By The Federalist. The Wyoming legislature enacted a law protecting government employees from the state forcing them to use “preferred pronouns.” But Republican Gov. Mark Gordon refused to sign, allowing the bill to become law by default.
The law — SF 077, or “Compelled Speech Is Not Free Speech” — bans “the state and its political subdivisions from requiring the use of preferred pronouns.” It keeps the state from requiring preferred pronouns for “employment or contracting,” for “receiving a grant, loan, permit, contract, license or other benefit,” or “under threat of adverse action … including but not limited to an adverse employment action, exclusion, sanction or punishment.”
The bill passed with vast majorities earlier this month in the state House (54-7, with one excused) and Senate (27-3, with one excused). It is set to take effect on July 1.
Republican state House Speaker Chip Neiman and state Senate President Bo Biteman signed the enrolled act on Feb. 24. According to the state legislature website, “If any bill sent to the governor is not signed by him and is not returned within three days … it becomes law without his signature. …” Gordon wrote Biteman on Feb. 27 saying he would allow the bill to become law without signing it.
Gordon’s communications director, Michael Pearlman, shared the letter with The Federalist. In it, Gordon called the legislation “a solution in search of a problem.” He conceded that “Wyoming governments should not condition” employment or other engagements on “requirements to strictly engage in certain kinds of speech” and said that the state should not “retaliate against employees if they don’t conform to strict free speech restrictions.” (Read more from “Wyoming’s GOP Governor Backing the Trans Agenda on Yet Another Piece of Legislation” HERE)
___________________________________________________
FLASHBACK: Wyoming GOP Gov. Removes Doctor From State Board For Opposing Transing Children
By The Federalist. Wyoming radiologist Eric Cubin petitioned the federal court in Cheyenne last week to reinstate him to Wyoming’s Board of Medicine.
Cubin was appointed to the board, which oversees the licensing and regulations of the medical profession, by Republican Gov. Mark Gordon in 2023 and reappointed to another four-year term last March. Only weeks after his reappointment, the governor’s chief of staff notified him by telephone that the governor had removed him from the board. After hanging up, he received a letter from the governor, via email, that confirmed his removal and stated its cause.
Gordon wrote, “I have been made aware of your email to the members of the House of Representatives during this last legislative session regarding SF0099 in which you strongly encouraged the members to pass this legislation and criticized the Wyoming Medical Society’s opposition to this bill.”
SF0099 was originally named Chloe’s Law after Chloe Cole, a woman who was given hormone blockers and testosterone at the age of 13 and underwent a mastectomy at 15. The bill prohibits physicians and health care providers in Wyoming from performing surgeries and prescribing drugs to minor children “for the purposes of transitioning a child’s biological sex.”
While overwhelmingly supported by the public and passed by the legislature, Chloe’s Law was vehemently opposed by the Wyoming Medical Society (WMS), a lobbying group that carries a lot of clout in Cheyenne. (Read more from “FLASHBACK: Wyoming GOP Gov. Removes Doctor From State Board For Opposing Transing Children” HERE)
