Brody's Notes... Casper, Wyoming Homeowner's TO BE GAY=DEATH Message To Remain On Fence

Photo By Dan Cepeda  Casper Star-Tribune

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Apr 20 | Casper, Wyoming City Code Enforcement Supervisor Shelley LeClere told reporters that there was nothing the city could do to force a local man to remove an Anti-Gay message from a fence that borders a sidewalk taken by hundreds of pupils traveling between Roosevelt Senior High School and the local Casper Boys & Girls Club.

In an interview with Casper Star-Tribune city reporter Pete Nickeas, Chris Trumbull, the man who painted the sign said:

"They're not my words, they're the Lord's," referring to Leviticus 20:13 as inspiration for his sign. "I put it up because society is not looking at the truth." 

The exact passage reads, "If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads."

Trumbull said there was no specific incident that prompted him to paint the sign, though he spoke of a general disappointment in society.

"I'm not doing it to be spiteful. Gay people are bashing themselves," Trumbull said. "My fence seems like the proper setting [to express an opinion]."

LeClere also said thatTrumbull was asked to remove his message, but he declined. Beyond asking, LeClere said, there was nothing the city could do. Trumbull's message, whether appropriate or not, is protected speech.

"We don't have an ordinance that prohibits you from having graffiti. If you get caught painting, that's one thing, but it doesn't preclude you from putting up your own message," she said. "It's freedom of speech. What is vulgar to one person is not to the other person."

Nickeas wrote  that Roosevelt Principal Mike Pickett, who hadn't seen or heard of the sign before Friday morning, walked down the street to see it. About 50 yards from the fence, when it was plain to see, he paused before turning around and heading back toward the school.

"It's sad, but we have a Constitution ... The nice thing about our students is that they understand that everyone is different," he said. "The students haven't said anything."

Coincidentally, Friday was the annual National Day of Silence -- an event designed to call attention to name-calling, bullying and harassment of gay and lesbian students in schools, according to its organizers.

Though there were no district-level coordinated events to coincide with the national observation, Wood said he expected educators to use Trumbull's painting as an opportunity to teach.

"I'd use it as a big learning piece about free speech and constitutional rights," Wood said. "We live in a free country, so how do you handle disputes and differences of opinion?"

Casper City Ward 1 Councilman Keith Goodenough said he didn't think it was the city's place to "draw the line" unless the speech incited a riot. Trumbull's property is in his ward.

"As soon as you start limiting one thing, it inevitably leads to another and another, and I just think you have to rely on social pressure, peer pressure," he said.