GOP urges lawmakers to erase LGBT protections

Republican Party leaders are urging the Idaho Legislature to put a stop to local communities’ efforts to provide discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals.

The approval of the non-binding resolution came Saturday at the GOP’s annual Central Committee summer meeting in McCall.

The GOP-dominated Idaho Legislature has refused to add housing and workplace protections for gays and lesbians to the Idaho Human Rights Act.

As a consequence, numerous municipalities including Pocatello, Coeur d’Alene, Sandpoint, Ketchum, Moscow and Boise are passing their own local protections. Idaho Falls is considering one of its own.

That didn’t sit well with the majority of Republicans in McCall, who say that Idaho lawmakers should put a stop to it.

According to the resolution, the Legislature should pass a law making local discrimination protections unenforceable if they go beyond the state’s protections.