Written by Kiryn Willett and Spencer Rentfro
House Joint Memorial 1
On Monday, Jan. 27, 2025, the Idaho House of Representatives requested for the Supreme Court to reconsider the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges case that legalized same-sex marriage in the United States.
The purpose of House Joint Memorial 1 is to emphasize the Idaho Legislature’s commitment to defining marriage as a “union between one man and one woman” and asks for the Supreme Court to leave the authority of marriage to the states.
The memorial recently passed the Idaho House on a 46-24 vote. The memorial is not a bill and doesn’t carry the same effect of the law.
Sponsor of the memorial, Republican Rep. Heather Scott has not yet responded to The Arbiter’s request for comment on why the memorial was created.
Nine House Democrats and 15 House Republicans opposed the memorial. One of the representatives who voted against the memorial’s passing is Democratic Rep. Monica Church.
Church says she voted against the memorial for multiple factors, one of them being that the memorial denies “human dignity”.
“It just remains to be a memorial, a statement made without consideration of its blatant unconstitutionality,” Church said. “Also it’s kind of [a] fly in the face of where the country is.”
Church said another factor for voting against the memorial was because of its conflict with the principle of due process. Church argued that the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges wasn’t just about marriage but also equal treatment under the law, specifically in terms of contractual rights.
“Obergefell was not so much about marriage as it was about due process,” Church said. “Marriage is a contract, and contracts come with all of these different benefits — You can’t treat people differently under the law. What we had in the country and what we would have again is different rules for marriage. In one state, you would get these benefits, but in another state, you would not.”
“I have no idea the pain and the anguish and the suffering that our LGBTQ Idahoans and all across this country are feeling,” Church said. “I wouldn’t pretend to fully grasp that but I have to believe it is just devastating.”
With this memorial and a wave of 14 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in Idaho in 2024, Church expressed sympathy for the LGBTQ+ Idaho community.
After being passed by the Idaho House, House Joint Memorial 1 is expected to be taken up by the Idaho Senate soon.
On Jan. 20, 2025, the Party for Social and Liberalism (PSL) in Idaho protested against the memorial.
Adelynn Spargo, an organizer for PSL, highlighted that the crowd from the protest was largely college students, indicating that the issue resonates with the younger generation.
Spargo said while the memorial doesn’t have any legal power at this time, its main purpose is to be a “intimidation tactic” for younger LGBTQ+ members.
“I think that the younger generation specifically is supposed to be intimidated because the bounds made by older generations aren’t holding up anymore,” Spargo said. “We aren’t protected — problems that we thought were historical issues apply to us still, so even if this memorial doesn’t have legal power yet, I think it’s meant to scare people, to isolate them, to make us think that essentially the atmosphere hasn’t changed enough for the new generation to be safe or protected.”
Spargo pointed out that while Boise may feel more progressive in terms of LGBTQ+ acceptance, much of Idaho consists of rural communities where interactions with LGBTQ+ individuals may be limited.
“I think there has been a bit of a regression over the past couple of years [with LGBTQ+ acceptance] and I think that reflects the nation at large right now,” Spargo said. “I think that Idaho might be its own special case in how hard people seem to be doubling down on passing bills.”
As an Idaho native, Spargo expressed her fear that as Idaho continues to grow, its socio-political climate may attract people who may support policies that could disenfranchise the LGBTQ+ community.
“I am worried, because I live here, that big political moves like this embolden the wrong people to come to my home,” Spargo said.
Dobbs v. Jackson overturning Roe v. Wade effectively returned the authority to regulate abortion laws to individual states. Boise State Political Science Associate Professor Dr. Jacelyn Kettler mentioned overturning Obergefell v. Hodges could return same-sex marriages to the state’s control.
“What happened similar to Dobbs [v. Jackson], where you overturn Roe [v. Wade], and the decision brought about abortion to the states, perhaps that’s what some of these actors want to happen, is to have the decision about same-sex marriage at the state level,” Kettler said.
Kettler says interest groups, both for and against LGBTQ+ rights, can have an impact on the drafting of legislative bills, mentioning examples from the Idaho Family Policy Center and the Alliance Defending Freedom. Kettler mentions that they can also impact bills by spreading similar bills to various states.
“These organizations can track legislation — helping bring attention to what’s being proposed,” Kettler said. “Some interest groups are also really involved in helping craft legislation, potentially providing it to legislators.”
Kettler mentioned an example of this seen in Idaho in 2020 when Idaho became the first state to ban transgender athletes from competing in college athletics. Currently, 25 states have laws banning transgender athletes from participating in sports aligned with their gender identity.
