'By Omission'

On Friday, in a hearing before the Idaho Senate State Affairs Committee, Senators Nicole LeFavour (D-Boise) and Charles Coiner (R-Twin Falls) introduced legislation prohibiting employment, housing and education discrimination based on an individual's real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.  The bill proposed amending the Idaho Human Rights Act to include these protections.  This wasn't the first time Senator LeFavour has introduced such a bill and, unfortunately for supporters who were hoping to see it enacted this year, it won't be the last.

In a fourteen-minute, at times emotional, presentation, Senator LeFavour simply asked that the committee acknowledge that the issue merits further discussion and to print the bill.  Offering to stand for questions upon closing, members of the committee responded with silence.  No questions.  None. 

After a motion to print from Senator Joe Stegner (R-Lewiston) and a second from Senator Kate Kelly (D-Boise), others of the committee, Senators Russ Fulcher (R-Meridian), Monty Pearce (R-New Plymouth), Bob Geddes (R-Soda Springs) and Denton Darrington (R-Declo), voted no.

Idaho Public Television's Thanh Tan interviewed an emotional Senator LeFavour after the vote.

"[It's] that worry that at school when they're taunted, a teacher doesn't even know if they can address it.  In many cases they don't have the backing of any piece of law to say that they can stop discrimination in schools—they can stop kids from being taunted and harassed.  It's by omission that we basically say it's okay to discriminate," LeFavour tells Tan.

The consequences of tacitly endorsing discrimination can be devastating, especially to kids.

This artwork was created by a young man in Washington state who committed suicide after being mercilessly harassed at school and was published in a Safe Schools Coalition report.  The five-year study, conducted in Washington schools examining anti-gay harassment and violence among kindergarten through grade twelve and published in 1999, found 111 incidents of school-based anti-gay harassment and violence, many leading to suicidal thought and acts.  [Read this post for more.]

How many such incidents occur in Idaho schools?  We don't know.  Once again, the Idaho Legislature has also essentially said that the State of Idaho doesn't care.

Senator Fulcher told the Idaho Statesman, "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?'"

Leaving aside for a moment debate regarding the accuracy of Fulcher's premise, the obvious response is that the state already protects a huge behavior-based group:  religion.  So back to the debate and bringing in the artwork above again, most people who have grappled at one time or another with questions of sexual orientation will tell you as the young man says, "This is not my choice. ... This just is."

By omission we have tacitly endorsed discrimination.  On her blog, LeFavour described it as "losing ground in silence."

Comments

[thepoliticalgame]

And over at the IVA, Bryan Fischer is touting this as a victory and saying how this bill would have threatened "constitutionally guaranteed rights." Which constitutional rights?

He lists the freedom of association, speech, religion and conscience. Yes, conscience. I'd like him to point out to me where in the United States Constitution the word conscience appears. Even if we were to include the entire text of the Declaration of Independence, which most self-righteous, pompous, extremist conservatives often mistakenly quote or refer to when they are talking about our constitutional rights, there still isn't any mention of freedom of conscience. In some sort of broad interpretation of the the First Amendment we can suppose freedom of religion and conscience are intertwined, but I doubt Fischer is making that particular point.

In addition to what Senator LeFavour suggests in the video clip, I would be very surprised if Bryan Fischer has ever read the entire Constitution.

Maybe he's just commenting on his apparent lack of conscience...

[Gabi Clayton]

I'm the mother of Bill Clayton whose artwork is in this story and in the Safe Schools Coalition's report.

Thank you so much for this report, and for all the work of Senators Nicole LeFavour and Charles Coiner and all who work with you.

I know this will save lives.

[MountainGoat]

Thank you for stopping by, Gabi, and for all the work you have done in bringing this issue into the open and making schools safe for kids.

Someday, the state of Idaho will recognize its importance, too.