Wyoming House Advances Anti-Gay Marriage Bill In First Hearing; Representative Frank Peasley Offers Incoherent Ramble Defending Bill And Link Marriage Equality To Anti-Smoking Legislation

Bad, sad news from Wyoming, House Bill 74, which would amend the state constitution and ban the recognition of same sex marriage performed out of state, passed its first hearing in the House of Representatives on Thursday, reports the Billings Gazette. The bill, sponsored by Representative Owen Peterson (Republican-Mountain View) received 34 of 60 votes and will need to pass twice more in the House before being sent to Senate. Critics condemned the bill as an obvious attack on gays and lesbians, and called it an insult to Wyoming’s motto, openly gay Representative Cathy Connolly (Democrat-Laramie) saying “This is the civil rights issue of our day. It does not help anyone. It violates our principles of live and let live and motto of The Equality State.” Peterson has historically said that the bill creates a resolution to a conflict in Wyoming law, a statute defining marriage as that existing as a contract between one man and one woman, but state law also recognizing any valid marriage performed outside Wyoming. Representative Frank Peasley (Republican-Douglas) defended the bill as a defence of traditional marriage, and of government intrusion, and managed, in the process, to equate marriage equality to anti-smoking legislation. “I think all this is, is an outpost in culture that says, ‘Listen, I feel like you’re destroying everything else that I have,’” he said. “’You’ve gotten involved in the raising of my children, the way I discipline them, the way I feed them, whether or not I can smoke in the car, whether or not I have them properly equipped; you’ve gotten into my life so much, let’s just me let define the relationships I’m in, OK?’”