Kettler expressed that the future of LGBTQ+ protections in Idaho remains unclear, specifically with the recent shift in the political landscape.
“I think right now there’s uncertainty for everyone, but I’m sure uncertainty for people in some of these populations that have had so much legislation focused on them,” Kettler said. “That it’s a lot to kind of wade through right now, to try to figure out.”
According to a map from the Movement Advancement Project, Idaho, along with 14 other states, are classified as having a “negative overall policy tally” due to their policies against LGBTQ+ individuals. Some of these categories of laws include: criminal justice, health care and nondiscrimination.
Legislation on the LGBTQ+ community
Over the last few years, the Idaho Legislature passed multiple bills regarding the LGBTQ+ community and their rights.
In 2023, Governor Little signed House Bill (HB) 71 into law after it passed the Idaho legislature. The bill banned gender-affirming care for minors. In 2024, the legislature passed HB701, which allows individuals to sue libraries for having content harmful to children, including depictions of homosexuality.
According to Morrighan Nyx, an organizer for the PSL, this represents an escalation in legislative “attacks” on the LGBTQ+ community both nationally and in Idaho.
“The fact of the matter is, these kinds of acts are done with a purpose. It is meant to send a message to the LGBTQ community and its supporters that this kind of rising campaign of demonization and isolation that’s been targeting LGBTQ people, both nationwide and here in Idaho, is going to continue,” Nyx said. “They are putting a target on the LGBTQ community, and making it clear that they are not interested in stopping or slowing the attack on LGBTQ rights, that they have every intention of continuing this far right march.”
While Nyx noted a distinct shift in legislature, she said community attitudes remain more positive.
“The people overwhelmingly are in support of LGBTQ people and of the rights of LGBTQ people,” Nyx said. “And we have to really understand that these policy shifts aren’t the result of a shift to the right among the population, they are a shift to the right in both major political parties and in the broader kind of system itself.”
Nyx said this is an intentional move to divert the attention of the public away from key issues, such as healthcare, natural disasters, low wages and poverty.
“Instead of addressing any of those issues which they easily could, they instead try to divert attention to whichever minority community, whichever social issue that they think can distract people,” said Nyx. “You know, it’s … ‘Don’t ask us why your wages are stagnating. Focus on gay marriage.’”
Nyx believes that the “attacks” on the LGBTQ+ community serve as a way to avoid improving the living and working conditions of all people. For Nyx and the PSL, oppression of one group of people is inextricably linked to another.
“The attacks on LGBTQ people are not focused on protecting kids or protecting families. They’re focused on demonizing and isolating a portion of the population so that they can be further exploited,” Nyx said. “They speak for the wealthy, they speak for the powerful.”
Ezra Howell, founder and volunteer coordinator of the Boise Trans Collective (BTC), witnessed the memorial’s impact on the community firsthand, as friends rush to fast track their marriages and some ordained friends offer their services free of charge.
“In my personal, not to be like a d*ck. I’m like, I kind of told you. So, you know, when we saw Roe v. Wade be overturned, I knew that Obergefell was, you know, next on the chopping block. And even though, you know, we don’t really know what’s going to happen with Idaho requesting this review for states rights to be able to decide,” Howell said. “We’ve been shouting it from the rooftops that they have it like they weren’t just going to come to us, come for us, that, you know, an attack on trans people was just them getting their foot in the door to attack other minorities and strip others right away…They’re, they’re coming for all minorities that don’t fit within their cishet, white, Christian, male nationalist persona.”
During the first Trump presidency, Howell said there were “inklings” of the anti-trans sentiments and policies, such as banning trans people from military service. Howell said they knew a second presidency would take more extreme stances than the first.
“Especially as the process of the new election ramped up, that’s when things started to really get bad. So I would say like, 2021, 2022 when people are starting to think about MAGA [Make America Great Again] 2024 again, trans people became a very hot button topic, because that’s what happens around the election cycles,” Howell said. “The politicians kind of latch on to these topics that are going to gain or lose them points. So you start seeing them talk about trans rights and gay rights and immigration and the economy and indigenous people.”
Anti-DEI measures in Idaho
While the LGBTQ+ community has been the focus of multiple pieces of legislation, the Idaho legislature has implemented multiple Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) roll-backs.
Eric Love, the former Boise State graduate who got Idaho to recognize MLK Day as a state holiday, said these rollbacks on DEI legislation will negatively impact all students, not just marginalized communities.
Love discussed the closure of the Gender Equity Center (GEC) at Boise State, and other support offices closing in public colleges across Idaho.
