The 2020 legislative session is off to a roaring start. The first substantial task for the legislature involves reauthorizing every administrative rule that expired at the end of the last legislative session when the legislature failed to agree on a reauthorization process for all existing rules.
This process is now ending. This week, legislators will begin shifting their attention from reviewing administrative rules to introducing and debating legislation. Here are three legislative bills we have our eyes on:
1. Simon’s Law
One of the top priorities of Family Policy Alliance of Idaho® this year is to secure passage of Simon’s Law. Named after Simon Crosier, a baby boy born in 2010 with Trisomy 18, this legislation would ensure the right of parents to be involved in the medical decision-making process for their children.
Click here to learn more about Simon and efforts in Idaho and the U.S. Congress to protect every parent’s ultimate decision-making authority over their child’s medical care.
2. Fairness in Women’s Sports Act
Sponsored by Rep. Barbara Ehardt (R-Idaho Falls), the Fairness in Sports Act would save girls sports. Rep. Ehardt knows sports—she spent 15 years as a NCAA Division I women’s basketball coach.
Currently, Idaho boys can play in girls’ sports after undergoing hormone treatment for one year. But the size, strength, bone structure, lung volume, and heart supply of most males far outpace the most elite female athletes, even after receiving hormone therapy. For this reason, the Fairness in Sports Act would bar biological boys from competing in girls high school sports.
Allowing boys to participate in girls’ sports deprives our girls of opportunities for victories, scholarships, and slots on teams. Biological boys are already beginning to win girls athletic championships in many states—making it even more important that girls sports are protected here in Idaho.
3. Add the Words
Senator Maryanne Jordan (D-Boise) has yet again introduced “Add the Words.” This legislation would obliterate religious freedom by adding “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected classes under the Idaho Human Rights Act.
This is the sixth year in a row that this legislation has been introduced in the legislature. Even though every Democratic representative and senator is signing on as a cosponsor, we don’t anticipate this effort to go anywhere this year.
We are also keeping an eye on any “compromises” that may attempt to split the middle when it comes to constitutionally protected religious liberty and so-called LGBT “rights.”
We will keep you updated on these and other bills as the current legislative session shifts into high gear! In the meantime, please join us in prayer for our legislators.