Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James Conner.
Both the InterLake and Flathead Beacon report that the Whitefish City Council, encouraged by the Montana Human Rights Network and the Montana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, will consider a non-discrimination ordinance that (Beacon) “…protects lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations.”
Several Montana cities have adopted local non-discrimination ordinances, but not all (InterLake):
A handful of Montana cities have passed nondiscrimination laws based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Missoula first adopted a nondiscrimination law in April 2010. Helena adopted a similar law in 2012 and Butte followed suit in February last year.
Bozeman adopted a nondiscrimination ordinance in June, but five Bozeman residents have challenged the law with a lawsuit against the city. They say the ordinance goes beyond the city’s authority and pre-empts state law.
The city of Dillon rejected a similar nondiscrimination ordinance in September, saying the law overstepped city authority.
Billings also rejected a nondiscrimination ordinance in August.
This is an issue best resolved at the state level. Those pushing for the Whitefish ordinance may believe that a proliferation of local non-discrimination ordinances will increase the likelihood of the Legislature’s passing a statewide ordinance. But the failure of communities to pass non-discrimination ordinances once proposed will have the opposite effect.
Whitefish needs to proceed carefully, to let the discussion mature and diversify, and not to be stampeded into rash action.
At the 1 December 2014 meeting of the Whitefish City Council, Whitefish attorney Brian Muldoon delivered remarks that have been posted by Love Lives Here, and that are worth reading. The version posted, incidentally, contains an assertion that needs correcting:
Philosopher Hannah Arendt, observer of the Nuremberg trial of Adolph Eichman, an architect of the Third Reich, called it “the banality of evil.”
Eichmann’s deeds were described in testimony at Nuremberg, but he disappeared before he could be tried there. American military forces captured him, but he escaped, eventually making his way to South America. In 1960, Israel’s Mossad located him in Argentina. He was abducted and surreptitiously flown to Israel. In 1961 he was tried in Jerusalem for war crimes. That’s the trial Hannah Arendt attended and described in her book, Eichmann in Jerusalem (still in print, and available an an ebook), in which she used the “banality of evil” phrase. He was hanged in 1962.