Author Archives: D Gregory Smith

Newsflash! MT GOP Hates Human Rights (and LGBT People)

by D Gregory Smith

It’s been a rough few weeks for LGBT persons in Montana.

I testified at the legislature (with many of my brothers and sisters) against HB 516 which would overturn (perhaps even unconstitutionally) the right of cities and towns to enact their own anti-discrimination legislation. It passed out of committee- despite the amazingly logical arguments against it.

And Senate Bill 276, introduced by Tom Facey would have brought the criminal code into line with the judiciary- in effect aligning the language with the law, by removing the language of the deviate conduct laws which criminalize sexual behavior between consenting adults of the same gender. Bringing the language of the law in line with legal precedent. A no-brainer, right?

Sigh. Not for these Republican legislators. It just got worse. The hearing had some of the most disgusting things I’ve ever heard– much less to be spoken publicly by elected officials. The Billings Gazette had this to say:

Also turned back was a plan to get rid of a state law making gay sex subject to criminal penalties — even though the courts have ruled it unconstitutional and unenforceable.

Republicans, in a 13-7 vote, stacked up against the idea of removing from the books the law offensive to the gay community, which has argued over the years that the antiquated law sends a hostile message.

But House Republicans stuck with their party’s platform that calls for keeping the anti-gay law, even though many Senate Republicans had supported the idea in sending it to the other chamber.

“Voting to say this should stay on the books is truly a cruel act,” said Rep. Diane Sands, D-Missoula. “When you cast that vote you said that I and other members of this Legislature who are gay or lesbian should go to prison for up to 10 years for whom I love. Don’t come up to me later and say you are sorry.”

The Montana GOP has made things very clear- they don’t give a shit about human rights, they don’t give a shit about science and they don’t give a shit about gay people. In fact, they hate them. The only reason not to pass this bill was to slap the faces- repeatedly- of Montana LGBT persons. The only reason. That’s hate.

The plank that still stands in the Montana GOP Platform that promotes the criminalization of “homosexual” acts, I argued before, is anachronistic and hateful and should be removed.

I’ve changed my mind.

It should stay because that’s exactly what they believe. That kind of ridiculous hate and intolerance is exactly what the GOP legislators have sanctioned, promoted and supported. I thought that out of deference to some amazingly open Republican Montanans I know (and am related to) that this kind of thing could be avoided- that the official government of Montana would not tell LGBT kids that they are less valuable than others, that it wouldn’t keep LGBT adults living under the specter of vilification, intolerance and second-class citizenship.

I was wrong.

The MT GOP is intolerant and anti-gay. Period. And the people of Montana need to know that- without equivocation.

So, if you’re a Republican-leaning Montanan and you’re saying to yourself, “These legislators are crazy, they don’t speak for me,” you’re wrong. They do. And if you don’t follow the same ignorant, bigoted stance they are taking, you need to speak up.

Immediately.

And maybe consider leaving the party of bigotry and ignorance. Because, like it or not, the Montana Democrats are the only people standing united for human rights.

And if you’re an LGBT person who is still a Republican, the only thing I can (honestly) say is “Why? They hate you. Do you hate yourself?”

Because- mark my words, it’s just going to get worse.

Deeply Disgusting Comments From Montana GOP Legislators

by D Gregory Smith

From Montana Democrats’ Mike Wessler:

Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee heard Sen. Facey’s bill that seeks to remove language from our criminal code that seeks to criminalize homosexual acts in the state. This law was ruled unconstitutional years ago, however the law remained on the books.

During the hearing, opponents of the bill, both those testifying and on committee said some of the most disgusting things about gay, lesbian and bisexual people that I have ever heard. One opponent of the bill said that all pedophiles were gay or bisexual. A member of the committee asked a series of questions in order to suggest that gay men are simply HIV positive tax burdens.

Listen to a portion of the hearing here:

Disturbing. And embarrassing.
The average Montana third grader knows more than these asshats.

A Little Madness In The Spring

by D Gregory Smith

 

Was this line from Emily Dickinson the inspiration for the Montana Legislature this year? Or NCAA Ball? Or meteorologists? We may never know.

But the poem’s worth a listen:

A little madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King,
But God be with the Clown —
Who ponders this tremendous scene —
This whole Experiment of Green —
As if it were his own!

I have our house inspection report this morning, and then back to Butte to put Sars’ house on the market. Tomorrow is St Paddy’s Day in The Mining City (I’ll be safely at home, thank you) and then the O Sullivan Estate Sale Part Deux on Friday and Saturday.

How’s your week shaping up?

Press From Yesterday

by D Gregory Smith

The Missoulian (of course) printed the most info on the HB 516 hearing yesterday:

A crowd of people, many of them from Missoula, showed up Monday to oppose a bill that would nullify the city’s 2010 ordinance that protects residents from discrimination based on their sexual orientation, gender and gender expression.

