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

Contents:

• GAY PEOPLE CAN GET LEGALLY MARRIED IN WYOMG. THEY CAN ALSO BE LEGALLY FIRED
• IT’S STILL DANGERO TO BE GAY WYOMG
• WYOMG BE 32ND STATE TO LEGALIZE GAY MARRIAGE
• WYOMG LEGISLATIVE COMMTEE REJECTS GAY MARRIAGE, PASS DOMTIC PARTNERSHIPS
• WA TO WED: WYOMG GAY MARRIAG STILL ON HOLD
• WYO DEMOCRATIC LEGISLATORS WORRY ABOUT GAY MARRIAGE AFTER ROE VS WA RULG
• COURTS KNOCK DOWN GAY MARRIAGE BANS ARIZONA, ALASKA, WYOMG
• MOVG TO GAY WYOMG? HOW TO FD YOUR PERFECT NEW LGBT NEIGHBORHOOD! 

GAY PEOPLE CAN GET LEGALLY MARRIED IN WYOMG. THEY CAN ALSO BE LEGALLY FIRED

That means gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr people the Cowboy State may be able to be legally married, but they may also be legally party at the Albany County Courthoe started at 10:45am last Tuday. She’s workg to get feral laws passed that would ban discrimatn agast gays employment, but also other areas like hog.

IT’S STILL DANGERO TO BE GAY WYOMG

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. 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.

WYOMG BE 32ND STATE TO LEGALIZE GAY MARRIAGE

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.

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.

WYOMG LEGISLATIVE COMMTEE REJECTS GAY MARRIAGE, PASS DOMTIC PARTNERSHIPS

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. So far, the Legislature’s nsistent refal to pass such a bill has sent a different msage to anyone who is lbian, gay, bisexual or transsexual Wyomg: This is the Wild Wt. Wyomg are four same-sex upl and Wyomg Equaly, a 22-year old anizatn that advot for lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr issu.

“Wyomg jos almost two dozen other stat whose marriage amendments have been challenged urt by gay activists seekg to impose their out-of-state marriag on an unwillg populatn, ” said Foc on the Fay judicial analyst Bce Hsknecht a prs release. Wyomg on Tuday beme the 32nd state to legalize gay marriage, jog several other nservative areas allowg same-sex weddgs. The state's first same-sex marriage uld occur as early as Tuday move is particularly signifint for the state bee is the lotn where Matthew Shepard, a gay stunt at the Universy of Wyomg, was killed a 1998 hate crime.

WA TO WED: WYOMG GAY MARRIAG STILL ON HOLD

Support for marriage equaly, however, has grown steadily sce 2000, when Amerins opposed gay marriage by a 57% to 35% marg.

Proment lawmakers and public officials om both sis of the aisle have reversed their stanc on gay marriage recent years, cludg Print Barack Obama, former print Bill Clton, former Vice Print Dick Cheney, former Utah Gov.

"WARNING: This feature ntas language that some rears may fd nights earlier, on Tuday 6 October 1998, Matthew Shepard walked alone to a dive bar ptn, Judy and Dennis Shepard at the Matthew Shepard Foundatn Denver last weekThe openly gay Universy of Wyomg hman had jt met up wh iends to plan LGBT awarens week on the town's he uldn't persua them to jo him for a beer the Firi Lounge, the 21-year-old somehow end up chattg to two roofg workers, Rsell Henrson and Aaron McKney, both the same age as pair saw an easy mark the 5ft 2, slightly built County Sheriff Dave O'Malley, who was lead vtigator the se, says: "McKney's own statement said he and Rsell went to the bathroom at the Firi bar and they planned to act like they were gay to try to ga Matthew's nfince. It is a momento honour not even acrd to another proment gay martyr, Harvey Milk, the San Francis polician assassated the Denver cy centre offic of the LGBT rights foundatn named after her son, Judy Shepard, 66, is fightg back predicted Friday's ceremony would probably be more emotnal for her than the funeral bee she felt so "numb" immediately after her son's source, Getty ImagImage ptn, A vigil for Shepard New York Cy 1998The origal service, amid snow flurri the fay's hometown of Casper, Wyomg, on 16 October 1998, was picketed by an anti-gay preacher om Kansas.

