Popkey: Painful day in the Idaho Senate as "Add the Words" gay-rights bill killed
By Dan Popkey
Posted: 12:00am on Feb 11, 2012
http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/02/11/1989904/a-painful-day-in-the-idaho-senate.htmlA silent protest greeted the Senate State Affairs Committee's vote to not introduce a bill that would add the words "sexual orientation and gender identity" to Idaho's Human Rights Act. More than 150 signed in for Friday's hearing at the Statehouse, and the hearing had to be moved to accommodate the audience.
It took five minutes for Republicans on the Senate State Affairs Committee to extinguish a bill Friday that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
But the anguish that darkened their faces as Minority Leader Edgar Malepeai pleaded with colleagues to introduce his bill lingered.
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February 11, 2012 in Idaho
Idaho senators reject protections for gays
Proposal to extend anti-bias coverage won't get hearing
Betsy Z. Russell The Spokesman-Review
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/feb/11/idaho-senators-reject-protections-for-gays/BOISE – Efforts to prohibit employment and housing discrimination against gay people in Idaho were rejected Friday by a state Senate committee as a shocked crowd of more than 250 supporters of the human rights bill looked on.
The committee, which includes all four members of the Senate GOP's top leadership, refused to introduce the bill, thus barring a public hearing on it.
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Republican Lawmakers Choose Not to Add the Words
Posted by Andrew Crisp on Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 9:47 AM
http://www.boiseweekly.com/CityDesk/archives/2012/02/10/republican-lawmakers-choose-not-to-add-the-wordsAfter thousands rallied across the state in support of adding the words "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to the Idaho's Civil Rights Act and Human Rights Act, the Senate State Affairs Committee took up the issue this morning, and quickly shot it down.
Sponsored by Pocatello Democrat Sen. Edgar Malepeai, the measure was designed to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity.
"There's obviously a lot of people interested in the issues we have," Nampa Republican Sen. and Committee Chairman Curt McKenzie addressed the crowd, numbering in the hundreds. "With print hearings, we don't take public testimony. But for every person who signs in, and continues to sign it, that becomes part of our record."
