Wyoming Democrat Calls for Republican to Quit Over Remarks

CHEYENNE, WY.  — Wyoming’s Democratic Party chairman is calling on a Republican state lawmaker to resign for remarks that allegedly compared homosexuality to bestiality and pedophilia.

The LGBTQ advocacy group Wyoming Equality filed a complaint with legislative leaders last week about remarks Sen. Lynn Hutchings allegedly made to high school students visiting during the legislative session.

The students were attending the session to speak about House Bill 230, which was seeking to add sexual orientation and gender identity, to race, political affiliation and other classes protected from employment discrimination practices. House Bill 230 died Feb. 4 when it failed to make the deadline.

Hutchings spoke to a group of students in a hallway outside the Senate chamber on February 1st, when the alleged comments were made.

The students were attempting to explain the bill to Senator Hutchings, when they say, she turned the discussion to sexual behavior.

According to the informal complaint sent by Wyoming Equality to Senator Drew Perkins, Hutchings said the following statement to the students: “If my sexual orientation was to have sex with all of the men in there and I had sex with all of the women in there and then they brought their children and I had sex with all of them and then brought their dogs in and I had sex with them, should I be protected for my sexual orientation?”

Part of the statement released by Wyoming Equality reads as follows:

“On Monday, Wyoming Equality filed an informal complaint with Senate Leadership regarding Senator Lynn Hutchings’ inappropriate behavior towards Central High School’s Gay-Straight Alliance club students during last week’s GSA Civics Day on Friday, February 1.”… “During GSA Civics Day, we encourage students to engage in lively, civic dialogue. Senator Hutchings’ comments were not that; it was inappropriate and inexcusable.”…

Democratic Party Chairman Joe Barbuto called the remarks “indefensible, insensitive, and repugnant” and called for Hutchings’ resignation.

The Casper Star-Tribune reports Hutchings told television station KTWO-TV she never made such a comparison.

In a statement released on Monday, Senate leaders said they would work to vet and address complaints against lawmakers.