A smaller group of people, some of whom fought the Missoula ordinance last year, came to support House Bill 516 by Rep. Kristin Hansen, R-Havre, at a hearing before the Senate Local Government Committee.

It was a low-key hearing compared to the at-times boisterous House Judiciary Committee hearing last month.

Hansen’s bill would prohibit local governments from enacting ordinances or other policies like Missoula’s that cover, as a protected class from actual discrimination, any groups not now included in the Montana Human Rights Act.

She questioned the legality of the Missoula ordinance, saying it could take several years for such a challenge to get through courts here.

“My bill prevents that,” she said. “It declares that the state is preemptive in the field. I believe that state law does preempt in this area.”

I even got a mention:

Gregory Smith, who was a chaplain to the Legislature in 1993, said he is a therapist whose patients includes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

“I am a gay man and a native Montanan,” he said. “We want to live our lives happily and from fear in the state we grew up in.”

Smith said the bill ignores a suffering segment of Montana’s population and is “enshrining bigotry and discrimination.

Read the full story here.

Off To The Rodeo

by D Gregory Smith

It’s not 40 below, but I do have a heater in the Bofus, so I’m off to the Rodeo- once known as the Montana Legislature, to speak in opposition to HB 516 (see previous post).

There are a lot of reasons to oppose this bill. Don Pogreba gives us more to think about from Intelligent Discontent:

One of the elements of Western movies that always puzzled me was the frequent assertion that no one in the West cared where a person had come from; all that mattered was the person they were in their new community. Growing up in relatively small towns like Shelby and Laurel, it seemed that the exact opposite was true. When someone new came to town, we wanted to know everything about him or her and we pried like hell to find out whatever we could. But the other half of the story was true: once that person arrived, all we cared about was that the new person did her job, treated her neighbors well, and shoveled her walk in the winter.

Once you became part of our town, your private life was your private life, and it wasn’t anybody’s business who you loved and/or slept with.

People like Harris Himes and and Dallas Erickson never seemed to learn that, though. For reasons that perhaps only a trained psychiatrist could explain, they seem obsessed with who someone sleeps with, and quite uncomfortably, how they do it. They hate people who are gay, lesbian, or transgender so much that they’ll lie about them, spew vicious invective at them, and even suggest that the death penalty would be appropriate for the crime of loving someone of the same sex.

Perfect. Read the rest here.

Oh, and while you’re at it, check out his piece on Montana Education. Excellent points, all.

Hey!

by D Gregory Smith

…against HB 516? Hearing starts Monday at 3pm in Room 405 of the Montana State Capitol Building.

I suggest printing two copies of your statement and bring it with you in case the monkey business of last time is repeated.

Here’s mine:

Regarding HB 516, I speak in opposition for several reasons.

  • Every community should have the right to decide its own ordinances of inclusion. Ordinances of exclusion, which is what this is, are historically used by dictatorships, theocratic states and societies of intolerance- which I fervently hope is not your intention.
  • Creating a law that disallows protection is counterintuitive to the purpose of government as set forth in both the Federal and State Constitutions, in which are stated explicitly the government’s purpose and responsibility to protect its citizenry from discrimination, violence and other harms.
  • This is an attempt to write prejudice and bigotry into the law. It is an attempt to tie local ordinances to State law in a way which keeps government from evolving as our understanding does- both scientific and social, creating a top-down model, instead of a cooperative, inter-dynamic process. State laws and statutes are informed by the experience of the people- don’t disregard the deliberate and intentional process engaged in by sizable numbers of Montanans- processes which inform the future of our government.
  • I am a gay man, a native Montanan. My partner is a native Montanan. All we want is to live our lives happily and free from fear in the state we both grew up in. This bill tells me we shouldn’t have the right to be happy here.

  • I am also a therapist, I work primarily with LGBT persons. The stories of fear and prejudice that I hear almost daily are heart-breaking. The stories of bullying and violence are also all too common and very real right here in the State of Montana. This bill simply ignores the needs of a suffering segment of the population who deserve to feel safe.
  • This bill is discrimination. It is rejection of the right of communities to protect their citizens as they believe necessary. It removes the power to govern from local citizens, enshrining bigotry, ignorance and personal belief in defiance of science, human experience and the freedom of local governance.

Respectfully submitted,
D Gregory Smith, MA, stl

LGBT Youth, Immigration Equality Reform & Montana Queer Politics

by D Gregory Smith

This week Joe and Phil are at the Haas Jr. Foundation LGBT writer, journalist and blogger summit in San Francisco California, however they wanted to share a few special interviews this week while they’re away.

