Gay rights activists arrested

BOISE (AP) - Gay rights activists were arrested Thursday and jailed after refusing to voluntarily lift an hours-long Senate blockade aimed at pressuring lawmakers into backing anti-discrimination protections.

In all, there were 32 arrests throughout the day, said Idaho State Police spokeswoman Teresa Baker, including seven around noon. Six people were cited for trespassing and another for misdemeanor battery.

Then, another 25 people were cited for misdemeanor trespassing after 4 p.m. after posting themselves outside Senate chambers for more than six hours, then declining to disperse when asked by law enforcement. A law enforcement bus transported those 25 protesters to Ada County Jail in Boise.

"We just needed to make sure that the public has access to the Capitol," Baker said. "That wasn't occurring today."

Thursday's action follows a similar demonstration Feb. 3 when 44 protesters were arrested and charged with misdemeanor trespassing.

Several of those demonstrators were arrested again Thursday.

So far, however, GOP lawmakers have declined to hold a hearing on adding add four words - sexual orientation and gender identity - to the Idaho Human Rights Act that currently bans workplace and housing discrimination based on race, gender or religion.

Former State Sen. Nicole LeFavour of Boise, a Democrat who was Idaho's first openly gay lawmaker until she resigned in 2012, said Republicans' refusal to consider her group's grievances amounts to tacit approval of violence she says is being committed against gay people across the state.

"Senators have remained silent, while people have been beaten in alleyways," said LeFavour, among the first to be arrested Thursday.