Protestors urging Idaho governor to veto bill outing trans kids to parents arrested at Statehouse

BOISE (Idaho Capital Sun) — Nine protestors who opposed anti-trans bills were arrested Wednesday in the Idaho governor’s office at the Capitol in Boise after refusing to leave after the office closed, according to Idaho State Police.

For more than three hours Wednesday, protestors sat in the entry to the Idaho governor’s office and demanded to meet with Gov. Brad Little. The protest came a day after Little signed into law what advocates describe as the most extreme transgender bathroom ban in the nation. Protestors said they also wanted to urge him to veto a bill that requires teachers and doctors to out transgender minors to their parents, or face lawsuits. 

Idaho State Police troopers arrested the Rev. Sara LaWall, the minister for the Boise Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, and Nikson Mathews, a trans activist who served as a substitute state senator last year.

“I think there is some twisted thought of this idea of Christian nationalism, that we can create this state to be a Christian state,” LaWall told the Idaho Capital Sun hours before she was arrested. “That’s not how our country was founded. Our country was founded on the freedom of religion.”

LaWall, who has a transgender child, said she came to demand the governor veto the latest anti-trans bill passed by the Idaho Legislature. The bill, House Bill 822, would require schools, health care providers and child care providers to notify parents within three days after the entities receive “any request by the minor student to participate in or facilitate the social transition of the minor student.” 

It is not immediately clear what criminal charges the protestors face. Idaho State Police said in a news release that “protesters refused multiple lawful requests to leave the building after business hours.” A staffer for Little told protestors the office closed at 5 p.m. The Legislature was still meeting by 8 p.m. Wednesday. A spokesperson for the governor could not be immediately reached for comment. 

“(Idaho State Police) supports the public’s fundamental right to express opinions and engage in lawful protest. However, individuals must also comply with lawful orders and applicable statutes to ensure safety and maintain order,” Idaho State Police said. 

The Rev. Josh Lee, pastor for the Boise First United Church of Christ, told the Sun that the arrested protestors are being charged with criminal trespassing, and that similar incidents in the past have resulted in people being banned from the Capitol for a year. Organizers have raised more than $13,000 toward their bond and attorneys fees through a GoFundMe.

The bill that protestors urged Little to veto hasn’t officially arrived at his desk as of Wednesday evening, according to the governor’s office daily bill tracker.

Protest started with a prayer ‘for protection, for dignity, for life’

The protest came just a day after the annual, international Transgender Day of Visibility. In an interview with the Idaho Capital Sun hours before she was arrested, LaWall recalled how that day went.

It began with watching the city of Boise remove an LGBTQ+ pride flag — because the governor signed an expanded flag ban law. Then in the afternoon, just as people rallied on the Capitol steps for Trans Day of Visibility, Little signed into law a bill that criminalizes transgender people using bathrooms that align with their gender identity. 

Before LaWall and around two dozen protestors walked into the governor’s office around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, LaWall read a prayer. 

“We pray for protection, for dignity, for life. Guard them from harm, from fear, from laws that would erase them,” she said. “Surround them with a love so fierce that no policy, no rhetoric, no act of cruelty can undo it.”

“Amen,” protestors said. 

Then they went into Little’s office and wrote notes for the governor. 

“Gov. Little, Please find the courage to find the humanity that our shared faith as Christians calls us to offer to ALL people,” TJ Remaley wrote. “People are hurting.”

After Remaley finished writing, Kiran Spees walked up.

“I think I found something to say! I told him to be brave to protect people like he was at the beginning of COVID,” Spees said. 

Then protestors banded together in choir, singing for hours.

“In hope, in prayer, we find ourselves here,” they sang. 

‘This session, the mask came off,’ trans Idahoan says

At 2 p.m., LaWall stood in the governor’s office holding a banner that said: “Trans rights are human rights.” Around the same time, Zoey Wagner stood just outside the governor’s office — holding a trans pride flag.

Wagner, who is trans, told the Sun that the trans community feels attacked by all the anti-trans bills coming out of the Legislature this year. 

“This session, the mask came off, and it’s just — it’s very bigoted, and it’s just disappointing that there’s folks out there that are attacking us for no other reason other than we exist and it offends them,” Wagner said. 

Around 4 p.m., Lee told the Sun that protestors wouldn’t be leaving the governor’s office until he met with them. 

“If the governor refuses to meet with us, and they need to close the offices, we’ll see what they need to resort to,” he said.

He said he doesn’t understand why lawmakers are targeting trans people so often.

“1% of society identifies as trans, 1% to 3% is estimated to be undocumented immigrants, and yet so much of our legislation focused on that 1%,” Lee told the Sun.” I wonder if we focus on a different 1% with our legislation, and that was the billionaires and millionaires. … It actually might make a difference for working families and for people who make up most of the percentage of this state.”

Just before the governor’s office was set to close at 5 p.m., protestors dropped off pizza for those sitting in the governor’s office. Just after 5 p.m., an Idaho State Police trooper closed the doors — and began handcuffing the protestors that remained in the office.

Outside, a crowd of more than two dozen people watched as troopers arrested each protestor, then escorted them out of sight.

The choir kept singing.

“Everybody rise up. Everybody rise up,” they sang. “Everybody shake it up. Everybody shake it up. Everybody here. Everybody here.”