NPYM Called mtg May 10

Called Meeting: To all Friends of North Pacific Yearly Meeting
On 5/10/2025, there will be a called meeting for worship with attention to business of the Yearly Meeting. The purpose of the called meeting is to decide how NPYM will respond to the University of Montana’s recently-established policy regarding gender.
For those unfamiliar with the term, a “called meeting” is one which is not on a group’s regular calendar but is held to handle an item of community business so urgent that it should not wait until the next regular meeting. To our knowledge, NPYM has never had a called meeting, but has recently anticipated the need. At its meeting on 4/5/2025, NPYM’s Coordinating Committee asked the Executive Committee to consider and prepare for possible actions that NPYM might take in response to certain current events—for instance, joining in a lawsuit initiated by another yearly meeting. When it sees that a situation requires timely action, Executive Committee is to call a meeting via Zoom or other conference technology so that NPYM community as a whole can discern what action to take. A situation requiring timely action is now before us.
Montana House Bill 121 and the University of Montana
The Montana legislature recently enacted Montana House Bill 121 (passed 3/27/2025), which states that any public entity, such as a university, can be sued if it does not take steps to segregate the restrooms by biological sex. The University of Montana has set policies to comply with the new law, and has now informed NPYM that when we come to their campus for our Annual Session in July we must designate all bathrooms in the dorms we use as either “male” or “female.” (Our plan had been to designate all the bathrooms on our floors as “gender-neutral.”) Each participant will be assigned to a specific bathroom, and the bathrooms will be key-carded. Moreover, the University requires NPYM to fill out a participants list which includes a column labeled “Gender,” and the instructions clearly state “The gender column on the participants list refers to biological sex.”
House Bill 121 has been stayed by a Montana judge, but no final ruling has been made, and a lengthy appeals process seems certain. Moreover, the University can set its own policies, so a ruling against House Bill 121 might not alter the policy in question. NPYM’s Executive Committee is proceeding on the assumption that the Montana state law and the University of Montana policy will both be in effect this summer.
NPYM Minute on Inclusion: Welcoming Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming People
At Annual Session in 7/2017, NPYM approved a minute stating, in part, that “North Pacific Yearly Meeting understands that the Divine Source is leading our meeting to honor the gender identity and expression of each person, as understood by that person… As part of our evolving struggle to live our testimony of equality, North Pacific Yearly Meeting minutes our commitment to becoming an affirming, safe, and nurturing place for everyone to live fully that which the Spirit is leading them to be.” The full minute can be found at https://npym.org/sites/default/files/Minute%20of%20Inclusion.pdf.
The Issues Before Us for the Called Meeting on 5/10
NPYM’s Executive Committee is deeply concerned to meet the needs of all members and attenders and recognizes the tensions that come from balancing those interests. To hold Annual Session in a location that has policies that are in conflict with our witness and leading as Friends would put our trans members and attenders at risk. At the same time, to defy the law and the policy would likely mean we would not be able to return to any location in Montana for the foreseeable future, which would have a considerable impact on Montana Gathering of Friends. It could also have serious implications for the community of Missoula.
Therefore, our tasks for the called meeting for worship with attention to business are to:

1. Discern whether we as a Yearly Meeting are called to comply with the policy or to resist it, and
2. Based on the outcome of that discernment, seek the guidance of Spirit on how we shall proceed.

As we discern, we will remain mindful of the impact of our actions on all our neighbors—including our transgender and gender non-conforming members and attenders, our Montana Gathering of Friends members and attenders, the University of Montana, the city of Missoula, and indeed the members of the Montana State Legislature who wrote or supported House Bill 121.
Meeting Details
The 5/10/2025 called meeting will be held via Zoom at 9:30 Pacific Time / 10:30 Mountain Time and will begin with an extended period of worship sharing. NPYM Friends will receive the Zoom link and background information a few days before the meeting, including the best available answers to frequently-asked questions. In the meantime, questions and comments may be directed to the clerk via email: [email protected].
As we approach this discernment, I ask that Friends everywhere hold NPYM and all its people in love.
Trusting in this community, and trusting in that of God within it,
            Paul Christiansen
            Presiding Clerk, North Pacific Yearly Meeting
            on behalf of Executive Committee