Ed Kemmick/Last Best News
Tina Volek, standing, walks the Billings City Council through a draft of the nondiscrimination ordinance.
After weeks of debate, an unprecedented flood of emails and the longest public hearing in its history, the Billings City Council finally got around to discussing the language of a proposed nondiscrimination ordinance Monday night.
The council spent nearly 2½ hours working its way through the six-page draft ordinance, which would prohibit discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations against people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identification or expression.
The work session started at 5:30 and Mayor Tom Hanel called a 10-minute recess at 7:50. After that, the plan was to open the floor to public comment. Because this was a work session at which no formal action is taken, Hanel said comments would be limited to one minute per person.
About 120 people were crowded into council chambers and at least 50 people had signed a roster saying they intended to testify. Your Last Best News correspondent, having sat through the nine hours of public testimony last week, decided to let the council enjoy the hearing without him.
If you’re checking in this evening, you can watch the hearing by going to Community 7 Television and clicking on “Watch Live,” or later by clicking on “Archived Meetings.”
During their discussion, council members touched on many parts of the draft NDO, discussing possible changes and deletions, and talking about how to proceed.
Councilman Denis Pitman asked if an ordinance could be passed by the council and then placed on the ballot for a popular vote. City Attorney Brent Brooks said it could, but Aug. 11 would be the deadline to get it on the November ballot.
That’s sooner than it seems because staff would have to make changes suggested by the council, and then the ordinance would have to pass on first reading, which would include another public hearing. Then, at least two weeks later, it would have to pass on second and final reading. After that, it would not take effect for another 30 days.
But it could always be put to a vote in a special election, and even if the council doesn’t want a public vote, citizens could petition for one.
There was considerable discussion of provisions of the NDO that don’t even apply to LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people. The word “obesity” was added to the NDO, at the request of Councilwoman Becky Bird at an earlier meeting, but there didn’t appear to be much support for keeping it Monday night.
Even Bird thought the word was too limiting; she suggested “physical characteristics,” to take in height, weight and features like scars. Councilman Shaun Brown thought the provision was unnecessary.
He said he’s been in Billings for 32 years and had never been discriminated against for being “a fat guy.”
Creating a mental image likely to stick with listeners for a while, Councilman Rich McFadden asked if he could file a discrimination claim “if I couldn’t get a job as a pole dancer?”
There was also discussion of the term “non-binary,” which Volek said was meant to describe people who don’t identify as either a man or a woman. That’s why LGBT is sometimes expanded to LGBTQ — “Q” for questioning.
Several council members objected to the word “perceived” in the definition of discrimination, which referred to “actual or perceived sexual orientation,” saying the word was too subjective and problematic.
A key provision of the Billings NDO, which Volek said was not in the NDOs adopted by four other Montana cities, would apply to public locker rooms, saunas and the like. It says that in “places of public accommodation where users ordinarily appear in the nude, users may be required to use the facilities designated for their anatomical sex, regardless of their gender identity, but may use facilities designated as a family bathroom or bathrooms for use by any sex.”
The draft NDO also grants exemptions to private schools with a curriculum based wholly or partly on religious faith, to churches and other religious associations, and to private clubs. It says specifically that “any lodge of a recognized national fraternal organization is considered by its nature distinctly private.”
In answer to council questions, Volek said the NDO would apply only within city limits, and not to islands of county lands within the city. Specifically, golf courses on country islands would not be covered by the NDO, and state law prohibits the forced annexation of golf courses, Volek said.
Brooks explained that the NDO as written would bar a person from filing a claim with the city without first having sought relief from the Montana Human Rights Bureau. Even though state law doesn’t include LGBT people in civil rights laws, he said, a state investigation could find some other violation of state law, having to do, say, with harassment.
If the bureau found there was no violation of state law, the complainant could file a “civil infraction” claim with the police or Municipal Court. A violation would only be considered a civil violation, with no criminality attached, Volek said, and the first offense would be punishable by a $300 fine.
