In deference to a request from Boise Democratic Sen. Cherie Buckner-Webb, the Senate and House State Affairs committees will meet Wednesday at 8 a.m. to hear an informational presentation on the effort to add sexual orientation and gender identity to Idaho’s Human Rights Act.
Senate State Affairs Committee Chairman Curt McKenzie, R-Nampa, announced the presentation during his committee meeting Monday. Last year, McKenzie’s committee held a hearing on introducing the “Add the Words” provision, but declined to print the bill. The resulting public outcry was painful for some committee members, who felt badly for rejecting the request from then-Senate Minority Leader Edgar Malepeai of Pocatello, who retired from the Senate last year.
McKenzie said the committee’s view hasn’t changed, however, on adding civil rights protections that apply based on race, gender, religion and national origin.
McKenzie said out of respect for Buckner-Webb he agreed to a 45 minute to one-hour presentation. But no bill will be considered for introduction. Formal public testimony won’t be taken and opponents won’t be asked to speak. Buckner-Webb is organizing the event, he said.
“I don’t like putting the committee through a vote on this issue where it’s unlikely to get through the process,” McKenzie said. “It’s not going to be a hearing. It’s just a presentation.”
The joint meeting will take place in the Lincoln Auditorium on the Capitol’s garden level.
“I don’t like putting the committee through a vote on this issue where it’s unlikely to get through the process.” I say make (or allow, depending on your point of view) them go on record. It’s not like you are asking them to cut off a leg. This is just condescension. Buckner-Webb should tell them where to stick it.
Will this legislature ever join the twenty first century? This is an issue of basic justice, equality and human rights.
I disagree. It’s not an issue of basic justice, equality or human rights. How can giving one class of citizen more rights than another be equality? Does one person feel more pain by being assaulted than another? Is a person’s pain greater if they are part of a “special” group? Is one persons loss greater than another if they are different than another? Seems like racism, bigotry and intolerance to me if one self designated group is treated differently than another. Assault of any kind is hurtful to anyone regardless of who they are.
Many people who say this haven’t actually thought this through.
This does not give rights or protections to any one group of people but actually protects us all. While we consider this to be about gay, transgenders etc… it honestly covers us all.
Think about what they want added. It does not say “homosexual” It says “sexual orientation”
Under current Idaho law you can be banned from work, evicted from you house or refused services because of your sexual identity. That INCLUDES being heterosexual. You can get fired for being married to someone of the opposite sex in Idaho.
What they want added is protection against discrimination based on sexual identity. Yes, by and large we think of that as meaning being “gay” but the truth is it protects everyone equally.
OleManIdaho
I fail to see how this adds additional ‘rights’ to anyone; this adds additional protections to prevent discrimination for *everyone*. Yes, I said everyone….and here’s why. Right now, a person can’t be discriminated against when trying to get housing, a job, or other basics because of their race, their religion, nationality, etc. Those are basic rights that most people agree are important to Idahoans. Right now, if a landlord wanted to, he could tell a STRAIGHT couple “I’m sorry, I won’t rent my property to you because you are straight” and it would be perfectly LEGAL. Right now, an employer can refuse to hire someone because they are heterosexual, saying “We’re sorry, but this job is for gays only”. Right now, you can’t be denied housing because you are Male, which is right and good. However, if you were born male, but identified yourself as female, you could be denied housing, or a job and it would be LEGAL. Are you saying that this kind of discrimination is right, AND the kind of image that the people of Idaho want to project??? There are significant portions of the population that identify Idaho with Neo-Nazi Skinheads, is this the kind of image that we want to perpetuate? This isn’t about giving anyone special rights, this is about protecting the rights of everyone….
@Mark Wolverton:
Mark,
Well said; I could not agree more. I do hope someday our representatives and senators make progress in protecting all Idahoans.
Get it out of my face! Don’t ask, don’t tell and don’t brag and only then will you be accepted.
You are what is wrong with Idaho and other places…. Stop flaunting your stupidity and you wont’ be judged
All anyone wants is to be treated equally… Now the problem with this is that adding the words protects on a basic level but since Idaho is a right to work state no one is protected. We need to change this state it is dragging down the middle class and the lower class is falling lower and lower into despair. Things need to change but Idaho doesn’t want to change it wants to continue stuffing money into the richest people’s pockets by creating less revenue from companies and giving the burden to the lower and middle class. If we can’t even get basic needs fulfilled how does anyone expect that this campaign will go anywhere. We need a change of guard vote these old legislatures out and put some new blood in!! Like me!!
And the GOP wonders why it can’t attract fringe voters. Like myself, a fiscal conservative. I will never vote Republican until they stop aligning themselves with the christian right… well, unless the christian right decides to actually practice what they preach. Jesus loves everyone! Well, except gay people. Oh, and people who truly need assistance, Jesus doesn’t like them either. And Jesus has a serious issue with anyone who doesn’t believe exactly what *insert religious organization name here* believes. I won’t vote Democrat, because I don’t believe in their fiscal policy. But I will never again associate with any organization, political or otherwise, that believes exclusion is the answer.
I agree with the guy above that nobody should be discriminated against, straight or gay. It angers me though that the people in question are covering their mouths and feigning despair and weeping in order to get their point across. That kind of behaviour is what makes people disregard and ignore gay peoples wishes. Act and speak like an adult, don’t act like you deserve special treatment because you are gay/straight or black, purple or green, and you will likely be dealt with in a humane and decent manner by the politicians you perceive as being hateful racists. Everything is an act with the left. I don’t know of one case of anti gay discrimination in the state of Idaho. I’m sure there have been, but why don’t you articulate that instead of “acting up?” You can get the support you ask for, but you have to be mature and be serious if you want to be respected. But act like that in the picture, and you will run in to the brick walls here in Idaho. Every time.
We voted these people into office to do a job, not to hide. I say they should definitely need to go on record instead of consistently dodging this issue. Honestly, this is shameful for our state.
By failing to include anti-discrimination protections regarding “sexual orientation or gender identity”, the state is, by default, creating state sponsored discrimination. Sen McKenzie and his ilk are declaring that it’s OK to discriminate against particular groups of people. The law in question governs activities of the Human Rights Commission. What is it, in particular, that makes this group of people less human and therefore less eligible of human rights than any other group?