Rep. Childers: Wyoming promotes modern-day version of South's anti-miscegenation laws

The Casper Star-Tribune provided this tally of Wyoming House votes on HB74: Bill to promote discrimination against LGBT citizens (that's my translation of this legislation):

Here's how members of the Wyoming House voted Monday on House Bill 74, which would stop recognition of same-sex marriages and civil unions performed outside Wyoming.

In favor (32): Blikre, Bretchtel, Botten, Buchanan, Burkhart, Campbell, Cannady, Davison, Edmonds, Eklund, Gay, Greear, Harshman, Harvey, Hunt, Jaggi, Kasperik, Kroeker, Krone, Lockhart, Loucks, Lubnau, Madden, McKim, Miller, Peasley, Petersen, Quarberg, Semlek, Shepperson, Stubson, Teeters.

Against (28): Barbuto, Berger, Blake, Bonner, Brown, Byrd, Childers, Connolly, Craft, Esquibel, Freeman, Gingery, Greene, Illoway, McOmie, Moniz, Nicholas, Patton, Pedersen, Petroff, Roscoe, Steward, Throne, Vranish, Wallis, Zwonitzer (Dan), Zwonitzer (Dave).

Excused: Goggles.

I am glad to see that my Rep., Mr. Nicholas, voted against this ridiculous bill. He's brand new and I didn't vote for him in 2010 but I may next time.

Many of the yay votes come from the expected sources, especially Amy Edmonds of Cheyenne. Very disappointed with the anti-gay vote by usually moderate Rep. Tim Stubson of Casper. What was he thinking?

Here's another telling snippet from the CST article:

State Rep. Pat Childers, R-Cody, who has been one of the leading opponents of anti-gay marriage bills in the House, compared HB74 to Jim Crow laws in place when he was growing up in Texas in the 1950s. 

"What we're doing with this law is basically the same situation that the state that I grew up in and many other Southern states did -- they denied the right of a black person to marry a white person," Childers said. "Now what we're doing here is with gays."

In the heat of argument, Rep. Childers talked about Jim Crow laws when he meant anti-miscegenation laws, which prohibited marriage between whites and blacks. Or maybe it's a reporter error. You can look it up.

Guest blogger: HB 74 is not legislation that reflects our history as The Equality State

Don't have too many guest blogs on these pages. But this is a great one from Emily Cram (pictured at right), a doctoral student at the University of Indiana in Bloomington. Way back when, Emily worked as an intern for me at the Wyoming Arts Council. A writer and champion forensics student at University of Wyoming, Emily has gone on to bigger things.

However, she is a daughter of Wyoming -- a native. As such, she is free to weigh in on anything she damn well wants to. So say I. Emily gives permission for anyone and everyone to borrow her fine words and send them to his/her legislator. She hopes for wide distribution.

Emily speaks:

Just recently, past and present Wyoming governors gathered to discuss how to govern Wyoming’s future, while taking care to be sure that governance was in the spirit of Wyoming’s political attitudes and culture. As I watched Governors Mead, Freudenthal, Geringer, and Sullivan, I was moved by the sense that Wyoming is a place where our disagreements never foreclose the way that we feel a deep sense of obligation towards each other in times of need. I believe Governor Geringer was the one who said: at one moment you may fight with another on the capital floor, but the next day that person just may be the one pulling you out of a snowdrift. 

The movement of HB 74, or the “Validity of Marriages” Bill out of the House Education Committee to the full consideration of the House and Senate is more than a snowdrift. It is a bill that cuts against the core values of Wyoming’s political culture: the belief that the government should not impinge on the ways in which a person desires to conduct their personal life and the families they wish to consensually create and ethically sustain. HB 74 invalidates the legal marriages of those who have committed no legal offense. Rather than commit to building and supporting Wyoming’s families, diverse in organization as they may be, HB 74 destroys the kinds of support lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender couples ought to be able to access, just as any other human being who desires to faithfully participate in the institution of marriage. Acts that authorize only particular partnerships (i.e. the “males” and “females” that HB 74 validates), yet withhold the access to legal rights such as hospital visitation, fair housing, among others, marginalize people in Wyoming. 

HB 74 is not legislation that reflects our history as the Equality State. As the daughter of parents from Casper and Riverton, I am proud to have grown up in a place like Wyoming and still call it home. But HB 74 harms families and perpetuates the problematic belief that only certain kinds of families are valuable. I encourage the people of Wyoming to embrace our ability to disagree with each other yet always feel the need to pull others out of a snowdrift. Please support Wyoming’s families and vote against HB 74.

Sincerely,

Emily Dianne Cram

Welcome to the Equality State (and don't forget to read the fine print)

Credit goes to Meg Lanker of Laramie for this newly-revised banner for the non-equality state heretofore known as the Equality State. Don't forget to read the fine print! And don't forget to read the text of House Bill No. HB0074: Validity of Marriages. You can post a comment or a note at Meg's Facebook page. Go to http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=482738442965&id=686730787. You can also make comments here. Better yet, write your Rep or Sen and tell them there are better ways to spend their time and the taxpayers' money. Find contact info at the Legisweb site.