{"id":1357,"date":"2014-04-03T15:49:02","date_gmt":"2014-04-03T21:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=1357"},"modified":"2014-04-03T20:18:25","modified_gmt":"2014-04-04T02:18:25","slug":"rocky-president-stands-by-speaker-debate-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2014\/04\/rocky-president-stands-by-speaker-debate-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocky president stands by speaker, debate continues"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gianforte\"<\/a>

Bozeman Chronicle<\/p>

Greg Gianforte, Bozeman entrepreneur and now a controversial Montana commencement speaker.<\/p><\/div>\n

Greg Gianforte, the Bozeman entrepreneur whose planned commencement speech at Montana Tech in Butte sparked talk of a boycott, offered to \u201cstep down\u201d from giving a similar speech at Rocky Mountain College next month.<\/p>\n

But Robert Wilmouth, president of the private college in Billings, insisted that Gianforte give the commencement address as planned.<\/p>\n

Gianforte and his wife, Susan, are scheduled to deliver a joint address at Montana Tech on May 17. Greg Gianforte is scheduled to make a solo appearance at the Rocky commencement on May 3.\u00a0People opposed to their appearances say the Gianfortes have funded far-right-wing groups that advocate discrimination against gays and a creation museum in Glendive that advances the idea that humans co-existed with dinosaurs.<\/p>\n

In Billings, though, even some people who take strong exception to Gianforte\u2019s beliefs are hesitant to say he shouldn\u2019t be allowed to speak at Rocky.<\/p>\n

Former Mayor Chuck Tooley is a Rocky trustee and chairman of the group organizing a gathering in Billings this summer to mark the 20th anniversary of Not In Our Town, an organization that sprang up in response to hate mongering and vandalism aimed at Jews, gays and people of color late in 1993.<\/p>\n

Tooley said he \u201cwould not invite a person who is opposed to human rights to speak at my commencement,\u201d but he doesn\u2019t intend to press the issue with the other college trustees.<\/p>\n

Liz Welch, the lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender coordinator for the Montana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said she was torn between opposition to Gianforte\u2019s activities and the ACLU\u2019s bedrock belief in free speech.<\/p>\n

Although she is not encouraging anyone to protest Gianforte\u2019s appearance in Billings, she said, \u201cI think it\u2019s unfortunate that Rocky\u2019s not looking at the totality of who they\u2019re bringing in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilmouth explained in a recent email to faculty and staff \u2014 a copy of which was provided to Last Best News \u2014 that Gianforte called him \u201cand said that he would gladly step down because he did not want to take away from the ceremonious atmosphere at our graduation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilmouth said he assured Gianforte that he was still invited and \u201cthat we would be honored to have him.\u201d He also told faculty and staff that the decision to bring Gianforte in \u201cwas one that was well thought out with due diligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilmouth said Wednesday that he had nothing to hide and was confident in his decision. And he prefaced his remarks by saying \u201chow disturbing I find it that internal communications are shared with the public.\u201d His email was not intended to be read by anyone but his faculty and staff, he said.<\/p>\n

When he first invited him, Wilmouth said, Gianforte, a computer scientist whose company was once the largest private-sector employer in Bozeman, made it clear that he only wanted to speak about the importance of education and achieving success after graduation. When he called recently and offered to withdraw, Wilmouth said, Gianforte actually began telling him exactly what he planned to include in his address.<\/p>\n

Wilmouth said he cut him off and told him, \u201cI trust you. I trust the process and we\u2019re looking forward to hearing your words of wisdom for our young men and women.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an email interview Thursday \u2014 he was traveling and couldn\u2019t use a phone \u2014 Gianforte said he has always believed \u201cthat discrimination of any kind is wrong, and is not the Montana way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was building and running businesses,\u201d he continued, \u201cI wanted to have the best people around me based on their ability, not ideology or orientation. I believe in just and fair treatment for all. Individual freedoms make this country great. I also believe these freedoms protect citizens from being compelled by the government to act in a way that is inconsistent with their beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gianforte said he has \u201cbeen reaching out to members of the LBGT community\u201d in an effort to \u201cincrease understanding on both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

He met for an hour on March 25 with Caitlin Copple, an openly gay member of the Missoula City Council. Copple said she appreciated his efforts, but that her meeting with Gianforte was no endorsement of him.<\/p>\n

