<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Courtesy of the Idaho Statesman at:</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px; white-space: nowrap; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "><a href="http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/11/09/2339418/boise-will-consider-gay-rights.html">http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/11/09/2339418/boise-will-consider-gay-rights.html</a></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px; white-space: nowrap; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "> </span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">-------------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span style="font-weight: bold; text-align: left; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Boise will consider gay rights ordinance</span></div><div><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The way Boise City Councilwomen Maryanne Jordan and Lauren McLean describe it, discrimination against gays and transsexuals undermines public safety, but that’s just the start.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It’s also bad for business.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“When you drill down to the very core mission of any city, it’s public safety,” Jordan said. “And if employers don’t feel like their employees that they may ask to come here or they might try to recruit here are going to feel safe in their community, then it’s got to be detrimental to us.”</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On Tuesday, Jordan and McLean will propose an ordinance that would prohibit firing people, kicking them out of their homes and refusing to serve them in public places because of their sexual identity.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Occasionally, those types of discrimination do occur, Jordan and McLean said.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">About a year ago, Jordan said, a group of Boise residents were victims of a “gay-bashing” incident Downtown. They were afraid to go to the police, she said, because they feared participating in an investigation or prosecution could alert their employers to their sexuality and cost them their jobs.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It was just unacceptable to me that anyone in the community could not report a crime on their person for fear of losing their employment,” Jordan said.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Meanwhile, McLean was beginning to wonder whether companies looking to open new facilities saw Boise’s lack of legal protection for gays and transsexuals and crossed the city off their lists. Members of the business community confirmed that can happen.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On Thursday, the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce formally endorsed the ordinance.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Earlier this year, the economic development issue came up in a conversation between Jordan and McLean, and the two began piecing together the framework of the measure.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">SANDPOINT’S EXPERIENCE</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The councilors looked at other cities in the region, including Sandpoint, Missoula and several in Utah. Sandpoint is the only Idaho city with a nondiscrimination ordinance on the books.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Some officials in those cities said nondiscrimination laws are a matter of course in modern times. And they said enforcing the ordinance isn’t as labor-intensive as you might think.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Sandpoint, in particular, has had virtually no cases. Jordan and McLean expect a similar outcome in Boise, which they say is already a tolerant place. In fact, a lot of residents believe it’s already illegal to fire people or kick them out of their homes for being gay or transsexual, the women said.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">City spokesman Adam Park said a recent survey commissioned by the city found that an overwhelming majority — 86 percent — of Ada County voters believe that firing someone for reasons of sexuality or gender identity should be illegal.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">THE NEXT STEP</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">McLean said the ordinance is Boise’s way of announcing, on paper, what most residents already believe.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“In my mind, we’re just taking the step to codify something that’s very important, but that the public clearly expects us to codify,” she said.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In addition to protecting employment, housing and public accommodation, the ordinance would prohibit interfering with or retaliating against people who file complaints or participate in the ordinance’s process.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Violations would be a misdemeanor punishable by six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. But putting people in jail isn’t the point, McLean said.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">EDUCATION VS. PROSECUTION</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The proposed ordinance includes a provision that allows for elimination of charges if both the victim and the accused successfully participate in mediation. Sensitivity training and defendants’ commitment to stop discriminating also can result in reduced charges.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">McLean said she hopes the structure of the proposed ordinance will encourage education rather than prosecution.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The law would not apply to churches, religious schools, groups such as the Boy Scouts of America, and local, state and federal governments. Existing law limits how the city can regulate those organizations.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Many governments, groups and businesses already have their own nondiscrimination policies in place. If Boise’s ordinance encourages other organizations to follow suit, that’s fine with Jordan.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“We would be thrilled if this would serve as kind of an example and a template for others to use,” she said.</span></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px !important; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; width: 1px; height: 1px; text-align: left; overflow: hidden; "><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><font><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Read more here: <a href="http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/11/09/2339418/boise-will-consider-gay-rights.html#storylink=cpy">http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/11/09/2339418/boise-will-consider-gay-rights.html#storyli</a></div></font></div></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">-------------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">AND IN MOSCOW . . .</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><img src="cid:4DD4BA4B-DA58-4BDB-9FF8-771641EC5581" alt="image.jpeg" id="4DD4BA4B-DA58-4BDB-9FF8-771641EC5581" width="728" height="956"></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br><div>Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares"</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div> </div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>