April 09 2026, 08:15 
The city of Boise won’t take “no” for an answer. Republicans said no Pride flags, so the mayor responded with Pride “wraps.”
Just days after Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) signed an updated law that finally banished the Pride standard from flying at City Hall, Boise unveiled vinyl wraps featuring the Progress Pride flag colors on the building’s three flagpoles, reaching nearly all the way up to the flags themselves.
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The flags on those poles don’t include a Pride flag.
Last Tuesday, following Little’s signature — not so coincidentally, on the Trans Day of Visibility — Boise Mayor Lauren McLean (D) ordered the city’s Pride flag lowered after more than a decade.
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After an earlier law first banned all flags that aren’t official government flags, the City Council made the Pride flag an official city flag. Republicans responded with an update to that law, adding language and fines that the city couldn’t circumvent.
On the day Gov. Little signed the new bill, Mayor McLean stood with council members and about 60 supporters at a special City Council meeting, where they proclaimed March 31 as Transgender Day of Visibility in the state capital.
“Many people in this state and around this country are seeking to divide us. They’re seeking to divide us by targeting the most vulnerable among us,” McLean said as she choked back tears, according to the Idaho Statesman. “I want the people in this room to know that I see you. We see you. You are wanted, important, and unique members of our community.”
That night, McLean lit City Hall in the colors of the transgender flag: pink, white, and baby blue.
Now Boise has added the wraps, and a massive sign hung in the building’s glass facade that declares, “Creating a city for everyone,” alongside a Progress Pride rainbow.
“Well, the law pertained to flags, and we are in full compliance with the law,” Mayor McLean told Boise State Public Radio on Tuesday.
“We have a rich history of an arts and culture scene here,” she added. “So because it’s allowed, we have installed art that demonstrates our values of being a safe and welcoming city for everyone.”
State Rep. Ted Hill (R), who brought the two bills to address Republicans’ displeasure with the Pride flag, told the Statesman he was expecting some kind of response, though he’d guessed it would be a mural.
It was too early to tell whether lawmakers would bring a bill to address the mayor’s workaround, Hill said.
“She’s insulting everyone else,” he complained. “Is that City Hall or some activist Pride Hall?”
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