Drama and Misgendering at the Imperial Court
From Rozanski v. Rocky Mountain Court System, Inc., decided Feb. 16, 2023 by the Colorado Court of Appeals (Judge Craig Welling, joined by Judges David Furman and Rebecca Freyre) but just recently posted on Westlaw:
The ICRME {Imperial Court of the Rocky Mountain Empire} is a nonprofit organization that serves Colorado’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, plus (LGBTQ+) community. Among other things, the ICRME holds functions and raises funds for related charities. The ICRME is a chapter of the International Court System (ICS) and the International Court Council (ICC).
Each year, members of the ICRME elect a leader for the organization’s fundraising endeavors, which include charitable drag shows. The person so elected receives the honorary title of “Emperor” or “Empress.” The events surrounding the 2018 election led to this dispute.
Haskett, Brendlinger, Whitley, and Menchaca were on the ICRME’s eleven-member Board of Directors (the Board). Norrie Reynolds was a long-time member of the ICRME and a previous Empress. Reynolds and Rozanski were close friends.
Rozanski founded and owns a large retailer and distributor of comic books. {Rozanski uses “they,” “them,” and “their” pronouns.} As part of their business, they distribute a newsletter to over 120,000 people worldwide. They also distribute a national newsletter to over 10,000 people in the United States. They have profiles on websites such as IMDb and Wikipedia. Rozanski was also an ICRME member. They sometimes participated in ICRME drag shows using the alter ego “Bettie Pages.”
On March 22, 2018, two days before the annual election, Reynolds—who is not a party to this appeal—told Whitley that Rozanski was organizing an “anti-gay rally.” According to Reynolds, Rozanski’s rally would occur during the election at the Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods facility in Denver, which was the polling location for the election. Whitley immediately relayed this information to the rest of the Board in an email. Haskett subsequently called Reynolds, who confirmed what she had reported to Whitley. Reynolds also told Haskett that “she was afraid”; that she was “feeling unsafe for herself and ICRME”; and that Rozanski “had a temper” and “was out to get” Whitley, Menchaca, and Haskett.
That same day, the Board held a closed emergency meeting to address the alleged threat. At Haskett’s invitation, the candidates for Emperor and Empress also attended the emergency meeting. During the meeting, Haskett repeated Reynolds’ statements about Rozanski’s alleged threats to individual Board members. The Board unanimously approved significant changes to the 2018 election process. Such changes included moving the location of the polling station, hiring security, and limiting voting to paying ICRME members.
Without contacting Rozanski regarding the allegations, the Board released a public statement and posted it on the ICRME’s website. We will refer to this as the “Public Statement.” In the Public Statement, the Board announced the election changes and outlined the alleged threat in the follow
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