Idaho Senate passes resolution for ‘Traditional Family Month’

BOISE — Senate members on Tuesday passed a resolution recognizing “Traditional Family Month” in an evening floor session.

The resolution designates Mother’s Day through Father’s Day as a time to recognize traditional families, with different weeks designated for mothers, fathers, sons, brothers, uncles, grandparents, daughters, sisters and aunts. It ends with the celebration of “fatherhood and marriage between a man and woman.”

Sen. Ben Toews, R-Coeur d’Alene, presented Senate Concurrent Resolution 111, which doesn’t create a new law, but expresses support and encourages education.

“The main purpose of it is to just outline that the family is deteriorating in our society, people are getting married later, having fewer children, sometimes not getting married at all, the divorce rate is up,” Toews said.

Divorce rates declined nationally from 2008-22, the U.S. Census Bureau reported in 2024.

The resolution highlights divorce rates being lower in 1950 and marriage rates being higher in 1960 than today.

Some who opposed the resolution, mostly Democrats, said they disagreed with the statements in its text and found some of them offensive.

The resolution lists a number of statistics from the International Federation for Family Development, such as “90% of all homeless or runaway children, 85% of all children who show behavior disorders, 80% of rapists with anger problems, 71% of high school dropouts” and more come from fatherless homes.

It also states that “research demonstrates children who grow up in families with traditional values and gender roles are more likely to have traditional values and gender role expectations of themselves.”

“Having been a single parent, this resolution is very hurtful to me,” Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking, D-Boise, said. “I have an amazing family.”

Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, said a lot of different families were left out of the description and she felt the resolution implied they weren’t as “capable” as other types of families. She also said families in two-parent homes aren’t always better.

She said her mother had to save her grandmother’s life “at the hands of an abusive man,” and in her own family, her mom kicked her dad out of the house, “and it was the first time I ever felt relief.”

“Not all traditional families are good ones,” she said.

Sen. Jim Guthrie, R-McCammon, was the only Republican to debate against the resolution.

“When you look at the detail in this resolution, it begs the question, why do we have to kick somebody in the shin to prop up somebody else,” Guthrie said. “Why does it have to be like that?”

He said his father “came from nothing in a broken home to be an incredible human being.”

Some said they came from single-parent homes, including Toews, but still supported the resolution.

The resolution passed 27-7 and goes to the House.

Guido covers Idaho politics for the Lewiston Tribune, Moscow-Pullman Daily News and Idaho Press of Nampa. She may be contacted at lguido@idahopress.com and can be found on Twitter @EyeOnBoiseGuido.

How they voted

Yes: Cindy Carlson-R, Dan Foreman-R, Phil Hart-R