Church conference votes to leave Idaho due to transphobic climate

After an incident in an ER, the clergy members voted to move the conference out of state next year.

A Methodist conference that was scheduled to take place in Boise, Idaho, next year will have to find a new venue as its members voted to leave the state out of concerns for the safety of transgender and nonbinary participants

The United Methodist Church held its annual Oregon-Idaho Conference at the Cathedral of the Rockies in Boise from June 18 to 20, and it was supposed to return to the same church in 2027. But the state’s transphobic climate has gotten so bad that a majority of the council (52-48) voted to change venues for next year.

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The vote happened after a nonbinary reverend had to take their wife to an emergency room.

“I experienced some microaggressions that made me feel very anxious and unsafe,” they told the conference on its third day, according to Boise State Public Radio. “I’m asking you to consider relocating our next annual conference to a location where more of our community will feel safe and be present and participate.”

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The outlet said that it did not name the nonbinary reverend who spoke because they have already been the target of “hateful rhetoric.”

Rev. Heather Riggs of the Montavilla United Methodist Church in Portland, Oregon, introduced a motion to hold the 2027 conference outside of Idaho in “a location that is safe for all.”

“Harm has already been done at this year’s conference,” she said.

The debate that followed was “an opportunity for the body to talk about… LGBTQ sentiment in Idaho,” Bishop Cedric Bridgeforth, the leader of the Greater Northwest United Methodist region, told Boise State Public Radio. “So, there’s a struggle of values on whether to stay or to retreat.”

Bridgeforth wrote in a blog post in June that the close vote on the motion “reflects the complexity, pain, conviction, and concern present among us.”

“During the conversation, members named serious concerns about safety, racism, anti-trans rhetoric and action, and the lived realities of people of color, immigrants, queer and trans siblings, and others who are targeted by hate, laws, policies, and public speech,” he wrote. “A specific anti-trans incident that occurred in Boise during this annual conference was also reported. These concerns must be heard, received, and not minimized. All harm is harm.”

“At the same time, members spoke with deep conviction about the need to remain present in Idaho and to support the people who live, serve, lead, and love here every day. We cannot allow a decision about where to hold an annual conference session to become a retreat from our witness in Idaho or a rejection of the people who are faithfully serving here.”

Trans independent journalist Erin Reed just labeled Idaho a “Do Not Travel” state in her Anti-Trans National Legal Risk Assessment Map, which already ranked Florida, Texas, and Kansas as such. Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) signed a bill this year that criminalizes trans people’s use of restrooms consistent with one’s gender, making using the restroom in even private businesses something that could result in a prison sentence. That was just one of 15 anti-LGBTQ+ bills Little signed into law in the past several years.

Rev. Jenny Hirst of Collister United Methodist Church in Boise was one of the clergy members who voted against the resolution, and she told the Idaho Statesman that “there are many people who are working tirelessly to change and challenge those policies, and to build a different future for all people here.”

Hirst said she worried that the resolution will be seen as abandoning trans and nonbinary people in Idaho.

“Idaho needs the witness and solidarity of the wider church and denomination now more than ever,” she said. “Loving Idaho means telling the truth about what is happening, while continuing to show up and work for something better.”

She also said that the resolution was introduced late in the conference, when people were exhausted, and many had already left.

The Oregon-Idaho conference represents 145 Methodist churches in those two states, and the annual meeting usually involves discussions about budgets, compensation, and practical projects.

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