Wyoming Trolled A Senator After He Made Homophobic Comments

Next time you're wondering how you can get a politician to listen to you and have a some fun while you're at it, you might want to refer to the Wyoming residents who protested Sen. Mike Enzi's homophobic comments this weekend by trolling him. The saga began on April 25 when, during a talk at Greybull High School and Middle School, Enzi suggested that members of the LGBT community should keep from being too obvious about their identities.

"What we need to have is a little civility between people," the senator said, responding to a student question asking him what work he and his colleagues are doing to help the LGBT community. "We always say that 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. I’d be interested in any solutions that you have for how we can make that work better.”

And that's how the protest and hashtag #LiveAndLetTutu was born. Enzi's constituents decided to let him know what they thought of his remarks by donning colorful tutus and heading to bars and other public establishments with them on.

Wyomingite Patrick Harrington thought of the idea, telling Wyoming Public Media that he hoped to remind Enzi of the diversity of his constituency. Though Enzi later apologized in response the backlash — "I regret a poor choice of words," he said — and insisted that the overall message he intended to convey was of "promoting respect and tolerance," his political stances regarding LGBT rights is not a reassuring one.

Enzi has voted in favor of implementing a constitutional ban on gay marriage and amending the Constitution to explicitly define marriage as taking place between a man and a woman. He's also voted against modifying the definition of hate crimes to include sexual orientation and expanding the category of hate crimes to include sexual preference. On top of that, Enzi has received an abysmal zero percent rating from from the Human Rights Campaign for the last two Congresses.

LGBT supporters have carried out similar protests before. In January, activists in Washington, D.C. held a "queer dance party" near Vice President Pence's home, and again in April, when they did the same outside Ivanka Trump's home.