Long has Idaho stood as a pillar of conservative politics, consistently bucking federal power when it meddles in state business, aiming for self-governance above all else.
Those standards do not apply to the cities and counties that reside within.
A new legislation (HB557) passed the Idaho House at the beginning of February, giving the state legislature complete authority over local government entities in discrimination practices concerning gender or sexuality.
Though this bill preaches “uniformity” in anti-discrimination laws, it instead sends the message that the state government would rather consolidate these decisions than allow local citizens and individual businesses to decide for themselves.
For local Boise businesses, this bill amplifies the fear and prejudice felt by the communities that depend on them. Local nondiscriminatory ordinances shape workplace culture and customer trust — factors state lawmakers cannot account for or anticipate hundreds of miles away.
“It puts a lot of fear in people,” said Jessica Pallante, the gift shop manager of Flying-M coffee. “It should be about what the city feels like and the fact that some are choosing to not be inclusive is upsetting.”
Boise voters and city leaders repeatedly chose to enact their own nondiscrimination standards to serve their citizens and businesses. HB 557 overrides those decisions and replaces them with a one-size-fits-all mandate from the statehouse while stripping the LGBTQ community of its local voice.
Small businesses rely heavily on perception and community trust. Without those protections, owners may face economic challenges from staffing shortages to reputational damage.
Mullet Proof, a beauty salon located in Boise, posted a statement in response to the bill on their Instagram, echoing these sentiments:
“Our business, being mostly queer operated and patroned could stand to lose everything. The safe space we have created could be jeopardized. We must fight back.”
Supporters argue adequate protections already exist at the state and federal levels. However, the Idaho Human Rights Act does not currently include protections for sexual orientation or gender, which is precisely why many local policies were enacted to pick up the slack.
Idaho consistently champions local control when it comes to federal decisions, from public land disputes to mask mandates, emphasizing that decision-making belongs in the hands of individuals affected. The Idaho legislature now asks cities to surrender their agency to the state — despite the outcries from the citizens the state represents.
If enacted, HB 557 redefines who gets to decide what kind of community Idaho’s cities can be at the expense of local businesses, reinforcing the new motto of hypocrisy for our state legislature:
Rules for thee and not for me.
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Another important point about HB 557 is that it is unquestionably unconstitutional, and if it is passed, Idaho will have to spend millions defending the indefensible. In 1996, the US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Romer vs Evans that Colorado could not prevent cities like Denver, Boulder, and Aspen from having their own non-discrimination laws. Supporters of this ridiculous law pretend it’s different than Colorado’s Amendment 2, but it’s not – it’s a tired retread There’ can be no question that the reason this law is being put forward is NOT to have “consistency”, it’s to hate on LGBTQ people. That is a violation of the 14th amendment. If Idaho wanted consistency in state law everywhere they’d advocate eliminating city and county government all together. Instead they just want everyone to deny service to gay people, fire lesbians, and deny transgender people housing. What an awful law, and what an awful state for even considering it.