WYOMING: GOP Rep Ejected From Room During Successful LGBT Rights Vote

Yesterday a Wyoming House committee approved an LGBT anti-discrimination bill but only after ejecting a ranting GOP rep from the chamber.

Senate File 115 would add “sexual orientation or gender identity” to existing laws that protect people from discrimination based on race, religion, age and other protected classes. The bill had previously passed the Senate and now moves to the House floor for debate. Rep. Harlan Edmonds, R-Cheyenne, was kicked out of the House Labor, Health and Social Services meeting Friday, after proposing an amendment to the bill that would make it effective when “hell freezes over,” instead of the date of July 1. Committee Chairwoman Rep. Elaine Harvey, R-Lovell, had started the Friday afternoon meeting insisting people would remain civil. She told Edmonds to leave after his comment, which followed a more than two-hour discussion in which he also asked the bill’s supporters why pedophilia wasn’t in the bill. “We said civility would prevail,” Harvey said. Senate File 115 passed with six representatives in favor and two in opposition.

Note that the ejection was ordered by the Republican chair of the committee. Edmonds tried to vote before leaving the room but the committee chair told him that his vote would not count. Among those testifying in opposition to the bill were the Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne and Wyoming Pastors Network.