September 13, 2024 |
Photo – Representative John Bear – Courtesy Wyoming Legislature web page
A left-leaning political group, Wyoming Equality, announced this week that it may sue over what its executive director believes were defamatory social media posts made by the Wyoming Freedom Caucus and state Representative John Bear, R-Gillette, chairman of the WYFC.
In a Facebook post last week, the conservative Wyoming Freedom Caucus called Wyoming Equality “a radical left-wing organization that shills for surgical abuse of children, porn in libraries, and worse.”
According to its website, Wyoming Equality is a nonprofit that “strives to achieve equity for all lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, two-spirit, and queer Wyomingites.”
No legal action has been taken yet, and Wyoming Equality Executive Director Sara Burlingame says she is waiting on legal counsel from the organization’s attorney.
In the initial Facebook post, the WYFC said the state of Wyoming has awarded $750,000 in taxpayer-funded grants to Wyoming Equality in the past five years.
State representative Bear said he has submitted a records request to the Wyoming Department of Health to learn more about how Wyoming Equality has spent the state money.
Some of the money, according to Bear, funded a bingo drag show held in Laramie this year by Wyoming Aids Assistance. The organization’s web site billed the show as “not your grandmother’s church parlor bingo.”
Bear said at the time, “We question whether a drag show is a good use of tax dollars.”
Bear said that he does not believe any of his or the WYFC’s posts were defamatory and noted that while he is not seeking any legal action in response, “there’s firms out there that would love to make an example of organizations that try to use lawfare to take away people’s constitutional, God-given rights.”
