforcement plans associated with these laws.
Within hours of its publication Wednesday night, trans activists and community members across the U.S. had widely publicized Utah’s complaint on social media. Many shared the spam they sent and encouraged others to do the same.
Their efforts mark the latest attempt by advocates to shut down or disable a government tip line that they say sows division by encouraging residents to report each other. Similar portals in at least five other states have also been flooded with fake news, prompting state authorities to shut down some.
In VirginiaIndiana, Arizona It is Louisiana, activists flooded tip lines set up to receive complaints about teachers, librarians and school administrators who may have spoken to students about race, LGBTQ+ identities or other topics that lawmakers deemed inappropriate for children. Virginia’s tip line was removed within a year, as was a tip line introduced in Missouri report gender-affirming health clinics.
Erin Reed, a prominent trans activist and legislative researcher, said there is a collective understanding in the trans community that filing these fraudulent reports is an effective way to protest the law and protect trans people who may be targeted.
“There will be trans people who go to the bathrooms and potentially be reported on this type of form, and so the community is taking a protective role,” Reed said. “If there are 4,000, 5,000, 6,000 form responses entered, it will be much more difficult for the audit office to go through each one of them and find the one legitimate trans person who was caught using a bathroom.”
The auditor’s office found many reports that Dougall described as “utter nonsense,” and others that he said appear credible at first glance and take much longer to filter through. His team spent the last week analyzing thousands of well-crafted complaints citing false names or locations.
Despite efforts to obstruct the oversight tool outlined in the bill, Republican sponsors Rep. Kera Birkeland and Sen. Dan McCay said they remain confident in the reporting line and the auditor’s ability to filter out false complaints.
“It is not surprising that activists are taking the time to submit false reports,” Birkeland said. “But this is not a distraction from the importance of the legislation and the protections it offers women in Utah.”
Republican Morgan presented the policy as a security measure to protect the privacy of women and girls, without citing evidence of threats or attacks against them by trans people.
McCay said he didn’t realize that activists were responsible for flooding the tip line. The Salt Lake City senator said he doesn’t plan to change how the law is being enforced.
LGBTQ+ rights advocates have also warned that the law and accompanying complaint give people license to question anyone’s gender in community spaces, which they argue could affect even people who are not trans.
His warnings were amplified earlier this year when a Utah school board member was criticized — and later lost his bid for re-election — for publicly questioning a high school basketball player’s gender she mistakenly assumed she was transgender.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
