By Emily Kuhl

For the Journal

    IDAHO FALLS — After listening to more than five hours of testimony, Idaho Falls Mayor Jared Fuhriman broke a tie vote of the City Council on Thursday night to pass an ordinance to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transexual people from discrimination when it comes to housing and employment. However, the amended ordinance removed protection when it comes to public accommodations.

    Following passage of the ordinance, council members said the public accommodations issue would be revisited at a later date.

    The mayor’s tie-breaking vote came after an earlier motion to pass the original anti-discrimination ordinance, with public accommodations included, failed. The first vote, called for by councilwoman Karen Cornwell, was to pass the original ordinance. Cornwell and councilman Thomas Hally voted to pass, while council members Kenneth Taylor, Michael Lehto, Ida Hardcastle and Sharon Parry voted against it. 

    The council then moved on to vote on the amended ordinance, which kept the provisions for employment and housing equality, but struck the portion on public accommodations. Councilman Lehto demanded to know why the third portion had been stricken. Hardcastle, Parry and Lehto exchanged tense words as Lehto tried to pin down exactly why the ordinance had only been scrubbed of its third portion, but no other work had been done. Lehto said the original intent of tabling the ordinance in July had been to work on this third section, yet it was simply removed instead.

    Following the debate, the council voted 3-3 on the amended ordinance with Taylor, Hardcastle and Parry voting for the ordinance and Cornwell, Lehto and Hally voting against it. Mayor Fuhriman broke the tie.

    “My problem is this; they want to give us a half measure,” said Hollis Henry, a proponent of the original anti-discrimination ordinance.

    Many of those who stood and waited for the doors to open to be able to share their testimony at the council meeting agreed that they would rather have nothing passed than have an ordinance stripped of the public accommodations protection.

    The public accommodations section of the ordinance came under fire from groups protesting the use of public restrooms by transexuals. Posters and flyers were distributed throughout Idaho Falls prior to Thursday’s meeting. They depicted a  man coming out of a women’s locker room.

    Councilwoman Hardcastle took exception to the tactic and the controversy.

    “This is a great community, but this issue has created a firestorm that upsets the mayor and I,” Hardcastle said. “This is our great city. We’ve got to stop the bleeding that is going on.”

    Opposition to the ordinance included comments that the new city law was in violation of the intent of the Founding Fathers and God’s will.

    “We cannot be free and immoral,” said Robert Gorglion.

    Michelle Stone, who spoke out in opposition to the public accommodations portion, said, “Use the laws that are already in place.”

    Supporters of the original ordinance that included protection for the LGBT community when it comes to public accommodations also shared their thoughts.

    Dave McGrath, who rode his bike from Idaho to Texas earlier this year to campaign for a change in policy that would allow gays into the Boy Scouts of America was among the supporters.

    “Everybody’s got a right to live how they want to,” said Jose Avila. “This is the U.S.A. That’s what this country is about.”