Yesterday Carole King made the earth move when she tweeted Governor "Butch" Otter that he should listen to his mentor, former Idaho Governor Phil Batt, and support adding "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to the Idaho state Human Rights Act.
Last week saw numerous instances of stringent opposition to gay, lesbian, and transgender rights at the state and local level in the Gem State.
Last Tuesday a Moveon.org petition was started to add the Four Words to the state act. It now has 8450 signatures. If you haven't signed it, please do it today.
Idaho may be stalling on amending the state's act, but a recent ruling in Kentucky by Federal Judge John G. Heyburn, a Bush Sr. appointee who was recommended by none other than Mitch McConnell, suggest that this might change more quickly than it might have a week ago. Politco reported:
The state's ban treated "gay and lesbian persons differently in a way that demeans them," U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn wrote Wednesday. While the case dealt with out-of-state marriages, it does not require the state to perform same-sex marriages.
Heyburn cited a long line of cases going back to the legalization of mixed-race marriages and mentioned recent same-sex marriage decisions in nine other states, including Hawaii and Utah. But he mainly relied on the U.S. Supreme Court's 2013 ruling striking down a section of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, on which Kentucky's same-sex marriage amendment had been based.
The judge also pointed to older rulings dealing with race and gender, noting that bans on interracial marriage, segregation and restrictions on women had been cited in the past as keys to a more stable society. But courts gradually did away with those restrictions.
Many people (including Carole King) question how the Idaho government and legislature could maintain its current stance in 2014. That will be an even bigger question when Judge Heyburn's ruling and comments in Kentucky have a chance to sink in.