From the Great Falls Tribune:
I have a question for you.
We have a big LGBT event in Great Falls this weekend and my editors have asked me to pose this question:
In the wake of Sunday’s shooting in Orlando, does the governor think that Montana is tolerant toward LGBT people here?
Are there enough protections in place for the LGBT people?
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Phil, thank you for the opportunity to share my views of this situation. I truly appreciate it.
The people of Montana are as tolerant of other people as anywhere in this country.
There has been, and continues to be a deliberate effort to subdivide us into ever-smaller factions, then pit those factions against each other. We have to be smarter than that.
Pleading with a ruling elite to receive special benefits for one particular group or another is a reversal for the proper role of government. They are supposed to be our servants, not our masters. Everything they give is first taken away from someone else. To grant special protections to one group is to deny it to others.
The concept of “hate crimes” is as ludicrous as those of special victim classes. Assault, murder and rape hurts non-special-group-status people as much as anyone.
Since legally disarmed victim zones are the preferred venue for all mass shooting events, one thing the next governor of Montana will do is pass, rather than veto good self-defense legislation like the incumbent did six times in the last legislative session.
Every day that goes by with the spotty, nonsensical Montana gun laws in place is another day we are all at risk. Immediately after my inauguration, I would call a special session of the Montana legislature to resubmit those bills. They would get signed.
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Update: Here is the article as published in the Great Falls Tribune with comments from the other gubernatorial candidates as well as mine. Reporter Phillip Drake added some clarifications from a phone interview, and of course left some of my comments out. Happily, he gave me more press than the other two.
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/local/2016/06/16/candidates-weigh-lgbt-community/86008680/
