Idaho loses scheduled church conference after state laws raise safety concerns
The United Methodist Church’s Oregon-Idaho Conference will no longer hold its annual gathering in Idaho next year over safety concerns stemming in part from Idaho laws targeting transgender and nonbinary people.
The shift comes after it was decided in 2025 that the annual conference would be held in Boise at the Cathedral of the Rockies both this and next summer. But at the end of this year’s June conference, a member brought forward a motion to move next year’s event out of Idaho to “a location that is safer for all.”
The motion passed with a close margin: 52% supported the move and 48% opposed it. Ninety-nine people wanted the conference out of Idaho and 90 wanted to stay, said Kristen Caldwell, communications associate for the Oregon-Idaho conference. FāVS News first reported the change.
Idaho clergy members told the Idaho Statesman this was a complicated, difficult and painful conversation. They expressed unwavering support for trans and non-binary people, and acknowledged that recent legislation makes people feel unsafe in Idaho. But they also said it was important to have a presence in Idaho and continue fighting.
“Idaho has become increasingly exclusionary through policies, and these are policies that cause real harm and make people question whether they’re safe or whether they’re welcome here,” the Rev. Jenny Hirst, outreach pastor at Collister United Methodist Church, told the Statesman. “But at the same time, that’s not the whole story of Idaho. There are many people who are working tirelessly to change and challenge those policies, and to build a different future for all people here.”
The Oregon-Idaho conference includes over 100 churches, the majority of which are in Oregon. About 200 people attended this year’s conference in person, with others joining virtually, Caldwell said. Members vote on where they stand on certain issues of faith, approve a budget and clergy compensation and ordain elders, she said. The conferences are managed by a team whose plan was to hold the conference in the same place two years in a row.
After this year’s conference in Boise, Bishop Cedrick Bridgeforth, resident bishop of the Greater Northwest Episcopal Area, wrote that the close vote “reflects the complexity, pain, conviction, and concern present among us.”
“I am mindful of our siblings in Idaho — United Methodists, neighbors, community partners, persons of color, immigrants, queer and trans persons, and others — who live every day with the realities we discussed on the floor of the annual conference,” he wrote in a post. “Idaho is not an abstract issue for them. It is home.”
Some members talked about the importance of remaining present in Idaho, he wrote. But others spoke about “serious concerns about safety, racism, anti-trans rhetoric and action, and the lived realities of people of color, immigrants, queer and trans siblings, and others who are targeted by hate, laws, policies, and public speech.”
“These concerns must be heard, received, and not minimized,” he wrote. “All harm is harm.”
Move comes after bathroom ban
Idaho in recent years has passed a number of laws targeting LGBTQ+ people.
This past session, lawmakers approved what has been called the most extreme bathroom ban in the nation. The law makes it a crime for people to use a bathroom or changing room that doesn’t align with their sex assigned at birth. The first offense is a misdemeanor, and a second offense is a felony that comes with up to five years in prison.
Last month, a judge issued a preliminary injunction preventing the law from being fully enforced. Under the injunction, transgender people can use single-stall restrooms that align with their gender identity, or multi-stall options when there is no single-stall option on the same floor, or that option is occupied or out of order. The injunction does not apply to changing rooms.
Idaho lawmakers also tried this year to pass a number of anti-immigration laws — including one that would have mandated that every Idaho law enforcement agency apply for a cooperation agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and another that would have required employers to use a service to check the immigration status of employees — but most of them stalled, according to previous Statesman reporting.
‘No solution feels fully just’
Shortly after Idaho’s bathroom law was signed into law, Bridgeforth said this year’s conference would remain in Idaho. He added that he strongly supports trans and queer members and abhors the state for passing such a law.
“We will not require anyone to go anywhere that poses a risk,” he wrote. “At the same time, we will not abandon our witness and work in Idaho.”
He said the conference would continue with strengthened safety protocols and improved online platforms.
“At the moment, no solution feels fully just, fair, or right. Still, we are called to do our best,” he wrote. “There is no place in our conference where every person will feel safe in the same way. Location matters, and so does our witness.”
The motion to move next year’s conference out of Idaho came at the very end of this year’s gathering. Hirst was there through Saturday, when the vote took place. Some people had already left, and many were exhausted from a long few days, she said.
“The fact that all of this happened at a late hour and also a lack of really full conference present was unfortunate, and it really kept us from having a full discussion of the issue that was raised,” she said.
Laurie Day, executive director of connectional ministries, said she believes the request came out of the desire to be strong allies, and to be helpful and supportive for marginalized members of the community.
“It was just a difficult process, and I think everyone was well-intentioned,” she said, and yet there were competing values and priorities that made it a “challenging vote.” Day added: “All of our congregations are actively engaged in their communities, working for justice, inclusion, and to be a welcoming and safe space for people.”
Idaho members vow to work for change
Hirst voted to keep the conference in Idaho. She said she deeply values the church’s commitment to equity, justice and inclusion, and understands that the decision to move the conference stems from that. But she also worries about what it communicates to the trans and nonbinary clergy and lay people in Idaho. The question brings up “complicated truths,” she said, adding that there is a responsibility to protect people from harm, and to stand with those on the front lines of that harm.
“I think Idaho needs the witness and solidarity of the wider church and denomination now more than ever,” she said. “Loving Idaho means telling the truth about what is happening, while continuing to show up and work for something better.”
There are churches and clergy of many faiths across the state working every day to do this work, she said.
“That’s also part of the story of Idaho,” she said. “And you know, it’s a story that I don’t want us to abandon.”
The Rev. Duane Anders, senior pastor at the Cathedral of the Rockies in Boise, said he has a transgender child who left Idaho, in part, for safety reasons. He understands how difficult the issue is, he said, but at the same time, holding the conference in Idaho could have been an opportunity.
People could have taken part in justice work, he said. They could have brought letters to the governor, talked to legislators or organized a protest march to the Capitol.
“How do you use your privilege to step into those spaces where others can’t, and allow your voice to be a little louder, maybe because they are not able to speak. That’s really the role of the church,” he told the Statesman. “I think there are ways sometimes to step into the tension and say we’re going to be here and we’re going to show up.”
Still, he acknowledged the challenge for people who wouldn’t feel safe coming to Idaho. Although there would have been an online option, it is not the same experience. But it’s complicated, he said.
“For me personally, it’s one more time where it feels very lonely to do this work,” he said.
Now, the annual conference sessions team is researching and having conversations about what to do with next year’s conference, Day said.
Anders encouraged people choosing not to come to Idaho because of its laws to send letters to the governor and tourist organizations to demonstrate the financial losses to the state. He and Hirst vowed to keep using their platforms for change.
“Loving Idaho doesn’t mean pretending that everything is OK,” Hirst said. “It means caring enough about this place and our people to stay engaged and work for change here. I can’t dismiss the very real fear that people feel. We can just only keep showing up and speaking out, working alongside others that are helping make a place where everyone can truly feel safe and welcome.”
