The first thing we need to do is send thank you emails. Please take time over the weekend and drop all these folks an email and thank them for standing up for equality. Many had expressed concern to me about a backlash from their constituents. We need to let them know standing for equality is always the right thing to do!
Here are the house members we need to thank;
Barbuto -- jbarbuto@wyoming.com
Berger – rberger@wyoming.com
Blake -- sblake@wyoming.com
Bonner -- dbonner@wyoming.com
Brown -- kermitbrown@wyoming.com
Byrd -- jbyrd@wyoming.com
Childers -- childers@wyoming.com
Connolly -- cconnolly@wyoming.com
Craft -- bcraft@wyoming.com
Esquibel, Ken -- kesquibel@wyoming.com
Freeman -- freeman@wyoming.com
Gingery -- kgingery@wyoming.com
Goggles -- pgoggles@wyoming.com
Greene -- mgreene@wyoming.com
Illoway -- pete_chloeilloway3@msn.com
Kasperik -- nkasperik@wyoming.com
McOmie -- dwmcomie@bresnan.net
Moniz -- gmoniz@bresnan.net
Nicholas B, -- bnicholas@wyoming.com
Patton -- johnpatton@wyoming.com
Petroff -- rpetroff@wyoming.com
Roscoe -- jim@roscoeco.com
Steward -- jebsteward@union-tel.com
Throne -- mthrone@wyoming.com
Vranish, -- vranish@wyoming.com
Wallis -- sue.wallis52@gmail.com
Zwonitzer, Dan -- dzwonitzer@wyoming.com
Zwonitzer, Dave -- davezwonitzer@wyoming.com
And here are the Senators we need to thank;
Sen. Burns -- bburns@dbburns.com
Sen. Case -- ccase@wyoming.com
Sen. Leland Christensen -- lchristensen@wyoming.com
Sen. Hank Coe -- hcoe@wyoming.com
Sen.Ogden Driskill -- senatedriskill@rtconnect.net
Sen. Fred Emerich -- femerich@wyoming.com
Sen. Esquibel – fesquibel@wyoming.com
Sen. Hastert -- jhastert2@wyoming.com
Sen. John Hines -- jhines@wyoming.com
Sen. Bill Landen -- blanden@bresnan.net
Sen. Martin -- mmartin@wyoming.com
Sen. Phil Nicholas -- nicholas@wyolegal.com
Sen. Rothfuss -- rothfuss@wyoming.com
Sen. John Schiffer -- jschiffe@wyoming.com
Sen. John Schiffer -- jschiffe@wyoming.com
Sen. Charles Scott -- charlesscott@wyoming.com
Sen. Michael Von Flatern -- mvonflatern@wyoming.com
Now we need to work hard to make sure we don’t end up in this mess again! Many of us that worked so hard on this have decided to have an Equality Summit. We are going to meet in early April and the summit will be held in Casper. If any of you would like to participate please let me know and I’ll get you the details. The idea is to brainstorm, strategize, and share ideas on how to avoid this same situation next year, and hopefully have a major influence in the next election.
As I send my thank you notes this weekend I will also be asking these Legislators to share their thoughts’ on how they see the next session playing out. The next session is a budget session and they will only be meeting for 20 days. Time will be short and I don’t know if this will be the time to try and push pro LGTB bills. I don’t want to blow a good opportunity.
After the vote came of HB74 Wednesday, I was lucky enough to have a very good conversation with Governor Mead. He said “you’ll probably disagree with me, but I think marriage is between a man and a woman. However, if we don’t offer marriage to our gay friends, we need to provide an alternate option.” He thought civil unions would be a fair compromise. While I will personally keep fighting until we have marriage equality, I think this is probably a step in the right direction.
Governor Mead told me he didn’t want to send a message of intolerance from Wyoming. He said with all the potential businesses looking at Wyoming, “we want the best and the brightest.” I told him I have actually found our friends in the LGTB community to be a bit of a catch. He agreed completely! He encouraged me to find Legislators that would support a civil union bill.
So…. That’s the plan. Will you help?
Jeran
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