HB 516 Brings Death Threats to Sponsor

About a month ago the House passed HB 516 which was sponsored by Representative Kris Hansen from Havre on a vote of 62 – 37. This bill attempts to limit what can or cannot be done by local municipalities regarding passage of ordinances that disagree with State law on “protected” classes. It states;

NEW SECTION. Section 1. Local governments -- limitation on enactments. A local government ordinance, resolution, or policy may not contain, as a protected class, any classification not specifically included as a protected class under the provisions of this part

The gay and transgendered population took exception to this bill as being homophobic because it would eliminate a recently passed ordinance by Missoula providing special protections to their gay and transgendered community. The bill was quickly labeled as a hate bill by the Democrats but many others disagree and say it is all about cities overstepping State law. They claim that this bill would only prohibit cities from adding any classifications that are not currently in State law.

When this bill hit the floor of the house we started hearing tales of threats towards Ms. Hansen including a veiled threat from Representative Ellie Hill from Missoula letting Hansen know “her days were numbered”  While we at the Corrector are not going to take a position on this bill we have to wonder about the irony of the people who want to be accepted in our communities making threats towards people with which they don’t agree.  We have just been sent the following message by one of the local Politicos that was left on Representative Hansen’s phone where her life was actually threatened over her sponsorship of this bill.

What is particularly interesting to me is that once this bill reached the Senate the lackluster bunch of Republicans basically stabbed Representative Hansen in the back and failed to move the bill out of committee because they were afraid of “bad press”  So much for the girly-boys in the Senate having any “balls”   The Senate was only able to muster 4 votes in favor of hearing this bill and surprisingly 2 were from our area. Democrat Senator Jon Windy Boy and Republican Senator Rowlie Hutton joined Republican Senators Art Wittich from Bozeman and Ed Buttrey from Great Falls in support of at least hearing the bill in the Senate.  The balance of the Republican Senators cowered in the back of the chambers clutching their diapers and hoping none of the House Republicans would notice they had stuck the blade in Ms. Hansen's back.

No matter what your opinion of this bill is I have to wonder how many think the following message was an appropriate lobbying technique. Tell us what you think about this message which, we are told, is very similar to others left for Ms. Hansen.