Montana House Judiciary Committee Kills Bill That Would Have Decriminalized Homosexuality
The bill (SB276) I mentioned earlier, passed by the Montana Senate in late February that would strike an obsolete law criminalizing homosexuality from the books, was killed by the Montana House Judiciary Committee today.
Read my earlier post for some of the disgusting testimony that went on before the committee, including one witness who said that 100% of pedophiles are gay or bisexual, and a lawmaker who painted gay people as HIV-positive tax burdens and pedophiles.
Shameful, embarrassing day for Montana.
As commenters note, Lawrence V. Texas, which decriminalized sodomy, obviously applies in Montana. The more disturbing thing is that this bill was simply to strike an obsolete law from the books, and legislators decided to leave it.
Earlier...
Listen: Ugly Montana House Testimony on Decriminalizing Homosexuality Smears Gays as HIV-Positive Tax Burdens, Pedophiles [tr]
Why doesn't Lawrence v Texas apply in Montana? I thought the Supreme Court was... supreme.
Posted by: Dan | Mar 18, 2011 2:58:21 PM
Lawrence does apply. This vote was entirely symbolic.
Posted by: BABH | Mar 18, 2011 3:03:42 PM
And it's really stupid to push for a symbolic vote when you ... don't have the votes.
Posted by: BABH | Mar 18, 2011 3:04:57 PM
Ok, let's slap Montana upside the head. Today we buy more and more things online. BEFORE you buy look to see where the product is coming from and if it comes out of Montana or is associated in any way with Montana - go elsewhere. DO NOT BUY anything made in or associated with Montana.
Sure, it won't correct the problem but it will sure hurt the pocketbooks of the Montana citizenry. Maybe being poor(er) will wake them up.
Posted by: OS2Guy | Mar 18, 2011 3:19:06 PM
I don't know if I agree that it was stupid to push for a symbolic vote. I hope it reminds fellow Montanans how backward and ignorant our current GOP legislators are, how obsessed they are with social issues instead of the economic goals they touted and how transparent they really are.
Posted by: bozemanmontana | Mar 18, 2011 3:21:23 PM
guess I wont be spending my vacation dollars in Montana
Posted by: NorthoftheBorder | Mar 18, 2011 3:22:49 PM
They have a film festival in Bozeman called HATCH. No doubt the organizers of this festival are as appalled as we are, but maybe we should encourage them all the more to move it out of Montana entirely. Bigotry costs jobs.
Posted by: Tom | Mar 18, 2011 3:26:09 PM
May the prevailing winds blow all the radiation from Japan upon Montana.
Posted by: jamal49 | Mar 18, 2011 3:31:30 PM
They did the same thing in Kansas this past week and my DEMOCRATIC representative sponsored it! I wrote to her to express my outrage, but didn't get a reply.
Posted by: Miche Rutledge | Mar 18, 2011 3:33:50 PM
There are two main reasons for keeping an unconstitutional law (which by definition cannot be enforced) on the books at the state or local level: (1) to express ongoing social disapproval of, and to stigmatize, the behavior whose legalization is opposed in that local jurisdiction; (2)in the hope that the Supreme Court will reverse itself in the future (the latter is the reason some states still have anti-abortion laws on their books, though Roe v. Wade renders them unenforceable). My guess is that both apply here.
Posted by: Sancho | Mar 18, 2011 3:38:12 PM
Oh! How we hates 'em, disgusting homah-sexyuls!
Posted by: M. Bergeron | Mar 18, 2011 3:46:24 PM
OK - so now I don't have to travel to Montana....or Utah. No loss.
Posted by: Steve | Mar 18, 2011 3:57:36 PM
Idiotic, shameful, disgusting, of course. But what I really don't get here is why people are allowed to LIE in their testimony regarding this bill. Expressing an opinion (however vile) is one thing, but it simply is factually incorrect that 100% of pedophiles are homosexual. There is no evidence, anywhere on this planet, that supports such a claim. Why is it allowed to stand in this context? I teach for a living, and if one of my students says something completely mistaken, I let them know. The same should apply here.
I hope the gay youth of Montana are listening to other voices than these. This kind of lying and rancid stigmatization borders on the criminal.
I've always wanted to visit Glacier National Park, but f**k it.
Posted by: E. | Mar 18, 2011 3:58:31 PM
Just another sign that conservatives (Republican AND Democrat) have made us their target and #1 enemy. What happened in Kansas and here in Montana is nothing more than these people saying F**k you fa**ots, we hate you. Let them drown in their bigotry and further expose themselves as hateful and evil individuals, they ultimately do more good for us than anything else, as logical minded people do not want to associate with such animals.
Posted by: Francis | Mar 18, 2011 4:16:56 PM
They keep them on the books because the law enforcement departments will still arrest under them.. publicly humiliating the individual, then it gets thrown out under the Supreme Court decision.
Posted by: Derek | Mar 18, 2011 4:18:59 PM
I'm from Montana. It's a beautiful state, from the mountains to the more plain's like eastern area. I don't live in Montana anymore but I really miss it. I lived in Missoula for the 6 last years I lived there and it was overall a very tolerant and wonderfully open place. It's a huge, really huge, shame that this happens here. It's not everywhere in Montana that you will find this kind of hate, certainly not in Missoula.
This shows a huge glaring problem with the religious right, they are bigoted and intolerant. They are closed minded fools holding on to the slivers of hope that they have to keep the dominance they have enjoyed over this country. I feel the tides turning and days like these won't be around for very much longer.
So enjoy this success religious right, you won't be right for wrong.
Posted by: Andrew | Mar 18, 2011 4:46:11 PM
I hear Missoula is great. I'd love to visit. I love Montana. It's just a shame the political process is dominated by the religious right.
Posted by: Xtab | Mar 18, 2011 5:14:32 PM
They will probably be putting up a fence and having state border guards asking everyone, "Are you gay?" that is traveling into the state so they can track their movements just to make sure they leave. The state from what I hear is an awesome sight, the population however, I'll do w/out ever knowing.
Posted by: Skooter McGoo | Mar 18, 2011 5:33:31 PM
I have come to expect stupidity from politicians. But who was the addle-brained idiot physician who testified??? When did he go to medical school?? During the Inquisition??
Posted by: Chris | Mar 18, 2011 5:56:14 PM
...and Conservatives/Republican's still claim that they are not bigoted!
Posted by: CB | Mar 18, 2011 6:01:58 PM
My husband and a were planning on visiting friends in Missoula this summer with our son. But now I'm thinking, "not so much". Even though Missoula's a welcoming place, I don't think I want to be on the state at all.
Posted by: David R. | Mar 18, 2011 10:50:06 PM
More evidence that Americans (Montanans especially) should try living and working in Canada where they actually support gay citizens.
Posted by: X | Mar 19, 2011 12:01:40 AM
We who are Christians would say if you choose to live your life one way don't make us go along with it if we choose3 not too. Just because you may be gay I choose to not be because I have a moral value that was put in me as a child. My choice to be straight. Not forced to be straight I choose to be straight.
Posted by: James S. | Mar 20, 2011 3:48:22 PM