Earlier this week, Latah County officials voted to update their employee handbook to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The rule only applies to LGBT people who work for the county, and not the entire population.
“At this point it’s not on our agenda to take that up, although it could be," says Latah County Commissioner Tom Lamar. "It could be talked about more.”
Lamar put forth the update to the policy. He says most of the people who live in the northern Idaho county are already protected from this kind of discrimination, since more than half the people in Latah live in Moscow. Lamar was on the Moscow City Council two years ago when the city voted in favor of a nondiscrimination ordinance. The law was the fourth of its kind to be passed by a city in Idaho. Currently 12 cities have such laws.
Lamar says the state legislature needs to make a law that applies to all Idahoans. But in its absence, he thinks county and city officials should approve the protections.
Despite pressure from LGBT advocates for nearly a decade, the full legislature has not considered a statewide law.
Find Frankie Barnhill on Twitter @FABarnhill
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