A lawmaker offered a bill to punish Boise for its Pride flag. What happened next
The Legislature’s first attempt to stop Boise from flying the Pride flag outside City Hall hit a roadblock.
In 2025, Idaho lawmakers passed a law restricting where the rainbow banners could fly. State and local governments now can fly only flags like state flags, official city flags, the U.S. flag, tribal flags and the flags of Idaho schools.
Boise bypassed the law in May 2025 by making the Pride flag and an organ donor flag official city flags. In Monday’s frigid cold, the Pride flag hung limply from a flagpole barely visible from the windows of the Statehouse.
Officials have been threatening to put a halt to what Boise did since the showdown started. On Monday, Rep. Ted Hill, R-Eagle, proposed a bill to ban official city and county flags and add penalties of $2,000 per flag per day for any government entity that defied the restrictions. The attorney general could take the government to court to stop the flag-flying, a response to criticism from 2025 that the law was unenforceable by police as written.
The bill would add a carve-out for the Basque autonomous community flag.
“This legislation is in response to the unwillingness of our local mayor in following the laws provided by this body last year,” Hill said during the House State Affairs Committee meeting. He told a committee member he didn’t want a Pride flag up. “She (Boise Mayor Lauren McLean) gave the middle finger to the Legislature, pretty much.”
In a statement Tuesday, McLean said she was as “committed as ever to representing the values of the people who live in our city.”
“Boiseans are fiercely committed to creating a safe and welcoming city — to standing up for and with each other and to embrace our LGBTQ friends, family, neighbors, business owners and community leaders,” McLean said. “As mayor, I will continue to do what I have always done — stand up for all Boiseans, proudly uphold our values and work hand in hand with our community, creating a city where everyone is safe and welcome.”
At least one other city bypassed the law as well. The law allows the flags of other countries only to commemorate special occasions. But Bonners Ferry in North Idaho kept its Canadian flag flying after creating a year-round “special occasion.”
On the other hand, the Parma Police Department took down its pro-police Thin Blue Line flag.
The bill would take effect immediately if passed. Hill said it would not apply to Harrison Boulevard, a leafy street in the North End where a loosely organized group of volunteers hangs Pride flags down the median in June. In 2025, the city of Boise agreed to put responsibility for the flags in the hands of the neighborhood association.
But some lawmakers in the State Affairs Committee bristled at the idea of outlawing all city and county flags. Ultimately, the committee voted to introduce Hill’s bill, but only by adding those banners back in, allowing governments to fly official city and county flags.
That amendment would undo the bill’s intent, Hill, its sponsor, told the Statesman after the hearing.
Hill didn’t directly answer questions about whether Boise would still be penalized under the revisions. But Hill then walked over to the committee chair, Rep. Brent Crane, R-Nampa. “The Pride flag will remain,” Hill said. “I know,” Crane responded.
Asked about that conversation, Crane said there needed to be a better bill, perhaps one that provides varying penalties, including jail time, for violating a state law; banning city flags; and phasing them out rather than making an immediate change.
“I think the bill’s in trouble,” Crane said. “The way that it currently got written in committee today, the Boise city flag that has whatever portion of a shoutout to the Pride community, that would remain in effect.”
This story was originally published January 26, 2026 at 1:14 PM.
