When asked by students at Greybull High School in Greybull, Wyoming last Friday what he could do to improve the lives of LGBTQ people living in the Equality State, Sen. Mike Enzi replied:
In Wyoming you can be just about anything you want to be, as long as you don’t push it in somebody’s face. I know a guy who wears a tutu and goes to bars on Friday night and is always surprised that he gets in fights. Well, he kind of asks for it. That’s the way that he winds up with that kind of problem.
Did you catch that, folks? Enzi basically told a group of kids that (gay) men wearing tutus deserve whatever they get, even if it’s violence.
Did we mention the comments were made in Wyoming, the same state where Matthew Shepard was killed in a horrific antigay hate crime that made international headlines back in 1998?
After the comments received backlash, Enzi released a hasty, half-hearted apology:
It is such a simple lesson–it is never permissible to hurt another. Hatred in any form is destructive to the very foundation upon which our society is built. No person, including LGBT individuals, should feel unsafe in their community.
Still, that didn’t stop folks from trolling the 73-year-old senator on social media.
Men (and a few great women, too!) all across the nation spent their weekends posting pictures of themselves wearing tutus in public using the hashtag #liveandlettutu…
lester_lasa
He is obvious a homophobic
stevetalbert
Is it snowing the last weekend in april on wyoming??!!! Why would one live there??!!!
Jokie
If some guy is having trouble wearing a tutu and getting harassed, I say we all show up at his bar in tutus in support!
11jks13
Christian Under Nonsensical Tyranny.
Jack Meoff
Not only is this guy a bible thumping bigoted homophobe but he is also out of touch with modern thinking. His analogy of a man wearing a tutu to a bar is clearly made up and old fashioned. There should be an age limit for people being bale to be in politics because they can’t embrace new ideas and represent the younger demographics.
Heywood Jablowme
Age limit? No, that would rule out Bernie Sanders!
Heywood Jablowme
There are less than 600,000 people in the whole state of Wyoming (the least populous state) and probably just a couple of hundred bars, so I bet if Tutu Guy really existed, a reporter could find him!
mcp307
I’m from Wyoming. It was later revealed that the Senator was referring to a specific person. He is a cross dresser from Douglas, Wyoming. He was at the bar I went to on the tutu protest night, and gave a speech to the crowds.
Heywood Jablowme
I’m surprised to learn that! Hmmm.
baal61
Toto Too! LMFAO!
phallictomato
“I know a guy who wears a tutu and goes to bars on Friday night and is always surprised that he gets in fights. Well, he kind of asks for it.”
He has a point in the sense that, living in an anti-LGBT society, if you’re a man and turn up to a bar wearing a tutu, what do you expect is going to happen? Bars are full of hyper-masculine, beer drinking sloths (usually), that are most likely anti-gay. If you expect everyone is going to be all ‘yay he’s wearing a tutu, good on him’, then you’re delusional. Trust me, I wish everyone was fine with it. If I saw a guy wearing a tutu at a bar I’d say good on him. He’d be pretty brave, that’s for sure! I don’t know if I would do it because there’s a lot of homophobes out there that would fight someone for any reason – and a guy wearing a tutu would be one of those reasons, unfortunately.
So I agree with him that he shouldn’t be “surprised” that someone would want to pick a fight with the tutu wearer, considering how many homophobic, straight, hyper-masculine, beer chugging muppets there are in the average bar, but to say that he was asking for it? I’m pretty sure no one would “ask for it”.
I also have a problem with this: “as long as you don’t push it in somebody’s face”. I’ve seen plenty of guys wearing heels and dresses and the like – it’s not my cup of tea personally, but they’re not harming me in any way – and how is that pushing it in someone’s face? I’m surrounded by religious bigots who shove their religion down my throat – if anything, THAT is pushing your agenda in someone’s face. I say guys who wear dresses/tutu’s/heels/whatever are very brave individuals and I say good on them. My concern is their safety though – because there are so many homophobes out there, and especially at bars. Unfortunately we live in a world where not everyone can be themselves.
greybat
The Senator is just Telling Stories. The Phobies do that just so they will get Likes on their Facebook page.
|Nobody wears tutus to bars in Wyoming. Wyoming is all about the flannel.