GLBT Idaho history: 1971 - 1980

1979

In 1976 the Idaho LGBT community threw off its previous reticence and Shuckley's Bar was formed. The resulting lack of backlash from the surrounding conservative community, encouraged other Gay and Lesbian organizations to spring up across the state.

Those organizations were seminal when in 1977 the Boise Police Department fired seven female employees under suspicion of lesbianism. In statements to the media the police chief made it clear the reasons for the department's actions saying that the women's homosexuality was detrimental to the moral of the police force. In reaction LGBT organizations organized petition drives in an attempt to get the women reinstated, they held fundraisers at Shuckey's Bar to support the women, and several of the women filed suit against the police department and the city. The women never got their jobs back, but the city did eventually settle with them not because there were any LGBT civil rights protections, but because the women hadn't been given a chance to appeal their dismissals.

With the firings and subsequent settlement, the LGBT community learned that they could organize for their politic rights and for social changes. What was even more clear to them was that a good number of straight individuals in the community would support them in their efforts.

At the same time as all of this was going on, a branch of the Metropolitan Community Church was organized and formally established in 1978. With the establishment two years later of the Imperial Sovereign Gem Court of Idaho which originally operated out of Shuckley's Bar both organizations were to become the philanthropic backbone of the LGBT movement.

In 1978 The Elm Awards (now called "Les Bois Awards") was instituted to recognize the achievements of individuals in the gay and lesbian community. Recipients included both gay and straight individuals.