Focusing on divisions, New York Times missed where Idaho is united | Opinion

In a recent article, “As Idaho Grows Ever Redder, Boise Worries About Its Isolation,” a New York Times reporter sought to underscore the difference between red Idaho and blue Boise, and landed primarily on gay rights before zeroing in on the trans issue.

No doubt, the Boise City Council flying the Pride flag against the efforts of the Legislature to ban flags with political viewpoints slanted the coverage of Boise to gay rights and trans issues. I happen to support the Pride flag and believe the mayor and the City Council have the best of intentions in flying the Pride flag. It is Boise’s way of hanging out a “welcome to all” sign, as it has done over the years as it welcomed refugees from across the globe.

Until Boise wound up in The New York Times with yet another report on our growing conservative state with Boise as the outlier, I had not considered the Pride flag as either a lightning rod for New York Times coverage, or as a temptress for a homophobic majority in the Idaho Legislature ready to pounce on a city out of step with its discriminatory code of conduct.

The Pride flag means different things to different people, and the trans issue highlighted in the Times article is one aspect of LGBQT rights that stirs the passions of some but is still a bridge too far for others.

Forgive the cold, hard calculus of winning elections, but if Boiseans are to steer clear of the right-wing fever tearing North Idaho apart, we will have to find issues less likely to provoke the state Legislature and find ways to support LGBTQ rights without defying state law or finding clever ways of circumventing state law. This last council election has incumbents rejoicing in turning back right-wing challengers, but that is not a prediction of what happens in the next election.

The color blue can fade over time.

Significant strides have been made in reaching accord among Americans on the rights of gay men and women. However, trans issues are more complicated when it comes to childhood gender reassignment or an issue even closer to home for the Boise State athletic program. Boise State forfeited its women’s volleyball matches with San Jose State University last year because a transgender athlete played for San Jose, which Boise State considered an unfair advantage.

That decision is hardly out of sync with how most Americans feel about the issue, and I doubt The New York Times would find much disagreement across the state, including Boise. An April 2025 NBC poll found 75% of Americans saying they do not believe transgender women should be permitted to participate in female sports.

Another example of a trans issue out of sync with most Americans was Kamala Harris bragging on camera when she was California attorney general that prisoners could get trans surgery, a stand I would bet could gather no more than a tiny bit of support in any poll of American voters.

In battleground states last year, a commercial showing the Harris video ran repeatedly during the campaign, demonstrating how out of touch Harris was with American voters. It’s a reminder there is a middle ground on gay rights that can elect supporters of gay rights, but some trans issues are red meat for radical Republican strategists trying to move voters from more moderate positions to far-right candidates.

By focusing on Boise’s Pride flag and then the trans issue, The New York Times report on Boise missed an opportunity to show how unified Idahoans are on some issues, notwithstanding zealots in the Idaho Legislature who seem to be reading from a missal of their own creation instead of representing the people who elected them.

There was not a word in the report about one of the most salient issues in American politics and on which most Idahoans seem to agree. This year’s Boise State University Idaho Public Policy Survey revealed that a majority of Idahoans (55%) believe that abortion should be permitted in Idaho through at least the first trimester and a majority (64%) also believe that exceptions for abortion access should be expanded. But the Idaho Legislature passed and Gov. Brad Little signed one of the toughest anti-abortion laws in the nation, overriding the wishes of most Idahoans.

How about education funding for private schools? A majority of Idahoans, 53%, oppose the use of tax dollars to pay for a private or religious school. The New York Times might have been better served by an article about how Idahoans, no matter where they live, can agree on how out of touch the Legislature is with the people of Idaho.

Idahoans do differ, but not always along the lines The New York Times draws between Boise and the rest of the state. If The New York Times wants to spend time in Idaho, it should come back with reporters willing to travel the length and breadth of Idaho, not just a visit to Boise and environs.

Across the state, it will find Idahoans who are suffering from a lack of health care thanks to President Donald Trump. He lashes out at former presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama for their role in the health care crisis, but to date, Trump has never offered a workable solution to America’s health care crisis.

It will find Idahoans in need of SNAP benefits as Trump penalizes the poor for the failure of his Republican Congress to give an inch in favor of those in need.

An article about the rising cost of groceries or ICE raids grabbing hardworking Idahoans out of small towns and wreaking havoc on families would show agreement among Idahoans no matter where they live.

Trump’s tax breaks for the wealthy or his “Department of War” signing off on a Qatar air force facility in Mountain Home will find Idahoans questioning Trump on both sides of the red and blue line, in Boise and beyond.

But Trump and his devoted Heritage Foundation are not the only ones with a playbook to implement. That apparently goes for the color-blind New York Times as well.

Bob Kustra served as president of Boise State University from 2003 to 2018. He is host of Readers Corner on Boise State Public Radio, a regular columnist for the Idaho Statesman and a contributing columnist for the Chicago Tribune. He served two terms as Illinois lieutenant governor and 10 years as a state legislator.