Idaho gay rights
Home / gay topics / Idaho gay rights
34% of the state population is protected against discrimination based on sexual orientation in private employment, housing, and public accommodations (full protections). “Traditionally, that’s a state’s decision.”
The resolution, which doesn’t hold the weight of law, states the court decision “undermines” the vision of the framers of the U.S.
Constitution “by declaring that citizens must seek dignity from the state” instead of holding inherent worth after “being created in the image of God.”
Voters here overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment nearly a decade earlier limiting marriage to between men and women.
Obergefell, according to the resolution, recognizes same-sex marriage, “thus undermining the civil liberties of those states’ residents and voters.”
“Since court rulings are not laws and only legislatures elected by the people may pass laws, Obergefell is an illegitimate overreach,” the resolution states.
Rep.
"We understand that queer and trans people have been here and have existed in times when oppression has been great and where we have had to hide, but we have never ceased to exist ... "A majority of Americans of all political affiliations support marriage equality. Connecticut overturned state restrictions on the use of contraceptives.
The 14th Amendment states: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
The Respect for Marriage Law signed by former President Joe Biden in 2022 guarantees the federal recognition of same-sex and interracial marriages and acts as a limited remedy if the Supreme Court were to overrule the Obergefell precedent.
Serving openly in military in Idaho is lesbians, gays, bisexuals permitted, transgender people banned.
On February 10th, 2025, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth filed in court a memo relating to President Trumpâs executive order from the previous month.
From then until March 18th, 2025, The U.S.
military prohibited transgender individuals from enlisting and ceased providing or supporting gender transition procedures for service members.
Idaho Legislature's first order of business: overturning same-sex marriage
The Idaho Legislature’s first initiative of the year blasts same-sex marriage, calling on the U.S.
Supreme Court to let states once again regulate the relationship.
The 2015 Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. The law does not enshrine a right to same-sex or interracial marriage nationwide, but instead requires all states to recognize these marriages if legally certified in the past or in places where they were legally performed.
The Supreme Court cannot simply revisit a past opinion, but the court could take up a future case on the issue.
Same-sex couples across the country have long had concerns about the fate of legalized gay and lesbian marriages.
In Rochester, New York, the city's First Universalist Church asked themselves what they could do to affirm LGBTQ identities as a religious organization amid a rise in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.
The resolution comes after Associate Justice Clarence Thomas’s expressed interest in revisiting the Obergefell decision in his concurring opinion on the Supreme Court's landmark 2022 opinion on Dobbs v.
Resolutions are not laws, and state legislatures lack the power to dismantle marriage equality. Todd Achilles (D-Boise) and Brooke Green (D-Boise) said they supported the resolution's introduction in the hopes that Republicans would support introducing their legislation in the future — a strategy that's had mixed results over the past several years.
"Voting to print the bill means we have the chance to debate it, challenge it, and vote against it on the record with our colleagues," Achilles and Green said in a joint statement, though the proposal would have been defeated had enough legislators voted against it.
Their choice to support the resolution's introduction came just moments after House State Affairs Chair, Rep.
Brent Crane (R-Nampa), told the committee they should vote against introducing legislation they don't like without fear of retaliation by him.
If approved by both chambers, a copy of the resolution will be sent to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The committee must give it a full hearing before it can reach the House floor.
Copyright 2025 Boise State Public Radio
Idaho Republican legislators call on SCOTUS to reverse same-sex marriage ruling
The Idaho House passed a resolution Monday calling on the Supreme Court to reconsider its 2015 decision on same-sex marriage equality.
The court’s Obergefell v.
Jackson Women's Health Organization that overturned the federal right to abortion.
Thomas, who issued a dissenting opinion in 2015 against same-sex marriage, wrote in 2022, "In future cases, we should reconsider all of this court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.
In my denomination, we've been doing queer weddings since well before it was legal, and we will continue to do them well after."
The Idaho House argues that "marriage as an institution has been recognized as the union of one man and one woman for more than two thousand years, and within common law, the basis of the United States' Anglo-American legal tradition, for more than 800 years."
The resolution states that the Supreme Court decision is "in complete contravention of their own state constitutions and the will of their voters, thus undermining the civil liberties of those states' residents and voters."
A 2024 Gallup poll found that 69% of Americans continue to believe that marriage between same-sex couples should be legal, and 64% say gay or lesbian relations are morally acceptable.
Sarah Warbelow, the vice president for legal affairs for the Human Rights Campaign, criticized the Idaho effort.
"This cruel action by Idaho Republicans amounts to nothing more than shouting at the wind," said Warbelow.
They cannot touch the guaranteed federal protections for same-sex couples under the Respect for Marriage Act."
Sponsored Content by Taboola
Idaho's Equality Profile
Sexual Orientation
of population
fully protected
of population only
partially
protected
- State
Protections - County
Protections - City
Protections - No
Protections - Protections
Banned
Legend
County map only shows areas with full protections for sexual orientation (i.e., discrimination prohibited in private employment, housing, and public accommodations)
City and County Numbers:
1 county out of 44 has an ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in private employment, housing, and public accommodations (full protections).
11 cities have an ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in private employment, housing, and public accommodations (full protections).
1 municipality, not including those listed above, has an ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in private employment, housing, or public accommodations (only partial protections).
So, they organized a "Big Gay Wedding" to officiate the marriage ceremonies of queer couples en masse with the support of volunteer photographers, florists and others from the community.
"We wanted to be able to provide the service for our community, to be able to celebrate queer love and celebrate queer joy, to have some time for folks to get married who might not be able to otherwise afford a marriage in a congregation, and we want it to be like this big and joyous and beautiful celebration that really brings our community together," the church's Reverend Lane-Mairead Campbell previously told ABC News.
Events like Campbell's "Big Gay Wedding" have begun to pop up around the country, helping residents to make precautionary changes.
"We still have the ability to do this regardless of what happens legally in the months and years ahead," said Campbell.
Texas overturned a law criminalizing same-sex sexual conduct and Griswold v. Bruce Skaug (R-Nampa), an attorney who supported the resolution’s introduction, focused on that particular aspect of the legislation.
“I see this as not an issue on same-sex marriage, but on judicial activism and states’ rights,” Skaug said.
No one else spoke in favor or in opposition of its introduction Tuesday.
Lawmakers on the House State Affairs Committee, including both Democrats, unanimously voted to introduce it.
Reps.
Hodges legalized same-sex marriage nationwide over the objections of states like Idaho.
“What this decision did is it took the right away from the state to make the decision on marriage laws,” said Rep. Heather Scott (R-Blanchard), who sponsors the resolution.
An additional 1% of the state population is protected against discrimination based on sexual orientation in private employment, housing, or public accommodations (only partial protections).
Because any substantive due process decision is 'demonstrably erroneous,' we have a duty to 'correct the error' established in those precedents."
Lawrence v. See table below.