Wyoming’s American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) office will close today, and I would love to think everyone at UW understands why this is unfortunate. Just a guess, I’ll assume this is probably not the case. The indicator of what people care about, social media, has been mute for anyone under the age of 40—Yik-Yak has not yakked a word. It is with sincere hope that none of us ever require the services of the ACLU, but now that it is gone and no one cares, I almost spitefully wish someone would.
The American Civil Liberties Union has been the driving legal force behind many of the most important issues of the last hundred years. It is legal to teach evolution in classrooms because the ACLU recruited Scopes to be the test case. Japanese-Americans had few allies when interned during WWII, but the ACLU argued unsuccessfully to oppose the unlawful detainment. How about Brown v. Board of Education? Yeah, that was important. The NAACP, reproductive rights, separation of church and state, Native American issues—it seems this is an organization that has been repeatedly on the right side of history.
The state’s chapter did have significant achievements in areas such as inmate, juvenile and reproductive rights, but if I have one gripe about the recent work of the ACLU, it was the failure of a bill protecting LGBTQ workers in the state’s legislature this year. This was the opportune time to fight strong, organize supporters and be an obnoxiously present entity in the capital showing the state’s support for LGBTQ people’s civil rights. UW’s Research Center conducted a poll in October that found 53 percent of people in the state support same-sex marriage, which is up from 26 percent in 2004 from a Williams Institute poll. Clearly, support for the LGBTQ community is growing rapidly, as it is everywhere in America, and it was the wrong time to not be proactive.
WyoFile reported the ACLU office in New York closed the office following financial concerns resulting in lay offs. Wyoming will be the only state to not have an office. According to their website, there were clients and hopeful future clients waiting for help with no one else to advocate for them. Realizing that inmate rights and abortion are not issues everyone feels the same way about, I hope people see the scope this organization represents. Historically, this country would be worse off without the ACLU, and I fear Wyoming will be worse off with this loss.