This weekend Joe and Phil will be speaking with leaders around the nation about LGBT youth and family issues–and our interviews will help accent some of these conversations. First Phil speaks with Kelly Huegel, the author of GLBTQ: The Survival Guide for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Teens–just now releasing its second edition–about the challenges faced by LGBT youth in schools, as well as the victories achieved by young queer kids. Then I interview Michael Contorno about the struggle of LGBT youth in coming out, and his inspirational moment meeting his hero, Greg Louganis on the Oprah show.

We also have two extended interviews. First Noemi Masliah and Lavi Soloway–founders of Immigration Equality and top immigration lawyers for same-sex binational couples–talk about their new project: Stop the Deportations–the DOMA Project. Finally, I’m back with Jamee Greer, lobbyist and community organizer for the Montana Human Rights Network, and Mike Wessler, Research Director for the Montana Democratic Party about rural politics, anti-discrimination, LGBT rights, equality and the importance of Montana in the national political landscape.

Listen here. It’s good stuff.

The Voice Of Injustice Is Silence

by D Gregory Smith

I’ve been asked by a number of people where I got the tagline for this blog.
It came from a poem I wrote a few years back- and I honestly don’t think I stole it. Many things go through a writer’s brain between thought and writing- at least this writer- and I am never really satisfied when I read on of my published poems. I guess that’s why I keep writing them….

Still

It is time to open your mouth
And shape the sounds that give form
To the deathless moans of pain and suffering.
Because the voice of injustice is silence.

It is the industrial silence of the corporate owners
of the soul of America.
The owner of the rape victim
Has turned out to be the rapist,
who nurtures its growing fetus
with anger and guns,
With temples and sugar and crack.

It happens because it is
Purchased with favors
And scratched backs
And pretended piety.
The silence of fear,
Of the voiceless ones
Who see no Jesus in their
Cornflakes- only the one meal of
Their lonely, silent day.

“Keep them down and quiet,”
the fools say,
Because their money blinds them to
Moral bankruptcy and stupidity
And their power-drunk ears
Are closed to their own heartbeats.

But the voices will wake,
Sleepy maybe, at first,
But rested and ready.
They and the very stones will
scream, shouting from
The driveways of the country clubs
And the walls of the churches and schools
And Capitols, “Enough!”

It will be.
And the peace will not be a quiet peace.
It will be real and full of the sounds of
Life.
Unpurchased and awake.

Mississippi- A Damn Shame

by D Gregory Smith


According to Human Rights Watch, the State of Mississippi is the worst when it comes to educating and testing its people, and treating or housing persons with HIV:

Thousands of Mississippians are at risk for HIV, and many who are infected are denied lifesaving measures and treatment because of counterproductive state laws and policies, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Mississippi has resisted effective approaches to HIV prevention and treatment and instead supported policies that promote stigma and discrimination, fueling one of the nation’s highest AIDS rates, Human Rights Watch said.

Mississippi also clings to failed approaches to sex and HIV education, Human Rights Watch said. Mississippi has some of the nation’s highest rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis, sexually transmitted diseases that can significantly increase an individual’s risk of becoming infected with HIV. Yet the state legislature has repeatedly refused to approve programs that provide complete, accurate information about HIV and pregnancy prevention, insisting on ineffective abstinence-only curricula in the public schools. The result, Human Rights Watch said, is the denial of potentially life-saving information to adolescents, putting them at unnecessary risk of HIV infection.

This is America, not Rwanda. Full, upsetting story here.

HRC On Board In Montana

by D Gregory Smith

I’m glad that the Human Rights Campaign is paying attention to us….

Last spring HRC supporters teamed up with other advocates in Missoula to pass an anti-discrimination ordinance that included sexual orientation and gender identity. Now, conservatives at the State Capitol in Helena think they know better than the people of Missoula. HB 516 would take power away from local governments and make it illegal to pass anti-discrimination protections that are stronger than those in Montana state law. Take action now and send a message to your legislators asking them to oppose this bill and support equality!

Not only is this bill destructive for all future attempts to secure equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Montanans, it’s also retroactive which calls into question any personnel policy or resolution that a locality has already passed.

We will need a strong presence at the Capitol supporting dignity, fairness and equality Monday afternoon.  Please come testify or talk to your legislators. While we ask that everyone who comes to the Capitol bring a copy of written testimony to submit for the record, we expect the Senate Local Government committee to treat people with fairness and give a reasonable amount of time for testimony.

Senate Local Government Committee Hearing
Monday, March 14 | 3:00 p.m.
Room 405 | Montana State Capitol | Helena, MT

If you can’t make the hearing in person, please send a letter to your legislators now!

Thank you,

Marty Signature
Marty Rouse
HRC National Field Director