The flip side of LGBTQ rights in Wyoming
Dear Editor,
The LGBTQ+ issues have come into the forefront, as they seem to at this time of the year, and I have a couple of thoughts about what has been said recently.
A freshman student recently wrote in to comment about remarks made by Senator Mike Enzi, where the senator said that “in Wyoming, you can be anything you want, as long as you don’t push it in someone’s face.”
On the surface, that might seem to be very insensitive, coming as it did in response to a question on LGBTQ+ issues and what the senator was doing to protect the rights of those citizens within the state. However, that is exactly the same response I got when I interviewed an openly gay supervisor at one of my former employers, and it is the same view I have now, as a transgender woman, being open for the last four years.
As a trans-woman, I dress that way, and I try to carry and act as a woman. People who don’t like that sort of thing are free to avoid me if they wish. This exemplifies the first part of Enzi’s statement, that in Wyoming, you can be anything you want. If I were to chase after someone avoiding me, and make a scene about it, THAT would be pushing it in their face.
I agree with what the senator said. As a trans-woman, what I want from people to start with, is to be left alone, to carry out my business as I wish. Now, being out comes with some responsibilities. As such, if I am asked questions, I will politely answer them, because I want people to know the truth about trans-women, not continue to believe in the stereotypes. More information about who we are, and how we live is good, and it will continue the process of making us a part of everyone’s daily life.
In the last four years, I have only had one person who made it clear they were avoiding me because of my gender expression. And folks, that is fine. I respect her, even though she does not like what I do, because to do otherwise would be ME not respecting HER on the view of gender expression. All of us, have to come to a parity, where we all respect each other.
So YES, in Wyoming you can be anything you want. That’s the parity. Pushing it into someone’s face, or not respecting them, goes too far.
My second point goes to Matt Shepard, and how at least locally, we have made this young man a saint, based on a story that people want to believe. The story is that Matt Shepard was a gay student who mistakenly came on to some other people, who took him outside, beat him up, robbed him, and then left him nearly dead outside the city, long story short.
The problem is that further investigation by a gay author hoping to write the definitive story about Matt uncovered the fact that he was involved in the Denver-I80 drug trade, and had started to run drugs from Denver into Laramie. The reason for the events of the fateful evening was that Aaron McKinney thought that Matt had drug money on him, but Matt had been called off of that evening’s run, so he only had about $30. McKinney went into a drug-fuelled rage, and events spiraled out from there.
No one in Laramie has any vested interest in that possibility. The LGBTQ+ community certainly doesn’t, as they would be robbed of their martyr. How much money and publicity does the Shepard Foundation receive each year, because of the myth that continues to be spread out there?
However, I am a realist, who deals in the truth, and the truth is that Matt Shepard knew his attackers, they all hung out together, McKinney knew about the drug running, and his gay-hatred story was a stunt by his defense team to keep him out of the death penalty.
Was Matt Shepard the victim of a hate crime? Yes, because murder in and of itself, is a hate crime.
Amy Jackson
UW Alum (2004)
History Major
Ed. note – This letter is in reply to a letter to the editor published Oct. 17, “LGBTQ rights in Wyoming have a long way to go.” Laramie law enforcement officials involved in the investigation of the murder of Matthew Shepard have criticized author Stephen Jimenez’s claims in “The Book of Matt” that the crime was related to drug dealing.
