Anti-Hate Campaign Under Fire Militia Of Montana Official Says Group Undermines Free Speech

The campaign to create a Hate Free Zone in Montana is under attack as a scheme to undermine the constitutional right of free speech.

Militia of Montana spokeswoman Kamala Webb and the Rev. Richard Crow of the Temple Baptist Church claimed those backing the idea are trying to silence opponents of homosexuality.

“People who speak out against homosexuality are worried about it because it sounds like in a Hate Free Zone you can’t express that without violating the Hate Free Zone,” Crow said. “That robs people of their First Amendment rights.”

Hate Free supporters are trying to get 100,000 names on petitions endorsing a resolution renouncing hate and discrimination. State Rep. Emily Swanson, D-Bozeman, intends to introduce the proposal during the 1997 legislative session.

The Rev. Denise Rogers organized the campaign to secure the resolution as a symbolic gesture so there is nothing really to violate if that is the concern of critics.

Gordon Levin, co-chairman of the Montana State University Hate Free Committee, said a recent march in Bozeman attracted about 700 people favoring tolerance of homosexuality and just 40 against it, indicating the city is already largely hate free.

Webb argued that Levin’s comments indicated the movement has a homosexual agenda.

A similar resolution against ethnic harassment passed the Colorado Legislature in 1991, Crow said, claiming that two years later gays attempted to secure passage of bills making it illegal to speak out against homosexuality. They did not pass.

“The concern is resolutions lead to bigger things,” Crow said.

But Rogers rejected charges that the Hate Free campaign has a hidden agenda and denied any intention to decriminalize homosexuality as militia members have charged.