Have you seen ‘Everyone is Welcome Here’ banners in downtown Boise? Here’s why
By now the phrase is familiar to many Idahoans: “Everyone is Welcome Here.”
The short sentiment blew up in 2025 when West Ada School District leaders told a teacher to take down her sign emblazoned with those words, ahead of the Legislature’s passage of a bill barring religious, political and ideological flags or banners in public schools.
After that, the Downtown Boise Association and the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights created their own version, which the association hangs downtown when there’s space available on lamp posts.
Now, visitors downtown may see those words again. After Gov. Brad Little signed a bill forcing the city of Boise to take down its Pride flag, the “Everyone is Welcome Here” banners went back up.
“We did place them up kind of to show solidarity with the city of Boise,” said Lauren Hamilton, the executive director of the Downtown Boise Association.
Lawmakers first passed a bill that prevented governments from flying the Pride flag and most other flags in 2025. But the law didn’t include an enforcement mechanism and Boise made the Pride flag an official city flag.
In 2026, lawmakers passed a bill that provides a $2,000 fine per flag per day and allows the attorney general to sue. The law bans official city flags added after Jan. 1, 2023, which prompted Boise to remove its Pride flag, though the city did add Pride art to the flagpoles and to City Hall itself.
It’s better for business if people want to be in Downtown Boise and feel welcome, Hamilton said in a Wednesday phone interview. The association has kept its eyes on certain bills, like the unsuccessful 2026 legislation that would preempt city nondiscrimination ordinances.
Business owners are concerned about being able to welcome whoever they want into their businesses, Hamilton said.
“We’re a membership-based organization that supports business activity downtown and supports folks coming into downtown,” Hamilton said. “We just want to send a message, just like it says in our mission statement, that Downtown Boise is a place for everybody.”
The banners are scheduled to be up through the end of May, Hamilton said, unless someone else paid for the spots for a marketing campaign. After that, the association plans to move some to the Wassmuth Center, whose executive director did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
But in a social media post about the signs, the center asked people to look up the next time they’re downtown.
“These messages are a simple but powerful reminder that building an inclusive community matters,” the center posted. “That the spaces we share can reflect the values we stand for together.”
