A Bad Day For The Dignity of All Montanans

With the extremists in the Republican Party making so many terrible decisions this legislative session, it’s hard to say which is the worst. However, some of the decisions they made today are definitely in the running.

First, the Republicans in the House Judiciary Committee killed a bill sponsored by Sen. Tom Facey. This bill would remove the outdated language in our criminal code that makes homosexual acts a felony. This law has already been ruled unconstitutional by the Montanan Supreme Court and similar laws have been ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. By all rational accounts, this bill should have been easy, since it only cleans up our criminal code to fit the current law. Unfortunately, all but one of the Republicans on this committee allowed their personal biases to overrule their respect for the rule of law and they voted to kill this bill.

After the vote on the bill, Rep. Diane Sands made it clear that she and thousands of their friends, family, neighbors and coworkers saw this as a personal attack.

Supporters of the bill have vowed to continue working until this stain of a law is removed from our books.

The extremists in the GOP weren’t done there though. Later in the day, the Senate Local Government Committee gave approval to a bill that seeks to nullify Missoula’s non-discrimination ordinance. If passed into law, LGBT Montanans in Missoula would be able to be discriminated against in housing, employment and public accommodations.

Both these decisions today are simply another example of the GOP’s extreme social agenda they have been pushing all session long.