Boise gets into ‘good trouble’ – for now – by flying gay pride flag | Opinion

We would never encourage Boise city officials to break state law.

But as long as they’re doing so by flying a gay pride flag at City Hall in defiance of a new state law, it gives us an opportunity to talk about that new state law, House Bill 96.

House Bill 96 limits the types of flags a government entity can display, allowing only such flags as the American flag, state flag, city flag and military flags.

There is no provision in the law, which went into effect April 3, for enforcement or penalties if a government agency flies a flag other than those proscribed, so the city of Boise has kept the pride flag flying.

Ada County Sheriff Matt Clifford on Wednesday confirmed that the law doesn’t provide any enforcement mechanism, doesn’t say what the penalty is or even say what type of offense — if any — it is.

It’s yet another example of poorly written and poorly thought-out legislation.

Idaho attorney general weighs in

Regardless, Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador issued a strongly worded letter to Boise Mayor Lauren McLean telling her to take the flag down or risk losing state money.

Labrador also appealed to McLean’s sense of obligation to the law, rightly pointing out that we wouldn’t want citizens to disobey municipal laws that they disagree with, such as parking regulations, building codes or traffic laws.

Labrador also points out that the new state law doesn’t allow other flags, such as “Make America Great Again” or the Gadsden flag.

But we would argue that the pride flag isn’t a political flag like Make America Great Again or the Gadsden flag. Plus, is anyone aware of cities that have tried to fly a MAGA flag at city hall?

We should recognize the state law for what it is: a specific attack on the gay pride flag.

In fact, a photo of pride flags in Boise was used as an exhibit in debating for the bill.

Of course, it comes as no surprise that Republican Idaho legislators would be triggered by the pride flag.

Anti-gay Idaho Legislature

Republican legislators have run for office on a platform of marriage being between a man and a woman, the Legislature passed a resolution calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Obergefell decision that legalized same-sex marriage, and the Legislature continues to refuse to add the words “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the Idaho Human Rights Act, refusing to offer gay people protection from being evicted or fired because of who they love.

The Legislature refuses to remove language in a constitutional amendment that makes gay marriage illegal, and they didn’t remove the unconstitutional law making it a felony to be gay until three years ago.

What else would you expect from these legislators?

During floor debate on House Bill 96, Sen. Ben Toews, R-Coeur d’Alene, said, “The ultimate goal is for us to fly flags that unite and don’t divide.”

Herein lies the problem: Some, like Toews, see the pride flag as divisive. What’s divisive about recognizing a historically marginalized group of people and sending the message that they’re welcome and accepted? Unless, of course, you’re bigoted against that historically marginalized group of people.

Infringing on local control

Finally, House Bill 96 is yet another example of the state infringing on local control.

We’d be willing to bet that a vast majority of Boise voters would support the pride flag flying at City Hall.

Indeed, when Idaho Rep. Todd Achilles, D-Boise, spoke at the Fighting Oligarchy rally with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Monday at the Ford Idaho Center, he gave a shout-out to the city of Boise for flying the flag, which was greeted by a rousing round of applause from the crowd of more than 12,000 people.

Yet a bunch of “conservative” legislators voted to preempt the will of the people of Boise. Just because a few hundred people in Blanchard, Idaho, think a certain way, doesn’t mean the people of Boise agree.

Be that as it may, the law is the law, and as we said, we wouldn’t encourage the city to pick and choose which laws to violate.

We don’t like the law either, but we don’t think the city has a leg to stand on in defense of violating state law.

‘Good trouble’

But we don’t mind that the city of Boise is engaging in a little bit of “good trouble, necessary trouble,” as the late John Lewis famously said.

Perhaps the city of Boise needs to have its lawyers look into the matter further, which could take some time. Or maybe it’ll take a couple of weeks to put in an order with the facilities department to get around to taking the flag down. These things take time.

Maybe, since the city of Boise was considering a redesign of its city flag, the new design could include – gasp – a rainbow. Redesign your city flag to trigger the conservatives.

If the city drags its feet long enough, Labrador probably would be forced to sue for an order to the city to take the flag down, in which case he likely would win and the flag comes down.

We have no problem with Boise forcing the state to go through that process and in doing so, making the Legislature own its prejudice.

House Bill 96 was animated by hatred.

What’s shameful here isn’t breaking the law but the law itself.

This story was originally published April 17, 2025 at 4:00 AM.