HomeMy WebLinkAboutNon-Discrimination Ordinance Public Comment from Richard Bennett 5-1-14Mayor Kraus and City Commissioners,
My name is Richard Bennett and I reside at 1612 West Olive in Bozeman. I am here to speak against the
proposed non‐discrimination ordinance that the City Commission is considering tonight.
I am a member of a local church that conducts two different children’s ministries for the community, an
early learning academy and a youth day camp.
If the city commission adopts this non‐discrimination ordinance, my church’s children’s ministries would
be forced to hire staff that practice behavior that is against our religious beliefs and stated tenets of our
faith. These ministries would not be exempted from the public accommodation definition in section 9(a)
since they provide services and facilities to the general public.
If we are forced to hire individuals who practice homosexuality or who express their gender opposite of
their biological gender, then the safety of all children participating in my church’s ministries would be at
risk.
Parents would not be sending their kids to my church’s early learning classes or youth day camps if they
even suspected that the staff tending to their child could be practicing homosexuality or transgender
males could be entering the girls bathroom. This would force my church to shut down these worthwhile
ministries to the public.
Deputy Mayor Taylor’s written introductory comments to the ordinance state that “there is no likely
danger from transgender women to other women using a women’s room” and that several local experts
have stated that this is not a likely or known problem. Apparently, the local experts rendering their
opinion were not aware of the incident at Evergreen State College in Washington, where a 45‐year old
male student, who dresses as a woman, undressed and exposed his genitals on several occasions,
including sprawling out in a sauna, inside the women’s locker room to female students from a nearby
high school and girls as young as 6 years old from a local swimming club, who often share the facilities
with the college. Imagine the shock of the complaining parents when the college told them their non‐
discrimination policy prevents them from stopping the transgender man from exposing himself to young
girls inside the women’s locker room, and the local district attorney told them he would probably not
pursue charges because the “criminal law is very vague in this area.” The transgender man told the TV
news that he was born a man but chose to live as a woman in 2009, and felt discriminated against after
he was told to leave. Is this City prepared to be held liable for possible future emotional distress and
harm to young girls who are exposed to a man’s genitals in a women’s locker room or bathroom?
I close with another question. Kevin Briggs, the recently captured Bozeman jail escapee, who is a
convicted sex offender charged with sexual assault and attempted rape, had as an alias a woman’s
name, Aimee MacIntire. My question to the Commission is this: Why do you think Briggs used a
woman’s name as one of his aliases?
Thank you.