Caldwell attack underlines gap in Idaho’s hate crime laws | Opinion
On Saturday night, a gay couple leaving a restaurant in Caldwell were allegedly assaulted in what appears to have been a hate crime — or should be under a sane legal regime.
A group of men reportedly followed them yelling homophobic slurs, according to a KTVB article, and then at least one of them reportedly beat the two men, causing injuries.
It’s early in the case. More facts could come to light that aren’t immediately apparent. The picture could become more complicated. As with any criminal allegation, it’s good to reserve judgment about the accused until the facts are presented at trial or a plea is entered.
But it is a dark time for Idaho. And one thing is indisputably clear: At a time when two men appear to be in need of justice, they are instead ongoing targets of Idaho’s regime of official discrimination, bigotry and hatred.
If they were attacked for their race or the color of their skin, prosecutors could seek charges under Idaho’s malicious harassment statute, the state’s equivalent of a hate crime law. The same rules would apply if they were attacked because of their religion, ancestry or national origin.
But under Republican-dominated Idaho’s idea of legal bigotry, there is no similar rule for sexual orientation or gender identity, despite longstanding calls to amend the law.
You can make a case against hate crime laws in general. You can argue that it shouldn’t matter why someone commits a violent crime, just what the crime in fact does to the victim, and it’s sufficient to prosecute any assault simply as an assault.
This argument is wrong because a hate crime also terrorizes the larger community, making everyone in the targeted group worry that they could be attacked. But if it were the view of Idaho’s Republican majority that hate crime laws are bad in general, the Legislature would pass a bill to repeal Idaho’s malicious harassment laws writ large.
They haven’t.
So if you assault a Christian in Idaho while yelling slurs about them — or even do something less severe like putting bigoted graffiti on their car — that’s malicious harassment. Do the same thing to a gay person, and it’s not.
What reasonable case can be made for that?
Republican lawmakers were unmoved after the 2017 murder of Steven Nelson, who was lured to a remote area and kicked to death with steel-toed boots because he was gay. A separate hate crime charge had to be brought against the perpetrator in federal court, because no malicious harassment charge could be brought under Idaho law. That led to no change in Idaho law.
Will lawmakers look the other way after what happened in Caldwell, too?
Recent history suggests they will. The discrimination built into Idaho’s hate crime laws is only one shameful piece of the deeply immoral legal framework the state of Idaho has built, maintained and deepened in recent years.
Lawmakers have for years refused to include gay and transgender people in the laws against discrimination in housing and employment.
Stepping in to fill that glaring gap left by the Legislature, cities across Idaho — not only blue cities like Boise, but many relatively conservative cities across the state as well — in recent years passed antidiscrimination ordinances to prevent people from being fired or evicted simply because of who they love.
How did lawmakers respond?
This year, the vast majority of House Republicans — with some notable exceptions, including Rep. Ben Fuhriman, R-Shelley; Rep. Rick Cheathum, R-Pocatello; Rep. Clay Handy, R-Burley; Rep. Dustin Manwaring, R-Pocatello; Rep. Lori McCann, R-Lewiston; and Rep. Mark Sauter, R-Sandpoint — cast a vote to override all city antidiscrimination ordinances. That is, they voted to protect and enshrine discrimination. Thankfully, the bill never got a hearing in the Senate.
But that’s hardly the only thing they’ve done.
They have stepped between doctors, parents and transgender children to block access to health care.
And they have made it a crime for transgender people to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity, although a lawsuit at least has led to a temporary injunction.
And they have made it illegal for transgender people to get legal documents that reflect their gender identity.
And they have targeted school librarians for having books with gay characters in them.
And they’ve banned rainbow flags and other signs of welcome from city flagpoles and classroom walls.
Every year, Republican lawmakers find some new way to make the lives of LGBTQ citizens worse and to deny them equal treatment.
The legislative majority is not responsible for the alleged crime in Caldwell. But they are responsible for their own trespasses against basic human decency.
They should amend Idaho’s state antidiscrimination and malicious harassment laws to give LGBTQ people equality before the law. Restore some modicum of faith that bigots do not rule the day — and write the laws — in Idaho.
Bryan Clark is an opinion writer for the Idaho Statesman.