In 2025, the state of Idaho passed a law that banned Pride and other flags from government property. As a loophole, Boise City Council had made the Pride flag an official flag of the city.
But state lawmakers closed that workaround this past legislative session, when Republican State Rep. Ted Hill, brought two bills forward to punish cities that did not comply with the Pride flag ban.
One of his bills was signed into law by Gov. Brad Little at the end of March, which invokes a $2,000 fine per flag per day, and allows the attorney general to sue cities that do not comply.
Boise took their Pride flags down the day Little signed the new bill into law, but now, the city is resisting the measure in creative ways.
Over the past few days, new rainbow displays have begun popping up in front of and on city buildings.
The first loophole comes in the form of thick, rainbow stripes in the colors of the Progress Pride flag, wrapping around flagpoles. While not the same as flying the banner at the top of the pole, these designs still signal something to LGBTQ+ residents.
“The Pride flag is not a political statement. It is a symbol of heritage, welcome and safety,” Boise City Council President Meredith Stead said in a March 31 statement. “We are taking it down because the law forces us to, but our commitment to every person who has looked at that flag and felt seen does not waver for a single moment.”
In addition to the new flag pole accessories, large white signs emblazoned with the Progress Pride colors were displayed in City Hall windows earlier this week, with the phrase “creating a city for everyone” attached.
The city has also shown colorful lights on its official buildings in recent days, displaying blues, pinks, purples, and other rainbow hues to match the other new art displays.
Boise city spokesperson Maria Ortega confirmed to the Idaho Statesman that the city is responsible for rainbow lights on City Hall, the wrapped flagpoles, and the window display. Ortega was transparent about the cost, as well, adding that the window display and the flagpoles cost just under $6,000, and came from the city’s existing operating budget.
The lights did not cost additional money, she added.
“The city of Boise remains in compliance with the law and is not flying any city official Pride flags on our properties,” Ortega wrote in an email to FOX 26.
“The art additions to city hall demonstrate our unwavering commitment to the people that call Boise home and to the values that we uphold every day of being a safe and welcoming city for everyone,” Ortega concluded in a statement to the Statesman.
While State Rep. Hill seems dismayed by the changes (“She’s insulting everyone else,” Hill told the Statesman, referring to the Boise Mayor. “Is that City Hall or some activist Pride Hall?”), city officials seem to have no intention of backing down.
“The flag is not our only form of expression,” Boise council member and former state Rep. Colin Nash reportedly said to an audience on the day the flags were taken town.
“I’m excited for what both us and the community can come up with as other ways to identify our solidarity with each of you.”
For LGBTQ+ residents, like hairdresser Ryan James Lee-Goodman, these simple acts of defiance mean the world.
“You can order a flag down, but you cannot make people disappear. You can pass cowardly laws, but you cannot force dignity back into the closet. And you sure as hell cannot stop people from finding new ways to say: we are still here,” Lee-Goodman wrote on Threads.
“Boise understood the assignment.”
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Header image courtesy of Ryan James Lee-Goodman/Threads
