Homophobic confrontation ignites strong feelings in Wyoming

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Homophobic confrontation ignites strong feelings in Wyoming

By NICK REYNOLDS
December 5, 2020

-snip-

Looking over the group, the Monahans — a same-sex couple originally from the Chicago area — recognized a familiar face, a man who the couple said had previously harassed them on social media. Both Colin and Shannon, residents of the subdivision four years now, quickly came to realize that the conversation was never about a garage, and was never intended to be.

It was about Colin, who dresses masculine but, in her own words, could be seen as either male or female. She goes by “Colleen” as often as she does “Colin.”

“One of the women said to us, ‘Your kind is not welcome here. You are not welcome in Cody Country and you need to leave,’” Shannon recalled in an interview shortly after the October incident. “She told Colin, ‘You pretend to be a man, and you need to leave.’”

The incident sparked a conversation that reverberated through Wapiti and into the greater Park County community, including Cody, a popular tourist town of 10,000.

-snip-

Other businesses began stocking merchandise in solidarity with the couple, producing stickers and buttons with rainbow flags and slogans supportive of the LGBTQ community. But that, in turn, touched off a wave of bigotry on social media, directed at the couple as well as others who publicly supported them. On one local Facebook group, a man described the couple as “liberal socialist democratic homosexual transvestites from Chicago” who “hate this country.” Suggestions of the need for a hate crime bill were described in a letter to the local newspaper as “dangerous” and “Orwellian,” while others cast doubt that the incident happened at all.

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-wyoming-coronavirus-pandemic-ee0d6a3f33e14fde36107122a4613f27

[hlthe2b]

1. Given one still hears locals around Laramie deny that the murder of Matthew Shepherd had anything

to do with homophobia, but was 'merely' a "robbery gone wrong" as his murderers claimed, this does not surprise me in the least. Not that much has changed in 22 years, even in the more "progressive" areas of WY.

[2naSalit]

2. It's pretty rough around that town...

regarding this issue. I knew a young gay man who said he escaped from Cody where he grew up. All those wannabe cowboys from the movies, it's a cattle town for sure but the romanticized myth of the west is not what the world is about, never was. They just want to make sure they have someone to kick around because they're assholes with not too much in the smarts department.