OutBoise Magazine November 2014 | Page 33

33  |  OutBoise Magazine  | NEWS OutBoise.com | Issue 1.2 | November 2014 Youth Alliance For Diversity For its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) citizens, Idaho was a very different world in 1994. Yes, we were bold enough to have our annual Pride Festival and Parade but for the most part we were rather subdued . Our approach toward LGBT equality was through quiet coalition building with other organizations, polite letters to the editor, a once a year National Coming Out Day ad, and nice but firm letters to our elected leaders . It should be noted that back then, the Idaho legislature was a little more balanced so our initial efforts were slowly gaining ground. We did have bold leaders like Mary Rohlfing, Brian Bergquist, Jen Ray, John Hummel, etc. who were challenging us and pushing us forward but we were still hesitant. Then came the infamous Idaho Citizen’s Alliance with its equally infamous “Proposition One”. The purpose of Proposition 1 was to prevent homosexual people from receiving minority status in the state. The Idaho Citizens Alliance (ICA) ha ]][ۙY