Here’s how Idaho GOP Chair Dorothy Moon failed in her attack on the Boise Pride Festival

The Idaho Republican Party is at it again, this time attacking the Boise Pride Festival for one of its events in which children perform. The chair of the Republican Party, outgoing state Rep. Dorothy Moon, kicked things off with an antagonistic and spiteful effort to keep Idaho’s GOP in the frontlines of the culture wars, once again proving she is a master at bullying and spewing hate.

In this case, Moon sent a letter to the festival’s sponsors alerting them to the Drag Kids event, which she claimed promoted the “the sexualization of children” and used taxpayer-funded resources to do so. After Moon’s accusation, which the festival apparently thought might bring out vigilantes who could do harm to the performers, the festival chose to cancel that event.

Moon’s memo to festival supporters also urged her sympathizers to place a “civil” call to the festival’s supporters expressing their disappointment and urging them to withdraw their sponsorship. Then, she repeated her plea to “maintain civility.”

Let’s hit the pause button there. How many civic organizations in Idaho must warn their readers or members to maintain civility? How about the Chamber of Commerce, the City Club of Boise, Idaho Business for Education, the various service clubs in town? I’ve attended many meetings in Boise over the years and not once have I heard leaders of civic organizations warn members twice in one communication to maintain civility. In case there is any doubt where incivility is nurtured and spread, Dorothy Moon just gave it away. It’s in her own branch of the Republican Party of Idaho.

This should come as no shock given the track record of Republicans nationwide. In a June 2022 Monmouth University poll, 61% of Republicans refused to call the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on our nation’s capital a “riot” but termed it “legitimate protest.” It’s no wonder Dorothy Moon urged her Idaho compatriots to be civil.

An encouraging sidelight of the Moon protest was the reaction of one of Idaho’s business leaders, Alex LaBeau, who serves as president of the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry, one of the most influential business lobbies in Idaho. LaBeau questioned Dorothy Moon having any say on this issue considering her support of convicted rapist and former Idaho legislator Aaron von Ehlinger whom she has yet to condemn for raping a teenager.

LaBeau also accused Moon of not having the “moral compass” to make a statement about sexualizing children when she “blamed a rape victim and said it’s OK for legislators to sleep with a teenage intern.” He explained that the Drag Kids event was designed for youth who were struggling with their identity and needed a safe space. The young performers had the support of their parents, and he described the event as an attempt to reduce suicide.

LaBeau was on to something there. The Trevor Project, whose mission is to end suicides among LGBTQ young people, released a recent poll showing that 50% of LGBTQ teens (age 13-19) seriously considered suicide in the past year. And 18% made a suicide attempt.

It’s not as though Idaho’s Republican leadership is unaware of the suicide issue. On the same weekend as the Boise Pride Festival with an event attempting to give young LGBTQ young people a safe space, Gov. Brad Little signed a proclamation naming September as “Suicide Prevention Month.”

His Department of Health and Welfare noted that Idaho has the 11th highest suicide rate in the nation. But that didn’t prevent the department from cowering in fear of Moon and withdrawing its support of the Boise Pride Festival over an event designed to offer safe space for young people with nowhere to turn.

For too long, Idaho’s Republican leadership and business leaders have refused to challenge the steady drift of the Idaho Republican Party to the radical right. Instead, they sit on the sidelines and fail to renounce the right-wing orthodoxy in the party. Let’s hope LaBeau’s example causes others to speak up and join organized opposition to the radical politics of Idaho’s far right.

Who would have thought that the scorned and reactionary Idaho Freedom Foundation now takes a back seat to Republican Party leadership in its culture war against diversity and moderation in government and our community? Of course, it is entirely possible that the scripts of Moon and her right-wing collaborators are written by the Idaho Freedom Foundation.

There is yet another encouraging sidelight worth noting in Moon’s efforts to stir up controversy over the Boise Pride Festival. The memo which Moon sent out over Twitter listed 20 companies and organizations with phone numbers for Moon’s sympathizers to call. There is no way of knowing how many calls were placed, but we do know that only five of the 20 pulled their sponsorship.

Some of Idaho’s finest, such as Simplot and Blue Cross, even doubled down on their support. Both issued statements after the release of Moon’s memo reaffirming their support of the LGBTQ community and the Boise Pride Festival. Albertsons banners hung from the main stage.

Moon’s effort to intimidate sponsors of the Boise Pride Festival to back off their support failed by anyone’s calculation, but there will be more “Moonbeams” cast into the Boise community which GOP Chair Moon considers a bastion of what she calls the radical left. Such right-wing nonsense will only be understood as the idiocy it is when prominent members of the Boise community stand up to her fear-mongering and advocate for diversity, inclusion and, most importantly, the protection and support of those whose gender identity differs from others.

The ability of a city to work for common goals through various community organizations rests on a foundation of trust built over the years by community leaders and citizens. Dorothy Moon and her Republican Party have no qualms about taking a sledgehammer to that foundation of trust that has been built so carefully by generations of Boiseans. It is that foundation of trust that must be defended against those like Moon and her Republican Party members who attempt to divide and conquer.

With LaBeau speaking out and an overwhelming majority of Idaho businesses and nonprofits ignoring Dorothy Moon’s attack on the Boise Pride Festival, we have a model for rebuking those who peddle their right-wing nonsense. Let’s use it!