This past legislative session, Idaho’s legislature passed two bills attempting to govern flags and banners on government property. Ultimately, with Attorney General Labrador’s guidance and input , this prohibits schools to hang banners like “Everyone Is Welcome Here.” Some might say they understand the intent behind the law to prevent public buildings from displaying partisan symbols – such as a confederate flag, or campaign candidate banner. I agree those have no place in our public schools. But this legislation is so poorly written, and so selectively enforced, that it crosses from neutrality into ideological gatekeeping.

Attorney General Labrador’s labeling of “Everyone Is Welcome” signs as political is a concerning attempt to cover up a truth of our public schools – that truly every child is welcomed in their schools regardless of how they show up at the door. The passage of this law is sending clear a message that Idaho is fine with certain political symbols as long as they align with specific ideologies.

The double standard is impossible to miss. It’s important to know, just weeks after this ban, Idaho approved specialty license plates featuring the Tree of Heaven design and the Gadsden flag – both flags which are prohibited under HB 41.

I ask where is the moral outrage with those?

What’s even stranger, is the particular target picked when enforcing the ban? “Everyone is Welcome.” This is not political. It doesn’t belong to one party or ideology.

It’s the kind of phrase you hear every Sunday morning at the door of a church. It’s printed on event invitations and door mats.

It hangs outside small-town diners and libraries.

It’s what we say to new neighbors and visiting strangers.

It’s part of our shared cultural vocabulary and symbolizes nothing more than hospitality. It is our phrase and it belongs to all of us.

And yet, under this new law, those simple words are suddenly forbidden in Idaho’s schools. How can we claim to teach children citizenship while telling them that a basic gesture of welcoming is too political to display?

A poster of inclusion is banned. A state license plate that prints prohibited flags is fine.

The real question is who gets to define what is “political” and what messages our state lawmakers choose to suppress. And if the standard is that any phrase or symbol embraced by someone in politics becomes political, then no symbol is safe. Not even our nation‘s flag.

Idaho has reached a point where an invitation to belong is seen as a provocation but symbols linked to a violent attack on our democracy is treated as heritage and proudly displayed on our state license plate.

That is not neutrality. So let’s stop pretending it is.

Monica Dickson is a native Idahoan and lives in the Treasure Valley.