The Idaho House voted to advance a new flag bill on Thursday, sending a bill to the Senate that serves as a revised effort from the legislature to bar the Pride flag from being flown in Boise.
House Bill 561, sponsored by Rep. Ted Hill, R-Eagle, expands upon House Bill 96, which was signed by Gov. Brad Little last April. That law prohibits government entities, including universities and public schools, from displaying flags other than the United States flag, the official flag of a governmental entity, the official flags of any states in the U.S., the official flags of any military branches, the POW/MIA flag, or the official flags of Indian tribes.
The bill considered on the House Floor on Thursday is an amended version of legislation Hill introduced to the House State Affairs Committee in February to tighten restrictions on which flags local governments could fly. Concerns raised by individuals who testified and by House members at the hearing led to the addition of several exceptions.
High school sports (plenty of towns put up flags or banners on their streetlights commemorating senior athletes), “generic” seasonal banners (this is definitely just “winter” and not Christmas, wink wink), some towns might put up flags for fairs or similar events on their streetlights. Generally things that might or might not technically count as flags, and aren’t really not political but count as non-political to the people in charge of enforcing this proposal.
Basically anything political or ideological is anything I don’t like