Missoula passes anti-discrimination ordinance

MISSOULA — The Missoula City Council passed an ordinance Tuesday

that protects residents from housing and employment discrimination

based on “actual or perceived” sexual orientation and gender

identity.

“Most of us can’t remember civil rights in action,” said council

member Stacy Rye, an ordinance sponsor. “This is it for us. This is

our lifetimes.”

Council members voted 10-2 early Tuesday in favor of the ordinance,

which the Montana Human Rights Network says is the first of its

kind in the state.

“Hopefully our actions tonight will ripple through Montana from

Libby to Billings, from Dillon to Wolf Point, and eventually to the

capital in Helena,” said council member Dave Strohmaier, another

sponsor of the ordinance.

The

vote came after a nearly seven-hour meeting in which opponents

argued that the ordinance would make women and children more

vulnerable to “peeping toms and cross-dressing pedophiles” in

public restrooms.

Dustin Hankinson of Missoula said some of the opposing arguments

were “insane.”

“We

are America. Freedom,” Hankinson said. “We cannot claim to be the

paragon of freedom and liberty and still maintain that it is

absolutely acceptable to oppress people for who they are. It’s

contradictory.”

The

council heard testimony about two women who were unable to purchase

a condominium when it became clear to the owner that that they were

a lesbian couple, while a 17-year-old girl said she had been

repeatedly harassed and received two death threats for being a

lesbian, even though she is not.

She

said she wanted to point out that the ordinance recognition of

discrimination by “perceived” sexual orientation could apply to

heterosexuals as well.

Missoula pastor Ron Thiessen said he didn’t believe the council

should advance such a political agenda.

“I

do not mock their pain, but social policy is not the place to

resolve discord in their lives,” he said.

The

ordinance also applies to public accommodations such as restaurants

and hotels.

Councilwoman Lyn Hellegaard voted against the ordinance, saying she

was concerned it violated the Constitution.