“I think in the long run, these actions will end up on the wrong side of history,” said Love. “We will look back at this time and say that was a time we stepped way back and really hurt our society and hurt our country.”
Love said that closing the GEC over Thanksgiving break was unfair to both students who relied on the center, and the staff who dedicated their lives to serving students.
“When you shut them down, it seems like it would adversely affect just students of color or any special populations, but it really affects all students, because even white students in Idaho won’t have those resources to go and learn about other people, about history, about culture,” Love said. “Once they enter the workforce, they’re likely to be behind and may have difficulty adjusting in an environment where now they have much more diversity in a workforce than they did growing up in Idaho.”
Without attending speeches, listening to programs or having access to resources that these centers often provide, Love said white students would be at a disadvantage entering the workforce.
“It seems like the legislature’s intent was to harm people of color and [minority] groups, but it actually harms majority students as well because they will be ill-prepared to work in a diverse world,” said Love.
According to Love, the idea that DEI initiatives are anti-white or teach students to hate America, is a misconception.
Growing up in Idaho, Love didn’t read works from an African American author for a school assignment until he reached high school. He read some of MLK’s work for the assignment, but it wasn’t until he got to college that he got the opportunity to explore his identity more.
“It wasn’t until I went to Boise State, and they had classes on multicultural literature, and I got involved in the Black Student Alliance and the Dean of Multicultural Student Services office that I started learning more about myself and feeling like I really belong in Idaho and at Boise State,” Love said. “And so the narrative that focusing on minorities teaches, or focuses on the history that’s inclusive somehow teaches people to not like the United States, I think, is a false narrative.”
Love cited the idea that DEI initiatives only benefit people of color as another popular misconception.
“And so when you do away with diversity programs and DEI initiatives, it’s adversely affecting white women, because they’re the majority of the chief diversity officers,” Love said. “And it’s not just about people of color, it’s about those with disabilities. It’s about veterans, any marginalized group that may need help adjusting or feeling more comfortable or confident on campus. That’s what those offices do, they just welcome a diverse student population and make them feel more valued and comfortable on campus.”
Love emphasized the necessity for DEI programs due to America’s “history of exclusion”. During World War II, black veterans were denied GI bill benefits, which Love cited as an example of America having a “history of exclusion”. In addition to this, Love discussed the multiple other ways America has denied minority groups access, such as the Homestead Act, white and male only colleges in U.S. history.
“We have a history of neglect and exclusions. And so DEI programs focus on the history, but also try to right those wrongs … I think that’s another misconception … is that somehow, by acknowledging the achievements and contributions of people of color, it somehow takes away the achievements that white people have contributed, and it doesn’t,” Love said. “If we acknowledge the contributions of everyone, we all learn that this country really was, was created and with contributions from everyone … Instead, it shows the value of diversity and the strength in diversity, instead of looking at diversity as a negative.”
According to Love, another popular misconception is the idea that DEI initiatives force people to be a certain way.
“Nobody is making anyone else become transgender. All it’s doing is informing people about different gender identities, and so we can help create on campus environments that are comfortable enough for everyone to do their best work,” Love said. “But it’s it’s it’s not making anyone do anything they don’t want to do … They made it seem like half the population is transgender, and that’s and it’s affecting our, you know, a Christian way of life, or anything like that. And again, it’s a misconception.”
Over the last 30 years, Loved said there has been significant progress in offering resources and awareness for DEI initiatives.
“We’ve had different offices on campus, there’s been more student organizations, there’s been bigger budgets to bring events, cultural events and speakers, and now all of that’s been cut,” Love said. “So it’s like some people already thought going to Idaho was like taking a step back in history. And now that’s even more true with them taking a step back by canceling, shutting down these offices.”
Love concluded by sharing the quote from an unknown author:
“If you have always been privileged, then equality feels like oppression.”
Historic precedent
Sascha Ilin, a German exchange student working on their Masters in Anthropology at Boise State and a member of the BTC, believes there is a concerning historical precedent for attacks on the LGBTQ+ community and other minority groups being tied to fascism.
In 1918, a gay Jewish doctor named Magnus Hirschfeld founded the Institute for Sexual Research in Berlin, Germany. The institute pioneered gender affirming care and often hired transgender individuals to work at the clinic. In 1933, the Nazi’s burned the library of the clinic. The Nazis piled books from the institute, including books detailing medical procedures, in the square and burned them, as one of the first book burnings.
