On April 6th, 2025 the Council of the City of Boise met to vote on a resolution to recognize the flags flown on city flagpoles as official city flags. This resolution aimed to bring Boise into full compliance with House Bill 96 – a law which was designed to target Boise’s Queer Pride Flag – while still allowing the city to continue showing support for the Queer community.
Outside of the council meeting there were 2 concurrent protests: those in support of the Queer community and there were also those who wanted to see us silenced and oppressed.
Within the meeting itself I couldn’t help but think of how these sorts of meetings are depicted in NBC’s Parks and Recreation, because there were some people who were quite inconsiderate and rude, to a degree that I thought was surreal and absurd. There was one woman in particular that yelled throughout the whole meeting, threatened people around her, and was nearly escorted out by police during a recess. She eventually calmed down enough to remain in the meeting, but her disruptions did not stop.
One thing I thought was funny is she was yelling about how we only need one flag (the USA flag) because all of us are represented by it, when there was a protester out front of city hall with a sign saying that the Queer community are not universally accepted as Idahoans or Americans.
Each of the members of the City Council were permitted to speak about their thoughts regarding this resolution. The one who moved me the most was Jordan Morales. You can watch his full comments and read along with the transcript below:
Jordan Morales
Madam Mayor,
Thank you so much for this opportunity to talk with my fellow council members. I’ll be supporting this motion for a lot of reasons.
You know, its interesting that we have folks calling this divisive; that certain things cannot co-exist. When I think about those that this flag supports, I think of a group of community members, friends, family, neighbors, who ARE marginalized; they have less rights than others in this state.
I think about my faith, my church, who actually helped broker a compromise in the state of Utah – that’s made up a little like our state here in Idaho – that actually provided members of this community – this marginalized community – with anti-discrimination statutes; protections to be able to maintain their job, their homes, and their personal freedoms and choices. Our state has not done that. This has been a long time down there that [Utah] has had this, and instead we focus on divisive things like legislation that targets a flag.
I would encourage our legislators that want to help diffuse and to help bring people together to consider the mutually beneficial things that we can do to provide these rights and freedoms to our family members, our neighbors, and our friends.
When I think about divisiveness, I just don’t see these polar opposite sides. I can think of specific numerous members of my faith community that are also represented by this flag. I think that’s really important.
For those who maybe don’t have those relationships, I would encourage you to seek out those opportunities to get to know your neighbors more.
I am grateful for all of you who came out tonight. I’m grateful for those that provided feedback, both for and against. I got a lot of respectful messages from both, and I can appreciate that there are going to be people who may not agree with this proclamation, but this proclamation allows us to fly this flag legally as the state statute was written. So, if you have a problem with that you may need to take that up with the legislature.
I appreciate those that have been able to respectfully engage on this issue. Thank you.
Jordan was the only City Council member who mentioned faith, and he used that faith to call for compassion and inclusion. His words indicated that he is someone who knows and lives his religion and doesn’t weaponize it. He mentioned how pleased he was with Utah’s anti-discrimination bill which was passed a decade ago, how his faith helped broker that law, and lamented how Idaho hasn’t followed suit. From this I figured he is Mormon, and I was correct.
I went up to him after the meeting and introduced myself to him as a transgender Reform Mormon and thanked him for standing up for me and how much it meant seeing my own people defend me in their spheres of influence. He thanked me for telling him, and he told me how he had been the young men’s leader for several trans boys, and how proud he is of them. He also mourned that one no longer felt safe in Idaho and moved to Portland. I confided in him that while I appreciate his efforts, I am also moving to Portland after a lifetime of living in Boise, and it is because of the political climate. He was disappointed, but not surprised.
The entire meeting was streamed here, and in the end, most of the city council voted to support the flag resolution.
Outside the building, there was a different kind of religious display that took place. David Pettinger – who assaults cops, does political activism in brownface, dresses up as Hitler at protests, owns idahoextremist.com, openly identifies as an extremist on Twitter, and doxxes rape victims – wore a cheap clergy costume with a stole that said “Not Adam and Steve”. He carried a big cross with a pride flag nailed on it.
He yelled and yelled about how terrible Queer people are and how the mayor is “lawless” and “unclean”. His whole cringey mockery can be watched here.
He was met with people rightfully calling him a nazi. Others pointed out the bitter irony: he nailed the Pride flag to a cross, seemingly unaware that what is placed on a cross is traditionally understood as being unjustly persecuted by tyrants.
Then he decided to escalate the protest and use what he called “the torch of liberty” to burn the pride flag. In a political climate where Queer people are increasingly “othered,” that act was not just performative hate; it was symbolic violence which communicated a chilling message: If he could, he would burn us too.
As far as I could tell, no other anti-Queer protesters invoked scripture or Christianity at all that evening. While the pro-Queer crowd had several clergy including Unitarian-Universalist pastor Sara LaWall, there were seemingly no clergy among the anti-Queer crowd.
Unitarian-Universalist Pastor
This meant that the only overt religious displays that I saw that night came from Jordan Morales and David Pettinger.
When he spoke, Jordan alluded to our need to follow the second great commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” He remembered Isaiah’s admonition to defend the oppressed. He remembered that how he treats the oppressed is ultimately how he treats God. With this in mind, he decided to use his position as a city council member to support the Queer community.
Pettinger, on the other hand, knew that simply dressing up as clergy would give him more authority in the eyes of some people. His ramblings did not include anything that could be deemed as religious. With him, there were 2 scriptures that came to mind:
- 2nd Timothy 3:1-9: But understand this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, savage, opposed to what is good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, loving pleasure rather than loving God. They will maintain the outward appearance of religion but will have repudiated its power. So avoid people like these. For some of these insinuate themselves into households and captivate weak women who are overwhelmed with sins and led along by various passions. Such women are always seeking instruction, yet never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. And just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these people—who have warped minds and are disqualified in the faith—also oppose the truth. But they will not go much further, for their foolishness will be obvious to everyone, just like it was with Jannes and Jambres.
- Matthew 6:1, 5: “Be careful not to display your righteousness merely to be seen by people. Otherwise you have no reward with your Father in heaven. … do not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray while standing in synagogues and on street corners so that people can see them. Truly I say to you, they have their reward!
Jordan Morales used his political power to show us what true Christ-like love is like. David Pettinger disgraced religious people with his display for political power. That’s the difference between faith as a lifestyle and faith as a political tool.
Amen and Amen, Evan! The scriptures you quoted were, unfortunately, being fulfilled before everyone’s eyes at this meeting.