Here We Have Idaho

Babs in front of her new home

After a wonderful visit to Yellowstone we stopped traveling for a while and enjoyed a few days in Boise with my friend Babs (you can read about her in an earlier post entitled "Babs").  Boise is a beautiful small city nestled among green hills with a river running through the center of town.  Although the politics of Southern Idaho don't match my own, I've always enjoyed coming here to visit Babs.  We were especially anxious to see the new home she purchased recently.  It is just perfect for a 70-something single woman -- single story, two bedrooms, a small yard for her garden and her dog Charlie, and a wood stove to keep her toasty during those chilly winter days.  

One evening, Babs invited some friends over for dinner.  We enjoyed meeting these two delightful women, who have been good friends of Babs for many years.  I have chosen not to give their names to protect their privacy but would like to share some of our dinner conversation.  Both of these women, now in their 70's and 80's, have worked in Idaho in a profession that required that they be in the closet.  One of them is still working and shared that many in her office know she is a lesbian but that she has to have a cover with her clients so the word is that she has a husband who "isn't doing well."  Her partner worked in the Boise public schools for a few years but was afraid her grandchildren, who attended the school where she worked, might be discriminated against if it were discovered that grandma was gay so she resigned and found a job elsewhere.  When we discussed senior housing in Boise for LGBT, they both agreed that there wasn't any place that they knew of that would be open to them.  Sadly, they said that it was most common for partners to go into senior housing with one as a "caretaker" rather than acknowledge the relationship.  In fact, they said if or when they need to leave their lovely Boise home and move into senior housing, they would do the same thing rather than risk not being able to be with each other in the same apartment or room.  So sad.  

When it comes to her LGBT residents, Idaho is not "winning her way to fame" and the "ideals that are being realized" are not the ideals of the LGBT residents, their families and friends. 
 
Lyrics from the State song:
And here we have Idaho,
Winning her way to fame.
Silver and gold in the sunlight blaze,
And romance lies in her name.
Singing, we’re singing of you,
Ah, proudly too. All our lives thru,
We’ll go singing, singing of you,
Singing of Idaho.

There’s truly one state in this great land of ours,
Where ideals can be realized.
The pioneers made it so for you and me,
A legacy we’ll always prize.