Idahoans committed to helping Idaho lawmakers understand that it is time to include gay and transgender people in Idaho's non-discrimination laws. Please help us send a message to the state that it is not ok to fire, evict, or refuse to serve a person just because they are gay or transgender. By meeting with law makers, through radio and billboard ads,social media and thoughtful acts of silent and peaceful civil disobedience we work to ensure Idaho does not stay silent on whether it is acceptable to be cruel to gay and transgender people in our state. What did standing with one hand over your mouth in the Idaho State Capitol mean? It was a symbol of how we were silenced by never being allowed to tell our stories or testify in a public hearing in the Idaho legislature. It meant having no way to help law makers understand what it is like to be fired, evicted or denied service by a restaurant or business in Idaho for no other reason than that you are gay or transgender. Hand over mouth symbolized the Idaho legislature's decade long refusal to say that cruelty to gay and transgender people is simply wrong, that it is unacceptable and that we should finally be safe and free to provide for our families, do business and contribute to our communities in peace. February 2014
TO CAPITOL, STATE and BOISE CITY POLICE
from Add the Four Words Idaho demonstrators. We are a PEACEFUL group of people determined to see the legislature vote to pass a bill adding four words, "s*xual orientation, gender identity" to Idaho's fair employment, housing, education & public accommodation law. We are determined to remain peaceful, to negotiate and cooperate as much as possible while remaining in place in the Capitol. We feel we have tried every avenue to get the legislature to hear our stories and see the harm being done to good people’s lives. We feel this demonstration is our only remaining avenue to ensure they hear us and finally, after 8 years, stand up and say that cruelty to gay & transgender people is wrong. Every participant has been trained, most in two-hour non-violent civil disobedience trainings that included role plays. Once arrested, every participant is trained to comply and cooperate fully. Those prepared to be arrested can be identified by their black vests /shirts which read “Add the Four Words Idaho.”
We do have legal observers in the area and they too are willing to cooperate as necessary to allow law enforcement to do their jobs. Again, we are determined to be silent, peaceful, respectful and focused on why we are here. The hand-over-moth stance the demonstrators use is intended to represent how we have been silenced by the legislature's failure to even hold a public hearing on the add the words bill so that they would hear the stories of gay, transgender people and Idaho citizens who live in fear or have faced beatings, the despair and su***des of their children or their friends, loss of jobs, apartments, denial of service by restaurants and businesses.
