this report compiled by Misty Schymtzik and
United Vision for Idaho
House Bill 36, HB36, was proposed by the Idaho Human Rights Commission to amend Idaho's
Malicious Harassment Law to include sexual orientation. Idaho's existing Malicious
Harassment Law protects people from assault, battery, and destruction of property based on
race, color, ancestry, religion and national origin. The law, one of the first in the nation
and in effect since 1983, increases the penalties for such crimes from a misdemeanor to a felony.
HB36 was conceived and drafting began on the heels of the vicious gay bashing of Mark Bangerter in
downtown Boise in April, 1998. Bangerter is not gay, but his assailant assumed he was. The
assailant beat him and yelled "faggot." Bangerter, an artist, is now blind in one eye
and has undergone a good deal of reconstructive surgery.
A coalition of groups led by the Idaho Human Rights Commission; Your Family, Friends, and Neighbors;
and the Idaho Women's Network worked for the passage of this bill. On January 20, 1999, the bill was heard before
the Idaho Legislature's House State Affairs Committee. Nine people (the Human Rights Commission, a
Presbyterian minister, a mother of a gay child, a sister of a gay man, the American Civil Liberties Union,
a victim of a brutal gay bashing, a gay activist, and a representative from Hewlett
Packard's Human
Resources division) testified in support of the bill. Only two (the Christian Coalition and another
Christian pastor) testified against it.
The bill was defeated in committee by a vote of 14-7 and was NOT sent to the full House floor
for a vote.
