HomeMy WebLinkAboutNon-Discrimination Public Comment from Justin Taylor 4-28-14From:Shards91
To:Agenda
Subject:NDO
Date:Monday, April 28, 2014 4:13:28 PM
Dear City Commissioners,
My name is Justin Taylor. I am a student at Montana State University here in Bozeman and am living
on campus, which would be largely affected by the non- discrimination ordinance that is in the works. I
am supportive of this ordinance and I ask you to be as well. I know a lot of the argument against it is
that it is forced tolerance, but I see it as simple equal treatment. As a gay man, I do not ask that my
fellow citizens be forced to tolerate my love life. To be honest, I see no reason why the topic should
even come up in our conversations. I only ask that I be able to live my life here in Bozeman in peace,
and without the fears my heterosexual peers are not in danger of facing. Here in Montana, one could
still be fired or denied housing because of their sexuality or gender identity. The result of this is that a
significant amount of people (even more than I expected, quite frankly) are forced into fear that they
will be in the situation where they can no longer feed themselves and/or their families, or even that
they will be forced on the streets, all because of an aspect of themselves that they cannot control.
This is true even at the university, where transgender students are often horrified to even use the
public restrooms due to ridicule and the possibility of even being attacked in one restroom to being
shouted at and chased out and disciplined if they use another. Relieving a lot of this discrimination
doesn't even need to be something as extreme as allowing someone with male anatomy who identifies
as a woman to use a women's restroom. It could be something as simple as creating more unisex
restrooms, which the campus has already designated a few restrooms as.
I thank you for considering this letter and I hope you will support the Bozeman non- discrimination
ordinance, so that all of the citizens of Bozeman can live freely.
Sincerely,
Justin Taylor