Deputy Mayor,

I have reviewed the latest draft of the ordinance prepared by the City Attorney that you provided to me for comment and have four specific suggestions:

1. The ordinance does not address hiring by faith based organizations that are organized for the primary purpose of public accommodation. For example, religious schools (Petra, Heritage Christian, E-Frees summer camp, pre-schools in town), Christian adoption and foster care services (Sacred Portion which happens to be the only Hague certified adoption agency in Montana), Christian services to the poor (Love Inc., Salvation Army). I suggest Definition D be modified as follows:

D. Employer means an employer of one or more persons or an agent of the employer but excludes fraternal, charitable, or religious associations or corporations if the association or corporation is organized as a non-profit.

The problem is that there are many private Christian organizations in town, including schools, that provide valuable services to our community, however, they are not membership organizations and they do provide accommodation to the public as their primary mission. These organizations need the ability to hire people that are living consistent with their faith beliefs. Your current ordinance does not address this issue and this simple change will fix it.

2. In Section 24.10.070 Retaliation prohibited subsection J. c. Public Accommodation you recognize the need to exempt churches and religious associations, however, you fail to recognize that many churches in our community provide public accommodations such as those cited in subsection a. essentially nullifying the exemption. These are valuable services in our community. For example, gyms, receptions halls for weddings, classrooms, community meeting rooms, etc. Consequently, please modify the Section to read:

c. Public Accommodation does not include a church or other religious association or corporation.

3. The ordinance does not address the issue of free expression of religion in the provision of services. I suggest you add the following language to section 24.10.050 Discrimination in public accommodation prohibited that was prepared by the Alliance Defending Freedom based on

their work with many other communities that have had to deal with this issue.

Notwithstanding anything in this chapter, no person shall be liable for discriminary conduct when that person refuses to create or promote a message that violates that persons sincerely held religious beliefs. This exemption does not create a right to refuse service in non-expressive businesses, such as restaurants or grocery stores. Nor does it create a right to refuse service in hotels or other places of accommodation where the owner does not reside. This exemption is limited to the offer of expressive services, and only when creating, or giving voice, to the requested message would violate the sincerely held religious beliefs of the person being asked to create or give voice to the message. This language ensures discrimination will not generally occur while protecting the First Amendment rights of Bozeman citizens from predatory actions of extremists that have become

common in other communities following the passage of NDO ordinances.

4. The proposed ordinance does not address locker rooms and places where people normally appear in the nude. The need for this exclusion has been recognized by other communities in Montana, but is omitted from your ordinance. Such public accommodations, such as at locker rooms should be specifically excluded in Section 24.10.070 Subsection J. a.

I know this has been a very contentious issue in our community, however, not addressing these four issues will make the situation worse. Thank you for your service to our community.

A few days ago I sent you four wording suggestions for the ordinance you are considering Monday night. During subsequent meetings, one Commissioner advocated an alternative wording to item #3 related to free expression of religious beliefs that he found more palatable by modifying the definition of Public Accommodation. You may like the wording below better as well because it is a simpler change to deal with the critical issue of free expression.

3. The ordinance does not address the issue of free expression of religion in the provision of services (wedding planners, family run wedding venues, T shirt imprinters, artists, etc.). One way to address this is to add the words underlined below to the Definition of Public Accommodation to read:

J.a. Public Accommodation means a place that caters to or offers its services, goods or facilities to the general public excluding expressive services when delivering the service, good or facility would endorse a message that violates the persons sincerely held religious beliefs subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law and applicable to all persons.

This would not allow a church to deny access to LGBT members to a basketball tournament, but would give them the freedom to decide if they wanted to allow a LGBT commitment ceremony.

I understand on Monday night each of these four suggested changes will be proposed by a separate individual during the public testimony. I encourage you adopt each one in the ordinance you are considering.

Thank you for your service to Bozeman.