It’s still dangero to be gay Wyomg — High Country News – Know the Wt

Contents:

• IT’S STILL DANGERO TO BE GAY WYOMG
•  WYOMG LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS
• THE TTH BEHD AMERI’S MOST FAMO GAY-HATE MURR

IT’S STILL DANGERO TO BE GAY WYOMG

A transgenr woman was beaten Caspe, and a bar Cheyenne was disvered to be sellg anti-gay t-shirts, which has sce stopped producg. PFLAG promot the health and well-beg of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr persons, their fai and iends through:Support: to pe wh an adverse society.

 WYOMG LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS

“I thk there has been movement forward, but you didn’t need to look any further than the dog park here Casper, or the library Gillette, or the bar Cheyenne, and realize that homophobia and transphobia is still very much alive and well this state, ” he said, referrg to recent exampl that attracted natnal negative attentn. “People need to unrstand there’s no such thg as gay rights, ” he ntued, “we’re talkg about equal rights.

People e the word ‘gay rights’ as as a buzzword to upset others to say ‘they’re gettg somethg I don’t have. Anti-gay vlence Wyomg is real, and serv a real rponse. This was 2001, jt a few years after Matthew Shepard’s murr had ma gomely public the anti-gay vlence that was takg place throughout Wyomg.

Durg that time, appeared to me that gay rights had ma great stris — not least wh the cremental support to legalize gay marriage natnwi.

THE TTH BEHD AMERI’S MOST FAMO GAY-HATE MURR

Livg plac as different om each other as Buenos Air, Chigo and New Orleans, I wnsed homophobia now and then, but not nearly as often as I saw jubilant monstratns of gay pri — or, more equently, pla old gay normalcy. Among the myriad people who are opprsed this world, homosexuals seemed to be pretty good shape, particularly whe “cisgenred” men.

His mother told the Casper Star-Tribune that O’Brien had rpond to the men’s ments about his beg gay wh a smart remark, so they threw him on the ground and stomped on his gro so hard he had trouble uratg for three days. O’Brien didn’t report the cint, nor did he report the homophobic slurs someone repeatedly rved to his r. But rather than addg nuance to the nversatn — perhaps by acknowledgg that anti-gay vlence is sometim dg-related, too — this emphasis is meant to silence people who might suggt Wyomg has a problem.

A stunt anizer here told me that even the gay muny sometim shi away om discsg Shepard’s murr bee of all the negativy and distortn people have heaped onto . But whenever horrifyg stanc of homophobia e to light, such as the attack on O’Brien — or an asslt discsed on public rad last year, which a Casper, Wyomg, man had his teeth kicked for cross-drsg — any Wyomg cizen whose ey aren’t cloud by ln or prejudice should be able to put the piec together.