[Vision2020] Idaho Senate Panel Rejects Human Rights Protections for Gays

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (February 20, 2009) Spokesman Review and a certain 
state legilator Visionaire extraorinaire for bringing this to my attention.

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Senate panel rejects human rights protections for gays

Tagsidaho legislatureThe Senate State Affairs Committee just voted down a 
motion to introduce legislation to extend the Idaho Human Rights Act’s 
anti-discrimination provisions to cover sexual orientation and gender 
identity. Sen. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, gave a heartfelt pitch to her 
fellow senators to introduce the measure, which she said has an array of 
legislative co-sponsors. “At least 20 members of our Legislature have 
members of their families that are gay or lesbian and directly affected by 
these issues,” she told the committee. 

Sen. Chuck Coiner, R-Twin Falls, a co-sponsor, recalled the recent Special 
Olympics in Boise, which he said celebrated a population, those with 
intellectual disabilities, that, in his childhood, was “warehoused, hidden 
out of sight of the public for many years. … Their families were not very 
proud of them. Today we celebrate them, we call them special.” He 
mentioned the civil rights movement, which brought the country from 
treating blacks as second-class citizens to the days when a black woman 
can serve as the nation’s secretary of state and the nation’s new 
president is of mixed race. “We don’t see color much any more as we used 
to,” Coiner said. “We’ve come a long way. The movement on that part of our 
society that are gay and lesbian, transgender - their movement is a few 
years behind, but moving. … We’ve got a lot of education to go.”

LeFavour said when she’s talked with other lawmakers about the issue over 
the past 10 years, many mistakenly believed that it’s already illegal to 
fire someone because they’re gay or lesbian. Last year’s BSU Public Policy 
Survey showed that 64 percent of Idahoans believe it should be illegal to 
fire someone because they are or are perceived to be gay. But since the 
state’s human rights law, which bans discrimination in employment, housing 
and public accommodations on the basis of race, religion and disability, 
doesn’t include sexual orientation, “By virtue of its omission, many 
employers and many individuals perceive that it’s OK to discriminate,” 
LeFavour told the Senate committee. “By our silence, we condone it.” 
Throughout Idaho, people live in fear that their employers will find out 
their sexual orientation and fire them, said LeFavour, Idaho’s only openly 
gay legislator. 

She pleaded with the senators to introduce her bill, “just for the 
acknowledgement that this is an issue that deserves more discussion.” Sen. 
Joe Stegner, R-Lewiston, moved to introduce the bill, and Sen. Kate Kelly, 
D-Boise, seconded the motion, but they were the only two to favor the move 
in a voice vote, with Sens. Denton Darrington, R-Declo, Monty Pearce, R-
New Plymouth, Bob Geddes, R-Soda Springs, and Russ Fulcher, R-Meridian, 
voting no. That killed the bill.

LeFavour received hugs from a large crowd of supporters who had filled the 
committee hearing room, and who, afterward, crowded the Capitol Annex’s 
small second-floor foyer. “I’m so disappointed in my colleagues,” LeFavour 
said. “I know better of them, and I know in their hearts they know better. 
That’s the hardest part.” The Idaho Human Rights Commission, which in past 
years has endorsed and pushed for such legislation, with several new 
appointees, this year narrowly voted against it. LeFavour said she didn’t 
think that, in itself, hurt her bill’s chances. “You know, we don’t 
typically care what agencies think about a bill,” she said. “I think what 
needs to happen now is that people who care, across the state, need to 
speak up, and there are so many people who care, and we need them.”

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Decency prevents me from stating my opiion of Idaho's homophobic state 
senate.

This WILL be remembered come electioni day.

How about it, Moscow?  Let's organize!  Let's get off our keesters and 
show our soon-to-be outgoing senate that some people in Idaho actually 
GIVE A DAMN.

TOm Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"I believe all Americans who believe in freedom, tolerance and human 
rights have a responsibility to oppose bigotry and prejudice based on 
sexual orientation."

- Coretta Scott King


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