Petition to: The Mayor and Members of the Missoula City Council

We, the undersigned Missoula residents and community members, urge the City of Missoula to update its nondiscrimination ordinance to include family and relationship structure as a protected characteristic.

Missoula currently protects people from discrimination based on marital status and familial status, and we want to keep those protections as they are. However, these categories do not fully address discrimination based on the structure of a person's family or consensual adult relationships.

Under the existing ordinance, marital status addresses whether someone is married, never married, divorced, or widowed, while familial status primarily protects people based on having children in their household. Neither clearly protects someone from discrimination because of the structure of their consensual adult relationships or family.

Missoula families and relationships take many forms, including married and unmarried couples, single-parent and multi-parent families, blended and chosen families, extended and multigenerational households, and polyamorous and consensually non-monogamous relationships.

No one should face discrimination because their family or consensual relationship structure differs from someone else's.

We ask the City Council to add family and relationship structure to Missoula's existing nondiscrimination protections and adopt a clear definition protecting people based on their actual or perceived family, household, or consensual intimate relationship structure.

This would be a targeted expansion of Missoula's existing civil rights framework. It would not be a redefinition of marriage or family law. It would not, by itself, change laws governing marriage, parentage, custody, inheritance, zoning, or similar legal rights and responsibilities. Existing protected characteristics, constitutional protections, and appropriate exemptions under the ordinance would remain in place.

The principle is simple: people should be judged on their conduct, qualifications, and ability to meet legitimate requirements. They should not be judged based on stereotypes or assumptions about the structure of their family or consensual relationships.

We ask the Missoula City Council to work with affected community members and organizers to adopt this protection and ensure that Missoula's nondiscrimination ordinance reflects the families and relationships that are part of our community today.

Organizations, businesses, and community groups: A separate organizational endorsement form is available at https://forms.gle/dhHDgskJq72UhQbg9

Organized by Missoula Resists ❤️