Montana Legislature Debates Bill Similar to One Arkansas Passed in 2023

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Recently Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Sara Beth Nolan spoke to the Montana House Judiciary Committee in support of a bill that requires schools, prisons, domestic violence shelters, and other included facilities to designate spaces like locker rooms, restrooms, and sleeping quarters as either males or females.

The bill is similar to a measure Arkansas passed in 2023.

Act 317 by Rep. Mary Bentley (R – Perryville) and Sen. Dan Sullivan (R – Jonesboro) protects privacy in public school locker rooms, showers, restrooms, changing areas, and similar facilities. The law requires public schools to designate these facilities for “male” or “female” use. It also addresses sleeping accommodations for students on overnight school trips — something that has been a serious problem for students in other states.

Laws like these are necessary to protect students from federal policy changes that seem to come with each election cycle.

In 2016 the Obama Administration issued federal “guidelines” directing every public school in America — including schools in Arkansas — to let biological males use girls’ locker rooms, showers, bathrooms, and similar facilities at school. The Trump Administration rescinded those federal policies in 2018, which gave schools a brief reprieve, but the Biden Administration moved to reinstate the policies shortly after the 2020 election.

Since his inauguration last week, President Trump has issued a series of executive orders addressing issues like this one, but a future president could repeal those executive orders.

State laws can help clarify how public schools protect student privacy in the face of changing federal policy.

You can watch ADF’s committee testimony below.

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Target Becomes Latest Retailer to Drop DEI

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On Friday retail giant Target announced it is ending its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion goals and will no longer participate in the Human Rights Campaign’s pro-LGBT “Corporate Equality Index.”

In a memo to its employees, Target wrote,

Throughout 2025, we’ll be accelerating action in key areas and implementing changes with the goal of driving growth and staying in step with the evolving external landscape. We will continue to monitor and adjust as needed. Current actions include:

  • Concluding our three-year diversity, equity and inclusion goals.
  • Concluding our Racial Equity Action and Change (REACH) initiatives in 2025 as planned.
  • Ensuring our employee resource groups are communities fully focused on development and mentorship. These communities will continue to be open to all.
  • Further evaluating our corporate partnerships to ensure they are directly connected to our roadmap for growth.
  • Stopping all external diversity-focused surveys, including HRC’s Corporate Equality Index.
  • Evolving our “Supplier Diversity” team to “Supplier Engagement” to better reflect our inclusive global procurement process across a broad range of suppliers, including increasing our focus on small businesses.

Target joins a growing list of major corporations that have changed course on DEI and cut ties with groups like the Human Rights Campaign.

Many companies established DEI goals a few years ago to create an equal playing field for racial and ethnic minorities, but it did not take long for LGBT groups to hijack those corporate programs.

Today, DEI tends to promote divisive ideologies like critical theory, and it has become a tool that pro-LGBT groups use to promote gender-identity politics in the workplace. Under these policies, employees who hold a biblical view of gender or marriage may risk losing their jobs.

But backlash and boycotts over DEI and pro-LGBT activism have prompted many companies to change course.

Walmart, Toyota, John Deere, Lowe’s, Tractor Supply, Harley Davidson, and other corporations have chosen to eliminate DEI policies in recent months.

Target’s decision to drop DEI and distance itself from pro-LGBT groups is particularly significant, because the company has a longstanding history of embracing these ideologies.

In 2016 Target made headlines when it announced men would be able to enter women’s restrooms and changing areas at its stores.

On its website, Target sells products that promote the LGBT lifestyle — although it recently scaled back its “Pride” selection.

As far back as 2017, Target executives admitted that these corporate policies were unpopular and costly, but the retailer refused to change course — until now.

It’s deeply troubling when multimillion dollar corporations use their wealth and influence to promote radical, pro-LGBT ideas. But it’s encouraging when companies like Target reverse course. With that in mind, we believe Target is making the right decision.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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