In an environment of endless protest from the left, trans activists have moved from public disruption to simply disabling systems they do not like. On May 1, 2024, Utah launched a reporting form to enforce H.B. 257, a law signed by Gov. Spencer Cox in January that protects sex-designated spaces such as restrooms or locker rooms from intrusions by members of the opposite sex. The state auditor is required to investigate these reports, but within a week, the office received around 10,000 false complaints from trans activists attempting to overwhelm the system to make reporting and enforcement impossible.
Prominent trans activist Erin Reed argued, “If there are 4,000, 5,000, 6,000 form responses that are entered in, it’s going to be much harder for the auditor’s office to sift through every one of them and find the one legitimate trans person who was caught using a bathroom.” The enforcement, which only addresses the failure of government entities enforcing the new law, includes reporting the failure of government entities to contact law enforcement when a criminal complaint is filed (for instance, a complaint of men caught spying on women or girls in restrooms).
Utah Auditor John Dougall noted that while many complaints were easy to screen (e.g., those listing him in the complaint), others “appear credible at first glance and take much longer to filter out. His staff has spent the last week sorting through thousands of well-crafted complaints citing fake names or locations.” Activists have engaged in this behavior in other states as well, targeting enforcement of laws preventing teachers from discussing explicit sexual information with students, for example.
A tip line in Missouri was set up for “those who have experienced harm from gender transition interventions or witnessed troubling practices at transition clinics in Missouri.” The line had to be taken down after activists overwhelmed it with false reports, making it far more difficult for legitimate concerns of abuse and regulatory or ethical violations to be reported for investigation.