Our View: Montana House votes for the future

If ever you want to see a debate between hope and fear. the present and future, you should listen to the discussion of the Montana House floor Monday on whether to debate the issue of decriminalizing gay sex.

On one side, Rep. Bryce Bennett, the only openly gay member of the House, made a reasoned, passionate speech saying how he was hurt that the law of the only state he has ever lived in calls him a felon.

The bill was bottled up in committee, and Bennett asked that it be brought to the floor anyway.

The law banning gay sex was declared unconstitutional by the Montana Supreme Court in 1997, and it has not been enforced since. But repeated efforts to remove the ban from the law books have been unsuccessful for reasons only the lawmakers can explain.

Bennett said the law affects not only him, but Montanans throughout the state who perform every task and civic duty, and they and all Montanans would benefit from the archaic law's repeal.

Opponents of decriminalization responded by predicting God would bring his wrath down on Montana if Bennett's motion were approved. One said the Montana Supreme Court decision was just as wrong as the United States Supreme Court Dred Scott decision that, in effect, legalized slavery.

No one would deny the lawmakers religious beliefs, though we suspect many biblical scholars would be perplexed at the predictions of doom for Montana. And legal scholars would too be perplexed by the comparisons.

Bennett and his belief that Montanans of all sexual orientations should live and work together for the betterment of the state carried the day. The meaningless law was repealed 64-36 on Tuesday.

House members followed Bennett's courage in breaking with tradition Tuesday.

It was but the first step in a lengthy process as Montanans and people of every state deal with the cataclysmic changes in public opinion on the rights of gays. One poll last year indicated that nearly three-quarters of Montana residents favor gay marriage or civil unions.

Montanans in the Legislature, in coffee shops and in churches will decide exactly where this journey will go next.

There will be conflict between Montanans generally conservative religious beliefs vs. the state's general live-and-let-live philosophy.

The debate will be intense, painful and exhilarating.

But the House made a vital decision when it took action to repeal the law. It took down the unwelcome sign for gays. It said gay people are Montanans just like the rest of us. It voted for hope and the future.

Now gay and straight, young and old. Republican and Democrat can together figure out what is the next step.