<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr">Courtesy of today’s Lewiston Tribune at:</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><a href="https://lmtribune.com/opinion/opinion-idaho-puts-out-a-welcome-mat-to-bigots/article_4d64d85c-7537-5e9a-83ce-e35f279bd2d5.html">https://lmtribune.com/opinion/opinion-idaho-puts-out-a-welcome-mat-to-bigots/article_4d64d85c-7537-5e9a-83ce-e35f279bd2d5.html</a></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">—————————————————</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><h1 itemprop="headline" class="headline" style="font-family: inherit; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 42px; margin: 0px 100px 0px 0px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.1;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">OPINION: Idaho puts out a welcome mat to bigots</span></h1></div><div dir="ltr"><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">Kyle Chapman, a man with a racist record that includes a pattern of hate speech and violent assaults, has moved to Idaho.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">As the Idaho Statesman’s Nicole Blanchard reported last weekend, Chapman chose Idaho to escape minorities — and he’s encouraged others to follow him.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">“Some cry ETHNOSTATE!! I say ‘Idaho,’ ” Chapman wrote on social media.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">What makes Chapman think he’s wanted here?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">Have you looked at the people running the Gem State?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">Discrimination isn’t just unfortunate in Idaho; it’s the law.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">With the exception of a dozen cities — including Moscow and Lewiston — and Latah County, where local ordinances apply, it is legal in Idaho to deny people employment, housing, education and public accommodations if they are members of the LGBTQ community.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">For 16 years, lawmakers have refused to add the words “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to Idaho’s Human Rights Act. The closest they came was seven years ago. But after listening to one heart-felt story after another during 21 hours of testimony, all 13 Republican members of the House State Affairs Committee voted no.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">Even the brutal and fatal beating of Steven Nelson of Boise near Lake Lowell in 2016 for the simple reason that Nelson was gay did not move Idaho lawmakers to fill a gap in the state’s 1983 hate crime statute.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">Sen. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, who was serving in the Idaho House in 2017, shopped a bill around. Republican lawmakers would not even extend her the courtesy of a hearing:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">“... I have been stopped at every turn, even in the shadow of the murder of Steven Nelson,” she wrote in 2017.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">Nor is it enough for Idaho to simply stand still in the course of human events.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">It’s been taking deliberate steps against minorities.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">Idaho lawmakers have gone out of their way to target the transgender community.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">Two years ago, Idaho became the first state in the union to ban trans athletes from participating in women’s sports — despite opposition from some of Idaho’s largest employers, the advice of Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, the lack of any conflicts within the state of Idaho and strict policies modeled after the NCAA and International Olympic Committee standards already in place.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); background-color: white;">At the same time, the state openly defied federal court rulings by attempting to stop transgender people from amending gender markers on their birth certificates — a move the courts swiftly blocked.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">But for the stalwart Sen. Patti Anne Lodge, R-Caldwell, throwing sand in the legislative gears earlier this year, House members might have had their way by criminalizing medical treatment — authorized by parents — for children suffering from gender dysphoria.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">But it’s not only the transgender community that has come in for legislative animosity.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">More than three years ago, lawmakers — led by Idaho Freedom Foundation acolyte Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls — tore into newly arrived Boise State University President Marlene Tromp because her institution was trying to encourage more diversity on campus.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">When the diversity programs did not shrivel up, the House insisted — and the Senate acquiesced — on cutting the college and university budgets by $2.5 million in 2020. Boise State lost $1 million. University of Idaho and Idaho State University each lost $500,000.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">And as a recent ProPublic and Chronicle for Higher Education study found, the message was received.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">“I lost a lot of faith in Boise State,” BSU doctoral student Melanie Fillmore said. Her convocation speech to incoming freshmen about the treatment of Native Americans in the Treasure Valley was canceled in 2020.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">If that’s not clear enough to minorities in Idaho and elsewhere, then consider the Idaho House’s refusal in 2020 — by a 30-32 vote — to even allow motorists to purchase a vanity license plate with the slogan “Too Great for Hate.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">“Well, clearly, it wasn’t about license plates,” said the sponsor, Sen. Cherie Buckner-Webb, D-Boise, who was then Idaho’s only Black legislator.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">Throw in anecdotes such as Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, posing with the Confederate battle flag in 2015 or Gov. Brad Little’s less than robust response to 31 members of the white nationalist group Patriot Front getting arrested before they could implement their plan to transform Coeur d’Alene’s June 11 LGBTQ pride event into a riot.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.25in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 20.25pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">Should there be any doubt why Chapman and people who share his views find Idaho so attractive?</span></p></div>—————————————————<br><br><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">http://www.MoscowCares.net</span></div><div><br></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><br></div><div>“A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met.”</div><div>- Roy E. Stolworthy</div><div></div></div></div></body></html>