Government and Politics

Idaho's Gay Rights Shift

As gay Idahoans entered 2015 with the legal right to marry they also brace for that right to be undermined at the nation's highest court. Meanwhile LGBTQ people sought the Idaho legislature's protection from discrimination. The so-called "add the words" movement did not win at the state level, but a larger legal victory sealed the right for all Idahoans--and all Americans--to marry in 2015. LGBTQ people and their supporters prepared to capitalize on that victory in Idaho in 2016.

Idaho Governor Pledges To Continue Fight Against Gay Marriage This Year

NWNews

Published January 12, 2015 at 5:46 PM PST

Tabitha Simmons (left) and Katherine Sprague received one of the first marriage licenses in Idaho in October.

Idaho's governor vowed in his state of the state address Monday to continue the legal fight against gay marriage.

Same-sex marriage has been legal in Idaho since October after a federal appeals court threw out the state’s voter-passed ban.

But Gov. Butch Otter said in his annual address he has a responsibility to defend Idaho's constitution.

“And to do so based on its content now, not on changing societal values since it was enacted or how any of us would rewrite it today,” Otter said.

Last month, a federal judge ordered the state to pay more than $400,000 in legal fees to the attorneys who fought the state and overturned the law.

But Otter and the state attorney general are hoping the Supreme Court will reinstate Idaho’s ban. The justices could decide this week whether to hear a challenge to state bans on same-sex marriage.

Meanwhile, the Idaho legislature is expected to hold a hearing this year on a separate gay rights bill. Gay rights activists have been asking lawmakers for years to pass a law that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.