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===montana===
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Christian parents say daughter removed from their care after refusing to affirm gender identity Montana's Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte said officials followed state policy in a case concerning Christian parents who claim they lost custody of their daughter after they refused to allow her to undergo experimental trans medicalization. The parents, Todd and Krista Kolstad, said they opposed allowing doctors to take their 14-year-old daughter down such a path, in part, because of their "values, morals, and ... religious beliefs." The state of Montana's Child and Family Services took the teen into their care last month. On Tuesday, Gianforte told The National Desk that he had asked Lieutenant Gov. Kirsten Juras, who's also an attorney and a conservative mother, to review the details of the case. The Republican governor also referenced his signing of Senate Bill 99 in April 2023, which prohibits body-altering surgeries for minors suffering from gender dysphoria and prevents these procedures from being funded with taxpayer dollars. (Christian Post 2/2/24) READ MORE>>>>> |
Jan 11, 2023: New York Times: How Montana Took a Hard Right Turn Toward Christian Nationalism
Montana has a tradition of ticket-splitting and has long been one of the most politically independent states in the union, resisting the kind of single-party rule that has flourished in the neighboring states of Idaho and Wyoming. But in recent years, Republicans have managed to secure an ironclad grasp over state government, and the religious right is ascendant. “We’re a country founded on Christian ideals,” Austin Knudsen, the attorney general, told me. “That’s what’s made us the country that we are.” In 2021, the Montana Legislature passed a bill banning transgender athletes on sports teams at public schools and universities, an increased tax credit benefiting private Christian schools and numerous anti-abortion laws. “They’re trying to convert the state,” said Whitney Williams, who ran for governor as a Democrat in 2020. When the state G.O.P. gathered in Billings last July to formalize its platform, Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, told those assembled that Montana was “a symbol for the nation.”
Montana has a tradition of ticket-splitting and has long been one of the most politically independent states in the union, resisting the kind of single-party rule that has flourished in the neighboring states of Idaho and Wyoming. But in recent years, Republicans have managed to secure an ironclad grasp over state government, and the religious right is ascendant. “We’re a country founded on Christian ideals,” Austin Knudsen, the attorney general, told me. “That’s what’s made us the country that we are.” In 2021, the Montana Legislature passed a bill banning transgender athletes on sports teams at public schools and universities, an increased tax credit benefiting private Christian schools and numerous anti-abortion laws. “They’re trying to convert the state,” said Whitney Williams, who ran for governor as a Democrat in 2020. When the state G.O.P. gathered in Billings last July to formalize its platform, Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, told those assembled that Montana was “a symbol for the nation.”