\"Selfie\"<\/a>

<\/p>

Caitlin Copple, an openly gay member of the Missoula City Council, took a "selfie" with Greg Gianforte when they met for coffee in Missoula last week. She Tweeted the photo with the caption, "Yes, it happened, & both lived to tell the tale."<\/p><\/div>\n

She said they talked about all sorts of things, including their mutual love of backpacking and the Beartooth Mountains, and then specifically about gay rights and related issues. Missoula has already passed a non-discrimination ordinance extending standard civil-rights protections to LBGT people, and Bozeman and Billings are both in the early stages of considering such an ordinance.<\/p>\n

Copple said she told Gianforte of growing up in rural Idaho and feeling isolated and shunned because of who she was. When she arrived in Missoula in 2005, she said, she liked how the setting reminded her of home, but without the \u201creligious zealotry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copple said Gianforte asked her how fair it would be if Petra Academy, a conservative Christian school in Bozeman that his four children attended and which he has funded, were forced by city laws to hire gay teachers who openly defied the school\u2019s teachings.<\/p>\n

She said she responded, \u201cWhat self-respecting LBGT person is going to apply to teach at your school, given your beliefs?\u201d<\/p>\n

When she asked him whether he thought people decided to be gay, Copple said, Gianforte said he didn\u2019t know. She also said that Gianforte has \u201cdeeply held religious beliefs that are pretty fundamentalist,\u201d and she doesn\u2019t think their conversation had any effect on those beliefs.<\/p>\n

Copple said she didn\u2019t feel comfortable weighing in on whether Gianforte should be allowed to speak at Montana Tech or Rocky, but \u201cI think it\u2019s great that faculty and students are talking about it.\u201d

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

At Montana Tech, some professors said they will skip the commencement ceremonies, and some students have talked of organizing their own alternative ceremony if the Gianfortes give the address.<\/p>\n

Gregory Smith, an ordained Catholic priest who left the Catholic Church and is now an openly gay pastor at St. James Episcopal Church in Bozeman, said he has also been invited to meet with Gianforte but hasn\u2019t done so yet.<\/p>\n

Smith said he looks forward to telling Gianforte that while some churches in Bozeman are opposed to a non-discrimination ordinance, faith leaders from 15 mainline Protestant churches are supporting it.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheologically, I don\u2019t think discrimination has a leg to stand on,\u201d Smith said. He also said that Gianforte, by his support of biblical creation accounts, ignores the physical sciences, just as he rejects the social sciences by ignoring evidence that people don\u2019t \u201cchoose\u201d a sexual orientation.<\/p>\n

Last Best News specifically asked Gianforte whether he believes, as the Glendive museum teaches, \u201cthat the Earth is several thousand years old and that man co-existed with dinosaurs.\u201d He did not respond to that question.<\/p>\n

Smith said too many people \u201ctend to worship the Bible rather than Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a gay man,\u201d he said. \u201cI have never had feelings toward a woman. \u2026 That\u2019s not how I was created. I can\u2019t deny that experience. It\u2019s real.\u201d<\/p>\n

Welch, with the ACLU, questioned Gianforte\u2019s statements about his willingness to hire people regardless of their sexual orientation. Gianforte was the founder and former CEO of RightNow Technologies in Bozeman, which he sold in 2011 to Oracle Corp. for $1.5 billion. (And that didn\u2019t make him a billionaire, as we previously reported. Please see correction below.)<\/p>\n

Welch said that after Oracle bought Gianforte\u2019s company, it immediately adopted \u201cLBGT-inclusive\u201d policies. Oracle has a 100 percent rating on the Corporate Equality Index from the Human Rights Campaign, Welch said. Regardless of what Gianforte said his beliefs were in regard to hiring, she said, \u201cthe company that bought him out actively changed the policy he had in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jamee Greer, a lobbyist and organizing director for the Montana Human Rights Network, said he thought Gianforte\u2019s meeting with LBGT people was just window dressing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can have coffee with people, but he has also funded efforts to criminalize LBGT people,\u201d Greer said.<\/p>\n

He was referring specifically to the Gianforte Family Foundation\u2019s support of the Laurel-based Montana Family Foundation. When the 2013 Montana Legislature was considering scrapping a state statute classifying homosexual sex as a deviant criminal act on par with bestiality, Jeff Laszloffy, the Montana Family Foundation president, urged lawmakers not to repeal the law.<\/p>\n

