Idaho Republican fears 'a gay guy' might 'come to work in a tutu'

Idaho Republican Party leaders are calling on the state legislature to invalidate local and city ordinances that ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Cornel Rasor, a former Bonner County commissioner and chairman of the Idaho GOP’s resolutions committee, believes the anti-discrimination laws force employers to put up with workplace shenanigans on the part LGBT individuals.

"I’d hire a gay guy if I thought he was a good worker. But if he comes into work in a tutu... he’s not producing what I want in my office.

"If a guy has a particular predilection and keeps it to himself, that’s fine, but if he wants to use my business as a platform for his lifestyle, why should I have to subsidize that? And that’s what these anti-discrimination laws do."

Idaho has no statewide law banning such discrimination, and Idahoans can currently legally be fired from their jobs, evicted from their homes or denied service in private businesses based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Six Idaho cities have passed non-discrimination ordinances in the past year and a half, and a seventh, Idaho Falls, is looking into one now.

The party central committee’s resolution isn’t binding on the 81 percent Republican legislature, but "sends a message" that GOP leaders want to put a halt to local anti-discrimination ordinances.

"All I see is more and more laws making things more and more difficult, more and more restrictive, more and more controlled, and I’m a liberty person," Rasor said. "I like to be left alone. I like to make my own decision."