United States | News & Politics

After hours of heated testimony and debate, Sandpoint’s City Council voted to repeal the city’s rules protecting residents and visitors from discrimination.

The city was the first of 13 in Idaho to pass an ordinance barring discrimination, said Nicole Erwin, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates. Its decision Wednesday marked the first time an Idaho city has dialed back such an ordinance, she said.

The ordinance, enacted in 2011, stated that everyone could enjoy the “full benefits of citizenship” and equal opportunity “regardless of sexual orientation” or “gender identity/expression.” It defined the latter term as a “gender-related identity, appearance, expression or behavior of an individual regardless of a person’s assigned sex at birth.”