By far the best campaign flier of the season arrived in my mailbox this week.
It made me laugh out loud.
I wrote last week about the blizzard of campaign fliers I've received, almost 30 of them so far, featuring plenty of cowboy hats, pictures of candidates cheek-by-jowl with President Donald Trump, and vow after vow to fight like the devil for us if we'll only send them to Congress.
Then this week a flier landed in my mail from Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who now wants to move up to the U.S. House of Representatives, to claim the seat currently occupied by Rep. Harriet Hageman, who is running for the U.S. Senate.
The ad pictures a middle-aged guy weighing, oh, I'd say about 250 pounds, with lots of body hair, dressed in frilly women's soccer shorts, knee socks and a top that isn't covering nearly enough of his gut, with his foot on a soccer ball and a bewildered look on his face.
Behind this guy are three young female soccer players, arms folded or hands on hips, looking at him with expressions ranging from confusion to disgust.
“WOKE LIBERALS Put MEN in Girls Sports,” proclaims the flier.
Flip it over and there's a picture of Gray standing behind Trump, with the president extending his fist, and it says “Chuck Gray stands with President Trump to keep men out of girls sports.” It explains that Gray co-sponsored the Fairness in Women's Sports Act, defended college athletes, and “took on Biden” when the former president “tried to gut Title 9 forcing biological men into girls sports.”
A happy female soccer player joins Chuck and the president on this side of the flier, which ends with the words “Chuck For Congress.”
As you know, this comes in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month which green lights laws in over half the states, including Wyoming, which bar boys from playing girls sports.
You may also have noticed the amazing conversion of Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon on the subject of boys playing girls sports.
On March 17, 2023, Gordon called Senate File 133, passed by the Wyoming Legislature, banning boys from playing girls sports, “overly draconian, is discriminatory without attention to individual circumstances or mitigating factors and pays little attention to the fundamental principles of equality.”
“It sends a harmful message that these individuals and their families do not deserve the same opportunities as others.”
Gordon let the bill become law without his signature, further displaying his displeasure.
But then, miracle of miracles, on Jan. 3rd of this year, Gordon added his name to a Republican Governor's Association statement urging the Supreme Court to “protect women's sports.”
And following the June Supreme Court ruling upholding two state bans on boys playing girls sports, Gordon threw off his previous reservations and said, “I welcome today's U.S. Supreme Court ruling which upholds state legislation mandating that student athletes participate on sports teams aligned with their biological sex at birth, as opposed to their gender identity. I believe as a father of girls who competed in high school sports that sports brings real value to young women's lives and they deserve to be protected in that space. This decision does just that.”
Well, better late than never, I guess. Apparently that draconian stuff is now in the past. Maybe the governor wishes his signature was on that law now.
An excellent story by Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reminded us that Sen. Wendy Schuler's effort to address boys playing girls sports began in 2022, when her bill passed easily in the Wyoming Senate, only to die in the Wyoming House. She brought it back the next year, and with backing from the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, it passed in the House and Senate.
Schuler is not a member of the Freedom Caucus, but the group – which now presides the House – supported the legislation.
In a statement following the Supreme Court ruling, the Freedom Caucus said, “The Wyoming Freedom Caucus is proud to have stood up for biological reality even in the face of defeat.”
So, as the primary election nears, and we hear plenty of anti-Freedom Caucus opinions from Weak Sauce Republicans who often vote like Democrats, and who want to recapture leadership of the House, let's all remember that the Freedom Caucus and Chuck Gray were right all along in opposing boys playing girls sports.
Their support helped push Schuler's bill over the top.
And, in the end, even the governor decided it wasn't so draconian after all.
Wonders never cease.
Dave Simpson can be contacted at DaveSimpson145@hotmail.com
