HELENA, Mont. — At a time when gays have been gaining victories across the country, the Republican Party in Montana wants to make homosexuality illegal.
The party adopted an official platform in June that keeps a long-held position in support of making homosexual acts illegal, a policy adopted after the Montana Supreme Court struck down such laws in 1997.
The fact that it is still the official party policy more than 12 years later, despite a tidal shift in public attitudes since then and the party’s own pledge of support for individual freedoms, has exasperated some GOP members.
“I looked at that and said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ ” said state Sen. John Brueggeman, R-Polson, last week. “Should it get taken out? Absolutely. Does anybody think we should be arresting homosexual people? If you take that stand, you really probably shouldn’t be in the Republican Party.”
Gay rights have been rapidly advancing nationwide since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Texas’ sodomy law in 2003’s Lawrence vs. Texas decision. Same-sex marriage is now allowed in five states and Washington, D.C., and a federal court recently ruled the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy unconstitutional. A conservative Tea Party group in Montana ousted its president over an anti-gay exchange on Facebook.
But going against the grain is the Montana GOP statement, which falls under the “Crime” section of the GOP platform. It states: “We support the clear will of the people of Montana expressed by legislation to keep homosexual acts illegal.”
Montana GOP executive director Bowen Greenwood said that has been the party’s position since the state Supreme Court struck down state laws criminalizing homosexuality in 1997 in the case of Gryczan vs. Montana.
Nobody has ever taken the initiative to change it and so it has remained in the party platform, Greenwood said. The matter has never even come up for discussion, he said.
Critics say the policy is a toothless statement, the effect of which is simply to make gays feel excluded.
