Samantha Chaffin
Editor-in-Chief
After years of fighting for lawmakers to hear them out, proponents of the Add The Words bill saw their hard work die before it could even come to life on Jan. 29 as the bill was killed in the House State Affairs committee.
For anyone who hasn’t heard, Add The Words is a slogan encouraging lawmakers in Idaho to add the four words “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” to the Idaho Human Rights Act, thus extending protections regarding housing and employment to individuals who identify as gay, lesbian or transgender, for example.
After nearly a decade of battling to be heard, the hearing culminated with three long, emotional days of testimony from hundreds of advocates and opponents for both sides both sides of the issue.
Yet, with all of that discussion, a 13 to 4 party-line vote blocked the bill from even reaching the House floor for full discussion and a vote.
Religious freedoms and discrimination are both important issues that need to be discussed, addressed and most importantly protected.
By killing this in committee, the House State Affairs committee has effectively said the opposite: these things don’t matter, or they only matter in part.
In the 1958 U.S. Supreme Court case Trop v. Dulles, the ruling mentioned the phrase “evolving standards of decency in a maturing society,” a phrase that I think Idaho lawmakers need to keep in mind as they fail to react, let alone be proactive, with regard to changing times. The Supreme Court shouldn’t be the only government structure to work toward progress, even in the year 2015.
Rather than providing even the mere opportunity for the entire House to vote on the issue, the House State Affairs committee instead chose to continue to cling to static concepts and tradition. The committee effectively silenced the voices of the rest of Idaho’s leadership as well as the voices of the hundreds who proved that it was time the issue be given a closer look.
Religious freedom and equality are tricky things in terms of the law and the constitution, but I have faith that they are things that we can resolve without precluding the conversation.
Freedom, equality and superiority are different things, after all.
For me personally, the fact that the committee vote came along party lines serves as a reminder that our leadership continues to flock with tradition in order to secure the approval of their party rather than the approval of their constituents.
Whether the outcome would have been different were the issue taken to the full House for a vote I can’t say, although I could speculate a guess.
Regardless, the committee didn’t give them the chance. Instead, it stifled the voices of every LGBTQIA person in the state of Idaho as well as the voices of the House members whose job it is to represent them and all of Idaho.
It is their job to discuss the issues those four words may bring with them, as well as the benefits. It is their job and the committee didn’t let them do it.
As Idahoans, no matter which side of the matter you stand on, you should be outraged.
Those of you who don’t wish to see those four words added may ask why.
“Why should we be outraged when we don’t have to worry about an issue we don’t agree with coming to fruition?”
Because someday when the tables are turned and further issues arise, you may not be so lucky as to be in agreement. Because now, this committee and others now and in the future will be able to look back at what they can accomplish, or prevent accomplishing, without ever bothering to ask the rest of our elected representatives.
It’s just four little words.
Why did it take almost a decade for a committee to even consider listening? Why are those four words so terrifying that we can’t even let our elected officials vote on them?
