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A trailblazer for Wyoming’s LGBTQ+ community retires from the legislature and UW

State Rep. Cathy Connolly (D-Laramie) is retiring from two prominent positions. She is stepping down from both her seat in Cheyenne and as a professor at the University of Wyoming. Connolly is the first openly gay faculty member at UW, as well as the first openly gay legislator in Wyoming. She also served as House Minority Floor Leader multiple times. Wyoming Public Radio’s Will Walkey asked her to reflect on her career.

The following transcript has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

Will Walkey: What are you going to miss the most about being in the statehouse in Cheyenne?

Rep. Cathy Connolly: I mean, that's a really good question. And it's not trite for me to say, I'm going to miss the people. There's no two ways about it. I am going to miss my colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans from across the aisle. I'm going to miss our incredible Legislative Service Office staff. I'm going to miss easy access to the governor and his staff.

But probably as importantly, I'm going to miss the ability to have a seat at the table and a voice heard, right? That's something that I think is and has been pretty unique about being in the super-minority party. Still being able to get your voice heard and get things done. Because it truly is my belief that if you have a good idea, and you do the work, you'll get heard. Now, it might take a lot of time, but I'll miss that. I will definitely miss that.

WW: What are some accomplishments that you were able to get done during your time in Cheyenne that you're the most proud of?

CC: I think it is really having that voice. And again, there's some accomplishments in terms of successes and then there's accomplishments in terms of getting an issue on the table. So I'll talk a little bit about kind of getting issues on the table and, honestly, being relentless in terms of bringing those issues up regularly.

You know, one of them, for example, is about the absolute need for reform regarding our revenue streams. Tax reform, right? In general, tax reform. We have a boom and bust cycle. We have been far too dependent on the extractive industries. We need to think better. We need to think differently. We need to do the hard work of rethinking taxes in the state. So that's something that I have been advocating, honestly, since the time that I served on the Appropriations Committee.

And [I] really took a deep dive into our finances, our revenues. That being said, it's in part because we're not doing well enough with our expenditures. We have chosen to shortchange what I think are some really important issues in the state. And often we say, “we don't have the money.” Well, first of all, right now we do have the money. And second of all, it's about prioritization.

So, for example, mental health, substance abuse, right? The elderly. We absolutely need to be thinking about taking care of our citizens. We have the ability to be incredibly innovative when it comes to the criminal justice system. What we need to do is reprioritize how we spend that money and invest honestly in our people when it comes to rehab. So those are the kinds of things that I put on the radar.

WW: I think specifically about southwest Wyoming when I say this, but you know, certain parts of Wyoming that were definitely more purplish, maybe, when you started in the legislature are now turning even more red. And really, it's just Albany and Teton county that are sending Democrats to the legislature at this point. As an important member of the Democratic Party in Wyoming, how do you turn these trends around?

CC: We need to be getting that message out across the state that there are alternatives and those alternatives make sense for the state, right? Virtually everyone agrees in investing in people. It's how. And as Democrats, we need to make that message louder and clearer.

WW: In the 14 years since you've been in the Wyoming Legislature, how have you seen it change?

CC: A little bit more partisanship. I mean, that's for sure. Again, that notion about being able to sit at the table. But that partisanship right now has to do in part with, you know, what everyone is acknowledging as a split in the Republican Party. And so that's different.

Oh, here is probably the biggest. One of the things that we prided ourselves on in the legislature is our, I'd call it, disinterest in national, negative politics. And it was true disinterest. It was, “That's them. We’re us. We are not going to be having those kinds of fights.” We didn't have many of the anti-abortion, anti-gay – just negative bills that hurt people – being brought up. And in particular, they weren’t passed. We didn't pass those bills, right? That was considered national politics that we don't want to be involved with.

And what we see right now from one wing of the Republican Party is, “Oh, we don't want crossover voting. We want to get involved in incredibly difficult decisions that parents are having with their children who are trans.” Those are like the top issues that the Republican Party, or a portion of the Republican Party, is touting these days. We didn't do that a decade ago.

WW: I want to switch gears slightly to the other part of your career, which is at the University of Wyoming. You first moved to Laramie in the early 1990s. The Cowboy State Daily has some great quotes from you about what it was like being a member of the LGBTQ community at that time. Do you think the situation has improved for the community here in Laramie and in Wyoming?

CC: Well, I certainly think that faculty and staff can be more out, certainly, than when I started, as well as students.

You know, I've cleaned out my office. I found things that are literally 30 years old, including notes from students. You know, when I think back, I've taught thousands of students. Thousands of them. I am in awe of them, honestly, the work that they did, the thoughtfulness. And most of them are from Wyoming. I mean, UW has not changed much in that regard, where the majority of our students are Wyoming kids.

They took on really hard issues 20, 30 years ago, and I am concerned, I'll put it that way. I am concerned that there will be an effort, honestly, to dumb down the curriculum, dumb down what faculty can and are doing with students because of fear, again, of these national politics that are not very intelligent, not fact-based, not based in curiosity and problem solving.

WW: So recently, a Laramie church elder specifically targeted a member of the campus LGBTQ community by tabling in the Wyoming Union. The university responded by banning this church elder [from tabling] for one year. Do you think that that response was appropriate?

CC: Well, I'd like to say that response was far more appropriate than the first response of the university, right? The first response of the university, which came out a couple of days earlier, really had no repercussions for that abhorrent behavior and emphasized kind of university access and free speech and things like that. That was a wrong response.

The university's kind of contemplation of its response in relationship to the action, I give them a lot of credit for. Because even though they didn't say, “I'm sorry,” that re-doing of the statement was a whole lot better.

Everyone could go a bit further, and just actually say, why? And it’s because that church elder’s sign caused harm. And it caused extensive harm. And to not recognize that harm and what that harm is, right – which is not only stress, but we know about increased suicides – it delegitimizes the concern, right? You have to identify that harm.

WW: Are there any other reflections that I’m missing? Or is there anything else that you'd like to say?

CC: What I haven't mentioned at all is the people of Laramie and Albany County that sent me to the legislature. And I am so proud of our community right now and the priorities of our community. I mean, we're prioritizing quality of life here.

And we can always do better, but since I've been here, we have a rec center, we have a green belt, we just elected a great school board that's going to take on some really tough issues. I haven't mentioned that yet, but there's been some changes in Laramie as well that I think are really good and really forward-thinking.

WW: Representative Connolly, thank you again for joining me today on Wyoming Public Radio, and enjoy retirement.

CC: Thank you so much, Will.

Will Walkey is currently a reporter for Wyoming Public Radio. Through 2023, Will was WPR's regional reporter with the Mountain West News Bureau. He first arrived in Wyoming in 2020, where he covered Teton County for KHOL 89.1 FM in Jackson. His work has aired on NPR and numerous member stations throughout the Rockies, and his story on elk feedgrounds in Western Wyoming won a regional Murrow award in 2021.
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