Conservative Republicans Deliver on Protection of Children.

Senator Scott Herndon and the conservative Republicans in the Legislature delivered on several key protections for children. H71 passed last week and will prohibit transgender surgeries on minors and transsexual hormone therapies for minors. The vote count in the Idaho Senate was 22-12-1. 

Speaking frankly, these “medical therapies” are taking the place of mental health therapies and permanently alter the bodies of the minor children. We are all born male or female, and society should reinforce and support biological facts, not gender dysphoria.

The bill was ultimately signed into law by Governor Little.

Obscene Materials in Schools and Libraries.

For decades Idaho has had criminal penalties for those who distribute materials that are harmful to minors. The definitions of these obscene materials are precise and use local community standards and what is called the Miller test, developed at the Supreme Court over the last 50 years. An exception to these criminal laws has been the distribution to minors of obscene materials by government run libraries and schools. Conservative Republicans passed H314 in the Idaho House and Senate this week which will prohibit the libraries and schools themselves from placing such materials in the hands of minors and will require them to take reasonable steps to keep these materials from being accessed by minors.

H314 will not ban any books or materials from the libraries. It will also not hold libraries accountable for mistakes, nor will it ban the Bible or the sculpture of David by Michelangelo.

While I debated in favor and voted for H314, and the bill passed the Idaho Senate 26-9, Governor Little vetoed the bill, and the House was unsuccessful by one vote in their attempt to override the veto. We will try to remedy this serious problem next year. 

Contractor Bathrooms and School Bathrooms will now be biological Male and Female only.

Haven’t they always been? Not in the world we live in.

The governor signed last week two bills related to bathrooms and whether they should be designated exclusively for biological males and females only. Senate Bill 1100 will now have the public schools in Idaho prevent males from using female restrooms and changing rooms and vice versa.

My Senate Bill 1016 will do the same for public works contractors.

In both situations there has been confusion. At all three of our public school districts in North Idaho there have been members of the opposite sex that have asked the schools to be able to use the wrong restroom. This is part of the movement toward gender dysphoria. Then, in 2014 President Obama signed an executive order that resulted in Bonner County asking public works contractors to waive their ability to separate the contractor’s own bathroom and changing room facilities on the basis of biological sex.

While having now fixed these two situations in state code, I have no doubt that these cultural battles of confusion will continue in other areas, and I look forward to continuing to represent the protection of children and traditional values in the Idaho Senate.