The law, which was repealed last year, had been ruled unconstitutional by the Montana Supreme Court in 1997. But Laszloffy insisted that repeal wasn\u2019t simply a housekeeping measure, and that the law was, in the words of an Associated Press story at the time, \u201ca vital component to one of the greatest moral debates of the last 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gianforte, asked specifically whether he agreed with Laszloffy that \u201cgay sex ought to have remained criminalized,\u201d again declined to respond.<\/p>\n

IRS records show that in 2011, the most recent year for which figures are available, the Gianfortes\u2019 foundation gave $112,222 to the Montana Family Foundation, which Greer described as \u201ca big chunk of their budget.\u201d Gianforte declined to answer questions about past and more recent support for the group.<\/p>\n

Closer to home, Laszloffy said in a recent podcast<\/a> on the Montana Family Foundation website that the Billings chapter of Not In Our Town has been \u201chijacked to promote the homosexual agenda\u201d and that \u201cits leadership is controlled by secular progressive liberals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tooley has said previously that while everyone working to organize the 20th anniversary gathering for Not In Our Town most likely would support a non-discrimination ordinance, they have as yet had nothing to do with promoting it.<\/p>\n

Tooley also said that most of the conference events will be in downtown Billings, but two pre-conference workshops for law enforcement people and educators will be held on the Rocky campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI promise you we will not be inviting Gianforte to that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tooley said he understood why Wilmouth asked Gianforte to speak at the commencement. Tooley and Wilmouth both attended an economic development summit last year at which Gianforte spoke, and he was inspiring, Tooley said.<\/p>\n

And when he heard that Gianforte had been invited to Rocky, \u201cI had no negative feelings about it,\u201d Tooley said.<\/p>\n

His feelings changed as he has learned more about Gianforte\u2019s beliefs and activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019d known in advance, maybe Dr. Wilmouth would not have invited him,\u201d Tooley said.<\/p>\n

Correction<\/strong>: We previously described<\/a> Greg Gianforte as a \u201cBozeman billionaire,\u201d but Gianforte said he is not that wealthy. He sold RightNow Technologies to Oracle Corp. in 2011 for $1.5 billion, but he owned less than a majority interest in the company, he said.<\/p>\n

More on Gianforte\u2019s response<\/strong>: Here\u2019s what Gianforte wrote in answer to 12 specific questions:<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of my views have been misrepresented in the media, and I appreciate the opportunity to clear the air. I believe \u2014 and have always believed \u2014 that discrimination of any kind is wrong, and it’s not the Montana way. When I was building and running businesses, I wanted to have the best people around me based on their ability, not ideology or orientation. I believe in just and fair treatment for all. Individual freedoms make this country great. I also believe these freedoms protect citizens from being compelled by the government to act in a way that is inconsistent with their beliefs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think civil, respectful dialog has been lost somewhere along the way and for my part I have been reaching out to members of the LBGT community and having coffee with them one-on-one. We do not agree on everything, but I have enjoyed meeting them and working to increase understanding on both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last Best News also asked if he had any plans to run for political office, to which he replied:<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not running for office. I am working to improve the economy of Montana because we are 49th in the country in wage scale and I think that is a worthwhile cause and something, based on my experiences, where I can contribute. Too many of our kids have to leave the state to find gainful employment. I want to change that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also provided a link to the website<\/a> where he lays out his plan for creating more high-paying jobs in Montana, and he referenced the op-ed he recently wrote and which appeared in, among other newspapers, the Billings Gazette<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greg Gianforte, the Bozeman entrepreneur whose planned commencement speech at Montana Tech in Butte sparked talk of a boycott, offered to \u201cstep down\u201d from giving a similar speech at Rocky Mountain College next month. But Robert Wilmouth, president of the private college in Billings, insisted that Gianforte give the commencement address as planned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,14],"tags":[392,389,303,335,395,390,394,300,393,391,336,388],"class_list":["post-1357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-billings","category-news","tag-aclu","tag-caitlin-copple","tag-chuck-tooley","tag-greg-gianforte","tag-gregory-smith","tag-jamee-greer","tag-jeff-laszloffy","tag-liz-welch","tag-montana-family-foundation","tag-montana-human-rights-network","tag-robert-wilmouth","tag-susan-gianforte","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}