Big crowd awaits ‘Add the Words’ hearing

The Lincoln Auditorium is filling up this morning, and more than 300 people still are in line out in the corridors of the garden level of the state Capitol for today’s hearing on HB 2, the “Add the Words” bill. It would add the words “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to Idaho’s human rights act, to ban discrimination on those bases along with the existing bans on discrimination on the basis of religion, race, disability and other factors, in housing, employment and public accommodations.

The line is stretching all the way through the rotunda of the Capitol; it include people both for and against the bill, including groups of religious conservatives bowed in prayer. House Minority Leader John Rusche, D-Lewiston, the bill’s lead sponsor, said as he sidled past the big line on his way into the auditorium, “We should’ve held this at Taco Bell Arena.”