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Loading ...Idaho LGBT rights bill dies in committee
02.24.2009 10:26am EST
(Boise, Idaho) Idaho state Sen. Nicole LeFavour (D) left a Senate committee hearing in tears after a bill she sponsored that would have added protections for gays and lesbians to the Human Rights Act was defeated.
In presenting the bill, LeFavour, the the state’s only gay lawmaker, told the committee that gays and lesbians in Idaho “live in fear” that they can be fired. “This is a way of prohibiting the most egregious forms of discrimination,” she said.“By virtue of its omission, many employers and individuals feel it is OK.”
About 50 members of the LGBT community filled the Senate State Affairs Committee hoping to see the measure advance to a vote on the Senate floor.
They were visibly upset when it was dismissed on a simple voice vote.
Sen. Russ Fulcher (R) told that committee: “Senator LeFavour looks at this as a genetic difference and others, including myself, look at this as a behavioral difference. Given that, the debate becomes, ‘Do you look at making provisions based on behavior?’ ”
“I’m not interested in giving special rights,” he said. “I don’t want to see anybody persecuted or harassed, but I think we have an experience of the past showing that when we give special rights to people, it always comes back to bite us.”
The vote effectively kills the measure this year. A similar bill failed the same way a last year.
LeFavour vowed she would bring in the bill again next year.
I live in ID (although not from ID) and I’m just sickened when I see how backwards a**ed this state is. I’m sorry everyone. My new home state is cruel, ignorant, and full of enough morons to stop equality in its tracks.
DOUCHEBAGS!
I agree with Randy. Why purchase another potato from Idaho? After the prop 8 travesty in CA I stopped purchasing CA oranges, and when available I have been substituting clementines from Spain. PEI potatoes are a perfect substitute for Idaho potatoes, and I’ll be sure not to buy a single potato from a bigoted state.
Yeah Chris – there go my dreams of owning a gay resort there – I had my “Studs and Spuds” promotion all planned out and everything.
Yes Eddie, certain states do seem to have their fair share of uneducated homophobes… I guess since the definition of “ignorance” is a “lack of knowledge” – it makes sense.
I am so shocked I could just shit myself.
A state with 1.5% of the population having a post secondary education not understanding gay rights issues?
I am so so so so shocked.
I gave up chips and fries long ago, so when I eat potatoes it’s because I bought them at the grocery myself. My potatoes come from Prince Edward Island. In a tight economy, I make sure my cash doesn’t support bigots.
I wonder, if every GLBT person in this country were to wake up with pink skin tomorrow – would we get equal rites then?
Mr. Fulcher already has his special rights. Why can’t he see that we want the same special rights that he so luckily has?
I hope all of his kids turn out queer. That is the only way he will realize what he hath done!
I can almost stretch my reason far enough to conceed that this MIGHT loosely be a “special privilege” only because it is making a group of people part of a protected class. It is warped, yes I know, but explainable.
This does not mean, however, that laws such as visitation, marriage, filing taxes jointly, etc are “special privileges”. There is no protected class for those things. Those things are supposed to be universal.
So does that mean if sexual orientation is not on the list of protected citizens, then they are equal just like all other citizens and can therefore partake in activities and civic rights and privileges as everyone else?
Well said Bud.
Lets hope LeFavour does not give up and also our rights are granted at the federal level.
“When we give out special rights to people it comes back to bite us” Any hard evidence to back up your flat earth like claims ? Better to err on the side of being mean.
Tom in Long Beach
Thank you, Rev. Burgoon-Clark, for saying exactly what I was thinking.
Senator Russ Fulcher
Idaho State Senate
rfulcher@overarch.com
Senator Fulcher:
You are quoted as saying,
“Senator LeFavour looks at this as a genetic difference and others including myself look at this as a behavioral difference. Given that the debate becomes ‘Do you look at making provisions based on behavior?’ ”
“I’m not interested in giving special rights” he said.
“I don’t want to see anybody persecuted or harassed but I think we have an experience of the past showing that when we give special rights to people it always comes back to bite us.”
Senator, I would like to know to whom “special rights” have been given in the past, and in what way they “always come back to bite us.”
To whom are you referring?
Women?
African-Americans?
Labor union members?
Who?
I don’t consider the right to keep a job without fear of being fired for being gay a “special right.” Nor do I consider it a “special right” to be able to walk down the street without being beaten or murdered for “walking while gay.”
Equality is the touchstone of our Constitution and the reason this country came into being. You make a mockery of that by declaring BASIC HUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS to be “special rights.”
If you are a Christian, sir, are you familiar with these words of Jesus?
“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Sincerely,
The Rev’d Brother Raymond H. Burgoon-Clark
Superior (retired)
The Community of the Resurrection
San Diego CA USA
Sen Fulcher’s arrogance is exceeded only by his ignorance.
I’m so sad right now but not surprised, that is why I got the hell out of Idaho. But when I left, my girlfriend was denied unemployment because quitting a job to move with your “friend” isn’t a valid reason to quit. Glad she isn’t going to give up.