I oppose the decision to print a bill seeking to outlaw same-sex marriage in Idaho. To the Democratic and Republican politicians on the House State Affairs Committee who voted to print this bill yesterday, I say that this is an unambiguous move to trample civil rights.
As governor, I would fight this attack on a minority group—the LGBTQIA+ community—for the following reasons:
- It makes zero sense to take rights away from people who harm no one.
- Leaders should not kneel to the insatiable demands of a powerful group, with a self-proclaimed religious mandate, especially when that same group demands that the government honor their “religious freedom”—be assured, many religious folks support marriage equality.
- It is disgusting for crass politicians to inflame the passions of their most vociferous supporters for political gain.
- It is puny and cruel to create laws that give one class of people more rights than another based on who they love—this Apartheid for the LGBTQIA+ community.
- This bill is part of a noxious nationwide effort to set American rights back 165 years, or so, and turn America into the kind of theocracy that once burned innocent women in Salem for political gain.
- The only debate here is just how much freedom do our lawmakers think is too much freedom for the people who elected them.
On a personal note, I am a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, mother of a gay daughter, and friends with so many in the queer community whom I love and admire. We all know that printing this bill is a direct attack on our Civil Rights. Voting to give this bill the platform of a hearing in our Capitol breathes life into some of the darkest political and societal impulses that history warns can only have ugly, dangerous consequences for all of us.
To say that I am disappointed would be a gargantuan understatement.