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SALT LAKE CITY — The state auditor's office has received thousands of "frivolous complaints" of violations of a controversial law restricting restroom access for transgender individuals, through which Auditor John Dougall said "an invasive and overly aggressive Legislature" turned him into an unwilling "bathroom monitor."
In addition to restricting restroom access for transgender people in state-owned facilities and narrowly defining both "male" and "female" in state code, HB257 required Dougall's office to "establish a process to receive and investigate alleged violations of (the statute) by a government entity." To comply with the law, his office launched an online complaint form on May 1, which has since been inundated by spurious complaints — close to 10,000, Dougall told KSL.com Tuesday evening.
He said his office usually handles several hundred complaints each year, and the thousands of "bogus" complaints in a week is unprecedented. Dougall said most of the complaints appeared to be a "form of protest" against the law.
"Perhaps unsurprisingly given the statute's controversial topic and the hurried nature of its passage, many members of the public misunderstood the obligations of this office," Dougall said in a statement Tuesday. "As such, the office has received a significant number of frivolous complaints and not a single legitimate complaint."
Dougall — a Republican who is currently running for the state's 3rd District House seat — issued the statement to correct what he saw as "misperceptions" of the law and said his office only investigates violations of the law by government entities.
"Further, we will not investigate the actions of any private individuals, nor will we investigate or determine anyone's sex or gender," he said. "We are not required — and have no desire — to intrude on the most intimate aspects of a person's life. In this vein, we remind the public that under both the statute and Utah Criminal Code, an individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in a 'privacy space.' If we receive lewd or voyeuristic images, we will promptly refer those to law enforcement."
When asked, Dougall said his office has not received any such images, but said some of the comments made with the complaints "sounded like they were going to start uploading photos," which prompted his office to disable the function to upload images along with their complaints.
"We disabled that because we did not want any of that type of submission," he said. "That is a criminal act, and we would work with law enforcement if anybody tried to engage in that."
He goes on to say he did not ask to be tasked with the role described in the law and only created the online form in order to comply with it. Rep. Kera Birkeland, R-Morgan, the bill's sponsor, never consulted with his office, said Dougall, who said he only learned about his role "shortly before the bill was rushed to final passage" early on in the 2024 general legislative session.
"Indeed, no auditor sets out to become a bathroom monitor," Dougall said.
The bill went through several iterations of last-minute changes before final passage in the Legislature, and was signed into law by Gov. Spencer Cox in January.
"I recognize that many Utahns feel trampled by an invasive and overly aggressive Legislature that too often fails to seek input from those most affected," Dougall continued. "Constituents unhappy with this statute will not effect change by misdirecting their anger toward the office and its dedicated employees. The Legislature crafted these public policies, and only the Legislature can revise them."
He included a link to the Legislature's website for concerned constituents to reach out to their representatives.
Dougall told KSL.com his job is simply to ensure government entities are in compliance with the law when upgrading or constructing facilities, and "if folks are unhappy with the law, protesting to us doesn't do any good, because we don't set the policy. We have a mandate of what we have to do."
Birkeland — who has repeatedly said her bill is an effort to protect the privacy of women and girls in restrooms and locker rooms — issued a statement through a spokeswoman for the Utah House of Representatives saying, "It's not surprising that activists are taking the time to send false reports. But that isn't a distraction from the importance of the legislation and the protection it provides women across Utah."
"We remain focused on protecting girls in our school bathrooms and locker rooms and women in public bathrooms and locker rooms," she continued. "When considering which office should oversee the enforcement of this new rule, we weighed many options but ultimately decided the state auditor was best suited to field reports. We appreciate their cooperation and willingness to implement state code. Backlash from this legislation was completely expected, but at the end of the day, we do what is best for Utah, despite outcries from a loud and vocal minority. And by the way, auditing governmental entities and complaints against them is the responsibility of the state auditor's office."
Birkeland's bill applies to restrooms and changing rooms in government-owned facilities and defines men's and women's restrooms to exclude transgender people. In order to use a facility that does not align with their sex designation at birth, a person must first undergo gender-related surgery and legally change the sex on his or her birth certificate.
It also requires future government buildings to include more unisex or single-stall facilities and codifies elements of federal Title IX that require equal access to facilities in boys and girls high school sports.
LGBTQ+ rights advocates have decried the policy, saying that it targets transgender individuals without meaningfully increasing privacy or safety for women and girls.
According to a survey released by the Public Religion Research Institute in March, 86% of Utahns support nondiscrimination protections for the LGBTQ+ community, although the survey didn't ask directly about the state's bathroom restrictions.
