Hall of Shame: Cheri Steinmetz

Infamy

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Re-election

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Cheri Steinmetz sponsored a bill in 2017 allowing service providers in Wyoming to refuse service to anyone based upon religious opposition to the person’s lifestyle. The bill was largely targeted at GLBTQ individuals, and was a response to the city of Laramie passing anti-discrimination legislation. The law would have made it illegal for cities or counties to pass conflicting anti-discrimination legislation.

In general, I am deeply opposed to the movement of “religious right to discriminate” legislation. Religious freedom should not allow people to discriminate people any more than it should allow people to kill people or mutilate people. But as these bills go, this bill was ground-breaking in its heartlessness. It would allow care to be refused to a child of a lesbian couple. It would allow an EMT to let a gay person die because they religiously disapprove of the person’s lifestyle.

Proposing such measures is either a monstrous and evil, or just grossly incompetent and so desperate to make anti-LGPTQ laws that impact was not even considered.
Bonus points: in an era where Marijuana is being successfully legalized and decriminalized across the country, Steinmetz proposed increasing legal penalties for Marijuana position.

Note: this awful person ran unopposed in the last election. We have to be able to better than this, even if it is just a conservative candidate who is not such a terrible human being.