The death of Senate File 115 in Wyoming’s legislature last week has been characterized by one unfortunate phrase: “When hell freezes over.” Uttered by Rep. Harlan Edmonds, R-Cheyenne, his tragically bigoted demeanor prevailed as the legislature allowed a bill extending anti-discrimination workplace protections for gay and transgender people in the state.
Edmonds had plenty of offensive things to say that day in February when the House Labor, Health and Social Services Committee passed the measure 6-2. He would eventually be ejected when he asked to change the effective date of the bill from January of 2015 to “when hell freezes over.” Even though his fellow Republican and committee chairwoman Elaine Harvey, R-Lovell, was bold to eject him and took criticism from the right, the House defeat of the bill demonstrated that Edmonds, who may have seemed like an outlying radical, was actually representative of the legislature’s opinion: gay and transgender people in the state are still second-class citizens to the state’s conservative policymakers.
An amendment to SF 132 that would have extended protections to gay and transgender in housing was also rejected. The elation advocates for social justice felt in October after the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals decision allowed same-sex marriage licenses to be issued in Wyoming seems deflated.
A bill advanced by Utah’s Senate last week looks to have promise to pass the House and the state would join Washington D.C. and 18 other states to have non-discrimination protections in housing and the workplace. An Al Jazeera story from the Utah legislature reports the bill has “received widespread support from both gay and transgender rights groups as well as officials from the state’s populous religious community.” The state’s religious community, according to City-Data.com, is 83 percent LDS. In 2008, the Mormon Church publically supported Proposition 8 (which would have constitutionally banned same-sex marriage in California) and, according to a New York Times story, collected donations of $6 million in the clutch of the election. Now, according to a 2013 Public Policy Poll, 57 percent of Wyomingites said they support same-sex marriage. Only 55 percent said he or she owned a cowboy hat and 54 percent had a favorable opinion of former Vice President Dick Cheney. A meager 32 percent supported there being no legal recognition of gay marriage.
Where then, is the disparity between legislators and the people they represent? Why is it that in a state known as “The Equality State” (not “The Rigid Christian Right State”) the legislature is failing to allow for protections of gay and transgender citizens, but the LDS community in Utah is working with progressives and mutually supporting the policy?
It is not possible that Edmonds and his hate-filled speech represent the people of this state. However, the fact that SF 115 failed indicates his opinion is not only tolerated by policymakers in the state, but also held to some intelligible regard as 33 representatives voted the same way Edmonds did. This state’s legislative session demonstrates a backwardness and incapability to pass meaningful reform when the time is right and for that, it is on the wrong side of history.
