Anti-gay extremists are stirring up completely unfounded fears about safety and privacy to justify discrimination against transgender Montanans. This is about more than just bathrooms; bills like HB 609 threaten the safety and dignity of the LGBT community and have no place in Montana.
Summary of the Bill and its Implications
- Mandates that individuals use the public facility (bathroom, locker room, etc.) according to the sex designated by their original birth certificate
- Allows a person who encounters an individual perceived to be of the opposite sex in a public facility to sue the government entity or public school who controls the facility
- Bars local governments from implementing non-discrimination ordinances in public accommodations. Missoula, Whitefish, Butte, Helena, and Bozeman have already passed non-discrimination ordinances to protect transgender and intersex individuals
- Does not recognize the safety and dignity of the transgender, intersex, and gender non-conforming communities and their right to use the facility where they feel the safest
- Opens local governments and their school districts to extensive litigation from people who encounter someone who they perceive to not look like the "correct" gender in the bathroom. Government entities and schools will have the incredible expense of regulating their locker rooms, restrooms, and other accommodations
What You Can Do
- Call or email your legislators and tell them to vote NO on this terrible bill
- Organize a phone bank and spread the word using PeoplePower.org
- Invite your friends, family, and neighbors to join you in voicing your objection to this bill
