Wyoming Breathes Easier

Senate File 13, an attempt to keep all gay people married in Massachusetts out of The Cowboy State, passed the Senate Tuesday on its third reading.

The following senators voted for the file: Anderson, J., Aullman, Barrasso, Burns, Coe, Cooper, Fecht, Geis, Hines, Jennings, Johnson, Larson, Meier, Nicholas, Perkins, Peterson, Ross, Schiffer, Scott, Townsend, Vasey. Sen. Fecht is my new senator, a sensible (I thought) Republican, but not ready to buck the fundie vote than advanced this bill.

These senators were brave enough to vote against it: Case, Decaria, Hastert, Job, Massie, Mockler, Sessions, Von Flatern. Both Mockler and Sessions are Laramie County Democrats.

Tuesday night, at the monthly meeting of the Laramie County Democrats, Sen. Sessions talked about the issue. She's received hateful e-mails from people around the state, especially after she was quoted in the local paper about the ridiculousness of the bill and how embarrassing it was in a place that purported to be "The Equality State."

"I couldn't believe what I listened to on the gay marriage issue," she said. "I threw a fit before it was all over."

She added: "The Senate hasn't done anything. We have all these stupid, stupid bills."

The House and Senate are discussing important matters. One is for quality childcare. New rep Lori Millin, who represents my district and sits on the Labor and Health Committee, sat through as week's worth of discussion on the issue. "I'm surprised we didn't hear from more just-plain moms," said the nurse and mom. Instead, testimony came from people in the childcare business and from professional busybodies who felt strongly that the state shouldn't be in the childcare-regulating business. Others thought that kids belong with their mothers as their Bible dictates. Not sure what chapter and verse that is.

Millin pleaded with us regular folks to call and mail their reps to demand childcare regulations. Otherwise, all the fundie squeaky wheels will carry the day.

I'll leave it to Sen. Sessions to wrap up this issue: "Do we let a small group of people in our state who don't work and don't send their kids to public school and daycare tell us how to treat 27,000 kids in daycare and their hard-working parents?"