Gookin doesn't play to crowd at Reagan Republicans meeting

COEUR d'ALENE — The Kootenai County Reagan Republicans learned — perhaps were reminded — that Coeur d'Alene City Councilman Dan Gookin doesn't tell people what they want to hear.

Even if that means stepping on a landmine or two.

Far from playing to a crowd Thursday, he told members of the Republican activist group exactly what he thinks. In a couple instances he knew the words wouldn't be well received.

First, he didn't back down from his vote to approve an anti-discrimination ordinance to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. And it's not lost on him that it's a major social issue for the Republican group's members.

"When the anti-discrimination ordinance came up I researched the crap out of it," Gookin said, speaking in the banquet room at The Fedora Pub and Grille in Coeur d'Alene.

He wanted to know if there would be a good reason to vote against it.

"There wasn't," he said. "People should have a right to be able to go out and operate in public without fear of being discriminated against."

"I don't believe somebody else has the right to come into my home or my business and tell me I have to give them service," said Reagan Republicans president Jeff Ward. "That goes against, totally, the whole American idea of what rights are."

Lora Gervais, another leader of the Republican group, told Gookin that employers are fearful of being sued because of the ordinance. The ordinance passed in 2013, but nobody has been sued.

"If a gay person (or) a seemingly gay person were to come in, (business owners) have to hire them regardless if they are qualified or not," Gervais said.

Second, Gookin told them he isn't a Republican. He's not even a Libertarian, but a political independent.

"Are you a right-winger?" Gervais asked.

"Oh, hell no," Gookin responded. "I consider myself philosophically libertarian, but I wouldn't join the party. They're full of nuts."

Gookin, a city councilman since 2012, is running for re-election and his only opponent dropped out of the race recently.