Montana Locker Room Privacy Act Proponents Claim Win at State Supreme Court
While signature gathering is underway for initiative 183, also known as the Montana Locker Room Privacy Act, the Initiative’s proponents are already claiming a victory at the Montana Supreme Court this week. The ACLU had sued The Montana Attorney General’s Office on a number of issues, but initiative advocate Jeff Laszloffy with the Montana Family Foundation says the ACLU lost on almost every point.
“The ACLU tried to first get the ballot issue thrown off the ballot, then they tried to get the petitions that we gathered declared null and void, and the court declined both of those," Laszloffy said. "Then they tried to get the definition of privacy changed and the court declined on that as well.”
"The ACLU did succeed in getting the language for the ballot initiative changed in five areas, but Laszloffy says the only change that was significant is the language describing the possible costs of the bill.
“They said that technically, the colleges and universities if they chose not to allow boys who think they are girls to use girl showers and locker rooms then they could put their federal funding at risk and lose maybe up to $250 million a year. The problem with that is that it is pure conjecture. It might be a possibility under someone like President Obama, but it has zero possibility under someone like president Trump.”
If 25,000 signatures are gathered, the initiative could be on the November ballot in 2018.