“I think it is similar to past projects and fascism and past attempts at fascism … it is just attacking trans people, is just to get your foot in the door and gain access to wider infringements on civil rights and freedom,” Ilin said. “Back then in Nazi Germany, it started with communists, with socialists, and it ended [with] the attempted extermination of Jewish people.”
Ilin said that Nazi ideology works in “contradictions”. Ilin gave the example of how trans people are painted as groomers and a threat to society, yet at the same time mocked and ridiculed with memes that depict them as weak facsimiles of the gender they identify with. Ilin believes this strategy effectively makes people fear trans people, while still fostering an attitude of superiority.
As a student studying transgender activism in Boise for their thesis, Ilin is worried about the direction the country is going. Recently, the LGBTQI+ acronym on several government websites has been removed. Trump signed an executive order recognizing only two genders and establishing guidelines for government agencies to follow to “promote this reality”.
“The move to eradicate queer terminology from government records [and] scholarly articles is definitely mimicking that, and it also worries me as a student,” Ilin said. “I’m worried that with, you know, with my name being on that thesis, that I’m not only going to be targeted, but that I will also be targeted for censorship.”
Ilin said they feared that their masters may even be revoked.
“I came here on a Fulbright grant. It’s a lot of money that I paid, to come here and study and experience not, maybe not American culture, but like Boise culture more, so having that all taken away from me because I just happen to be a person who identifies differently is heartbreaking,” Ilin said.
Ilin is not alone, as people both in political spheres and on social media raised concerns fascism is on the rise in the U.S.
David Walker, a History professor at Boise State with a specialty on World War II, shared his perspective on the Nazi’s rise to power and the concerns over fascism in the U.S.
“Hyper nationalism is a key part of their ideology. Now, in any nationalist system or atmosphere … nationalism is trying to get everybody on the same page about thinking about the nation,” Walker said. “Germany, in their very, very hyper-nationalist sense, are viewing anything that would take away from their perception of a nation that’s all one and together, right? They’re one nation, one people, under one leader. That was basically the mantra of the party, right? One Nation, One leader, One people.”
Walker explained that anyone who was perceived as different from fitting the “one nation” mold could be seen as a threat, and that book burnings were part of the effort to maintain the “One Nation, One Leader, One People” ideology.
According to Walker, the Nazi’s had a strong racial purely element to their hypernationalism, but both nationalism and facism take on a unique and specific expression for each country. According to Walker, the U.S. Army asked this question in the 1940’s and posed hypotheticals for what American facism would look like.
“The examples that I’ve seen from the period that they believe that if fascism came to America,, how would [it] have an American look to it? The film I saw had a guy standing on a street corner with a big American flag behind him, railing against immigrants,” Walker said. “And it would, they said, it would take that form, would be something like that. And the guy is saying, you know, I’m a real American, and that foreigners are taking their jobs and all this kind of stuff. And so to them, they saw that fascism in America would look like that to some degree. Perhaps with some religion in it, like Christianity.”
As a historian, Walker said the narrative that focuses on an “us versus them mentality” or the idea that only a strong political figure can save the country, is worrying.
“I don’t think it’s entirely an over exaggeration,” Walker said in reference to people’s concern over fascism in the U.S. “We historians, especially of the second World War and the Holocaust and other such things, we worry when we see people that really seem to becoming ever more nationalist about what they have, how they think and how they perceive the world … constantly worrying more and more about people around them not being patriotic and reading the wrong books and teaching the wrong thing.” … People complain about these things. But to really move it beyond complaining to higher levels of government, right? Trying to make these things happen is, you know, it’s just there’s a long history of bad outcomes, of these, in these, in these kinds of things, especially from the perspective of historians who study World War II.”
“We don’t want to exaggerate too much, I suppose, right? I mean, this isn’t Nazi Germany or fascist Italy. And I mean, you generally, we know what that looks like at its extreme. But of course, you know it wasn’t always like that in those countries, and it got to that point, you can look at that history of how they got there, and it’s, you know, it’s not overnight. And so, as the Nazis, of course, always like to say they got, they got elected, you know.”
Despite the attacks on the LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized groups, Nyx stressed that it was important not to give up.
“If the destruction of our rights was inevitable, if the destruction of our communities was inevitable and undefeatable, they would not be putting this much effort into the project of creating this terror,” Nyx said. “We as the queer community, as the LGBTQ community, have faced these kinds of demonization campaigns before, and we survived them, but only because our community was able to organize alongside so many other struggles and causes to fight for our liberation. But it was a fight, and if we aren’t willing to organize, to stand up, to fight back, then we have no chance at winning. But if we can, you know, if we dare to struggle, we dare to win.”
