'Add the Words' headed for hearing

COEUR d'ALENE - Idaho lawmakers have agreed to consider a controversial proposal they've shunned even discussing for nearly a decade.

The House Ways and Means Committee convened Wednesday to address proposed legislation commonly referred to as "Add the Words," which has failed to get a hearing for the past nine years.

The bill would add four words to the Idaho Human Rights Act that would add protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Members of the Ways and Means Committee, which is usually convened toward the end of the session to either accelerate or kill legislation, agreed 6-1 to print the bill and give it a full hearing.

House Minority Leader John Rusche, D-Lewiston, presented the bill to the committee.

"This is really a very simple bill," Rusche said. "It enhances Idaho's freedom, it protects against discrimination in education, employment and public accommodation. It simply states that sexual orientation or gender identity cannot be used to deny rights and opportunity available to Idahoans."

Public testimony isn't allowed at print hearings, but House Speaker Scott Bedke said a full public hearing would be scheduled the week of Jan. 26.

"It's time," Bedke said. "It was a collective feeling that we wanted to have a hearing on a bill, not a hearing to introduce, and we can do that easily."

House Assistant Majority Leader Brent Crane, R-Nampa, cast the only dissenting vote.

"If you believe, as I do, that traditional marriage holds this society together, this is the first toehold to peel away traditional marriage," Crane said, adding that he doesn't see any compromise where an anti-discrimination law could be passed that also protected religious freedom.

Reps. Kathy Sims, R-Coeur d'Alene; Don Cheatham, R-Post Falls; and Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens, sit on the House State Affairs Committee which will conduct the hearing.

None of the local legislators could be reached for comment late Wednesday afternoon.

During the 2014 legislative session proponents of the bill protested the Legislature repeatedly, which resulted in more than 100 arrests.

While the Legislature has been slow to act on the legislation, 10 Idaho cities have passed anti-discrimination ordinances to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

• Rally scheduled

Advocates for proposed legislation that would add protection from discrimination based on sexual identity and gender orientation to the Idaho Human Rights Act will hold a rally Saturday in Coeur d'Alene.

The event is being hosted by the local chapter of PFLAG, a nonprofit formerly known as Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

The rally will start at 4:15 p.m. in the parking lot of the Human Rights Education Institute, 414 W. Mullan Ave.

A similar rally will take place in Boise on Saturday.

Information: (208) 907-1078 or [email protected].