Helena, Mont. — A majority of Montanans favor protecting gays and lesbians from discrimination and passing legislation to do so, a new poll conducted by a human rights group finds.

The survey of 600 likely general election voters in the state was commissioned by the Montana Human Rights Network  and conducted in March by by the Pennsylvania, D.C.-based Lake Research Partners.

Almost 90% of those polled said that gay and lesbian employees should not be discriminated in the work place, KPAX-TV reports.

The poll suggests that the feelings of Montanans about homosexuality greatly contrasts with current state laws.

“I think people who support gay and lesbian equality are led by popular culture to think that it is unpopular to have those beliefs. What this poll shows is that the vast majority of Montana support issues of gay and lesbian equality,” said said Helena Sen. Christine Kaufmann, executive director of the Montana Human Rights Network (MHRN).

“We really need to launch an educational effort so that people understand they’re not alone in these kinds of feelings,” Kaufmann said.

Earlier this year, the network announced the formation of the equality project, which has a long term plan of broadening education and support on the issue across the state.

In Montana, laws prohibiting discrimination currently cover race, religion, gender and other areas. Kaufmann, an openly gay Democrat, sponsored legislation in the 2007 session that would have expanded anti-discrimination laws to cover gender identity or expression and sexual orientation.

Those efforts failed repeatedly in the Legislature over the years.

Kaffmann said that MHRN and other LGBT advocates in Montana will use the poll numbers to help convince candidates and lawmakers that supporting anti-bias and hate-crimes laws would not be a political liability.

“This is an issue that’s not the top on everybody’s agenda,” she said. “Lawmakers are not running on that issue, they’re not talking about it in their campaigns and they simply don’t know.”

In last week’s state primary, Kauffman defeated a member of the House who ran against her for the Senate seat she’s held since being appointed the county commission before the 2007 legislative session.

She explained to the Helena Independent Record before the election that she hasn’t been afraid to take on controversial issues in the legislature.

She highlighted her “willingness to take a risk with bills” for an election-eve feature by the local paper. “It’s not too hard to get bills passed if there’s no controversy, if you’re not pushing the edges at all,” Kauffman said. “It”s important to push the edges.”

Celinda Lake, of Lake Research Partners, told the Great Falls Tribune that the poll highlighted the fact that while Montanans remain generally conservative on most issues, but when it comes to discussions about extending human rights protections to gay and lesbian people, they are open to discussion.

“There is a core commitment to human rights that people talk about, but I have never seen that demonstrated in data before,” Lake said.

MHRN asked Missoula resident Diane Keefauver to help them explain to the media why an anti-discrimination law is necessary.

“I was fired for being gay. There’s no protection under Montana law” Keefauver told Missoula’s KPAX-TV. “No one to say this is wrong, ‘you shouldn’t fire her’”.

The Tribune also talked to Keefauver about the survey.

Keefauver explained that she was the victim of workplace discrimination in 2007 when working during the holiday rush at a big-box retailer in Missoula. After she let it slip to a co-worker that she was gay, she said that her co-workers and managers began to treat her poorly at work.

“Within about three days nobody was talking to me. None of the people that I worked with would look me in the eye,” Keefauver told the Tribune.

Soon managers began requiring Keefauver to do inordinate amounts of work, Keefauver said, and when she couldn’t meet the stringent quotas she was fired.

“I talked to two other girls that were hired at the same time that I was and they were not given that quota,” Keefauver said.

Keefauver said she’s heartened by the results of the new poll.

“It looked like most of the people agreed in Montana that yes, we should have those rights, that human rights law needs to be changed,” Keefauver said. “The Human Rights Network has been trying to change it for 20 years.”

Source: Montanans Surveyed on Gay Rights | KULR-8 TV
Poll: Montanans support broader human rights laws | Great Falls Tribune
Poll reveals Montanans feeling towards homosexuality | KPAX-TV

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