Montana

A bill in the Montana state legislature that would overturn a Missoula city ordinance that protects gay people from discrimination, was pulled from the Senate floor last week because it lacked support from GOP leadership. [ Read more → ]

"Homosexual conduct" is still a crime in Texas -- and at least three other states -- eight years after the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down the state’s sodomy law, and invalidated similar laws across the country. [ Read more → ]

A bill that would prohibit local municipalities from enacting ordinances that include sexual orientation as a protected class from discrimination, passed its first hurdle in the Montana Senate on Friday. [ Read more → ]

A Montana legislative committee on Friday killed a bill that would have decriminalized homosexual sex -- keeping a law on the books that was ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court in 1997, and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003. [ Read more → ]

The Montana State House Judiciary Committee on Monday approved a bill that would prohibit local municipalities from enacting ordinances that include, as a protected class from discrimination, any groups not included under the Montana Human Rights Act. [ Read more → ]

The Montana state legislature is considering two controversial civil rights bills, one that seeks to expand LGBT protections, and another that would strip them away and prevent cities from enacting them in the future. [ Read more → ]

2011 will likely see a number of battles state by state across the country. Three states plus the District of Columbia are facing the prospect of losing marriage equality, an additional seven states could start the process of amending their state constitutions to ban marriage equality, five could gain marriage equality. [ Read more → ]

Montana's Attorney General has filed a motion seeking to dismiss a lawsuit aimed at granting same-sex couples the same legal rights as married couples. Spousal benefits are limited by definition to married couples, and the Montana Constitution defines marriage as being between a man and a woman, said AG Steve Bullock. [ Read more → ]

Gay and lesbians may be gaining more rights across the nation, but they should steer clear of Montana Republicans, who have included the criminalization of homosexual acts in their party platform for 2010. The party adopted the official platform in June that keeps a long-held... [ Read more → ]

The head of a Montana Tea Party group has been ousted from the organization following a controversial exchange on his Facebook page that appeared to condone violence against gays. [ Read more → ]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and seven gay couples in Montana filed a lawsuit against the state this week for failing to offer legal protections to same-sex couples and their families. [ Read more → ]