Nicole's 2005 Human Rights Report

1) However a legislator may feel about marriage between same gender couples, Idaho law already confines marriage to opposite sex couples and many feel that a constitutional amendment is simply too extreme.
2) While many Americans are not yet comfortable with Marriage as a solution for same gender couples, more than half those polled in surveys nationwide do support some form of legal recognition (such as Civil Unions) for gay and lesbian couples. No Ballot initiative or constitutional amendment nationwide has captured the complexity of that sentiment or is capable of placing on the ballot all the possible options that my be offered up to solve the problem of how our nation will address the legal needs of millions of same gender couples.
3) In Idaho as elsewhere in the nation, the extreme right of the Republican party is using the issue of marriage as an organizing strategy to defeat moderate republicans in Primary elections and Democrats in General Elections and to gain greater power in our country. To allow them to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2006 would only make this extreme faction more powerful and create new obstacles for both moderate republicans and democrats in the 2006 election.
4) It is far too easy in our nation to take away the rights of a small group of people. For that reason our founders asked our state legislature to weigh carefully the consequences of such constitutional amendments and to pass them by a vote of 2/3 from both the house and senate before sending them to the general population for consideration and approval by a simple majority. Our constitution is designed to protect the rights of the people of this nation, not to eliminate those rights for any single targeted group. It is the job of Idaho's legislature to carefully weigh such issues and be sure that we protect our constitution and the people of our state from the effects of prejudice and discrimination. Our nation is too great to allow the values of freedom and equality to erode in this way.

IMMIGRANTS

The second discriminatory proposal the legislature faced this year would have denied county medical assistance for major illnesses like cancer treatment to undocumented immigrant residents of Idaho. Farms, ranches, restaurants, hotels and many other businesses of all kinds in our state, employ over 16,000 such workers each year. These workers typically pay state sales taxes, state and federal withholding as well as renters and other taxes, yet these individuals or their family members may not yet have the proper papers for citizenship or legal residence in the United States. Fortunately, the Senate State Affairs Committee unanimously defeated this proposal.

I was able to speak with many of the Senate State Affairs committee members about this issue prior to the vote and hope in the long run to gather more support for eventual passage of U.S. Senator Larry Craig's national immigration reform proposal.

Additionally, Senator John McGee sponsored a Memorial to Congress asking for Action on Immigration reform. Sadly the language in the memorial emphasized the problems associated with immigrant workers and did not at all highlight any of their contributions to Idaho agriculture, industry, art and culture. I presented alternative language for the Memorial on the Floor of the House and, with Representative Elmer Martinez, opposed the bill, asking House members to support only respectful language for such measures in the future.

We as legislators are role models and consistently are looked to to set tone for what is acceptable by the citizenry of our state. If we do not choose our words carefully we may fuel racial or other tensions that may led to violence or hatred. As a state we simply must do a better job of helping to stop the rising tide of anti-immigrant sentiment that is creating ill will and even now insiting violence against immigrants and their children in many classrooms, neighborhoods and workplaces statewide.

WOMEN'S REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

A bill to allow low income women to access family planning services though state, non-profit and private providers failed in House Health & Welfare after passing the Senate. Such legislation would have helped women better plan birth spacings, provided better health care to prevent unwanted pregnancy and abortion. It also would have reduced the number of children born to women facing economic hardship. The bill was estimated to save state Medicaid dollars by reducing Children born in Medicaid eligible families and by improving the health of women and children with in these families.

Ironically, at the nearly same time that this Family Planning bill was defeated, a bill to restrict young women's access to abortion passed out of the Same House Health & Welfare Committee and went on to pass the full House and Senate. The bill, like the previous "Parental Consent" law which was recently ruled unconstitutional, was defended by the Attorney General's office which, under Idaho law, is required to provide council and pay the tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to defend each new restrictive piece of legislation. Like many women in Idaho I was extremely disturbed to see the lack of sensible approach to women's reproductive health. How a legislative body can work to restrict access to abortion at the same time as refusing to reduce the need for abortion is a sad commentary on the stance of reproductive health issues in Idaho. I hope next year we can work more constructively to reduce unplanned pregnancy and the need for abortion in Idaho.

PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

While it is time to Celebrate passage of expansions to civil rights and accessibility for people with disabilities in Idaho, I am frustrated to report that again Republican leadership in the Legislature refused to fund the Medicaid Buy in Program which allows Medicaid eligible people with disabilities to retain their Medicaid Health Coverage FOR A FEE if they choose to work and earn slightly above the current Medicaid allowable incomes set forward by Idaho Law. Failure to pass and FUND this legislation is a major road block to independence for many Idahoans who would like to work but could not immediately or perhaps ever earn enough to pay for private health care coverage to meet the complex health care needs they face.

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I WANT TO GET UPDATES ON ISSUES DURING THE LEGISLATIVE SESSION.