WYO DEMOCRATIC LEGISLATORS WORRY ABOUT GAY MARRIAGE AFTER ROE VS WA RULG

Reverend Fred Phelps of Wtboro Baptist Church and his flock, who clud children, held plards dbed wh homophobic slurs and shouted to mourners that the ad stunt was burng Shepard, 69, remembers law enforcement makg him wear a bullet-proof vt to step outsi the Epispal church, which had been sured by bomb-sniffg dogs. Shepard's murr stoked the perceptn of Cowboy Country and flyover stat general as a danger zone for gay at his office the cy of Cheyenne, McKney trial lawyer Dn Ctis matas was a robbery gone bad, even while he accepts sexual orientatn was a factor.

"However, McKney's own gay-bashg rhetoric damns him the ey of source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Thoands gathered outsi the US Capol for a vigil after Shepard's athDurg a police nfsn, he said he began to attack Shepard bee the stunt had put his hand on his leg durg the r ri. " Yet another statement to police, he said Shepard simply looked like he was about to grope the jailhoe after his arrt, McKney reportedly wrote to another mate's wife: "Beg a verry [sic] dnk homofobick [sic] I flipped out and began to pistol whip the fag wh my gun, ready at hand.

"At trial, McKney's lawyers argued that Shepard had ma their client fly to a rage by touchg his the judge dismissed this "gay panic" a legal strategy - where crimal fendants s of vlent asslt argue they were provoked by an unwanted same-sex sexual advance - is still admissible all but three US stat, acrdg to the Williams Instute at UCLA School of Law. Sheriff O'Malley rejects any attempt to downplay the anti-gay element the source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Rev Fred Phelps and his flock prott Laramie 1999"We have never disunted ever that the ial motivatn was robbery, " he says.

COURTS KNOCK DOWN GAY MARRIAGE BANS ARIZONA, ALASKA, WYOMG

The moment was re-enacted as a climactic scene 2002 HBO movie The Laramie the angel actn, was replited two years ago Orlando, Florida, when Wtboro Baptist Church tried to dispt the funerals of gay people killed a mass shootg at the Pulse nightclub. It also says LGBT Amerins n be fired for their sexualy 29 feels gay rights "took a U-turn" unr the Tmp admistratn. "All of them are that circle of faiary of extreme right-wg relig attus, " she says of the print's bet, " particular to the gay muny, to anybody who's not straight whe Christian.

MOVG TO GAY WYOMG? HOW TO FD YOUR PERFECT NEW LGBT NEIGHBORHOOD! 

However, Sheriff O'Malley mak clear that theory is not supported by the source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Judy Shepard (L) at the Whe Hoe 2009 for the passage of the anti-hate crim bill named after her son and a black man killed by whe supremacistsThe Old Buckhorn Bar & Parlor Laramie has a mirror pocked by a bullet hole, and walls that bristle wh mounted antelope, buffalo and patron, Jt Bmmet - who proudly scrib himself as "third class whe trash" - says US progrs on gay rights sce Shepard's ath is to be mend.

" Back at the end of the last lennium, many Wyomg apparently thought gay people were as rare on the high plas as jackalop, the state's mythil antlered ptn, (L-R) Universy of Wyomg LGBT stunts Js Fahlsg, Carlos Gonzal and Rihanna KelverShepard's murr - together wh the 2005 gay wboy love story Brokeback Mounta - helped dispel that Connolly, a Universy of Wyomg genr and women's studi lecturer, explas.

"I thk 20 years ago some people Wyomg hontly didn't believe they had met anyone who was gay or lbian, " she says.