A legal case in Wyoming is making national headlines due to the unusual intersection of two sensitive issues: the rights of transgender people and gun rights. A Laramie trans woman and activist pulled a gun after a man pushed her down and allegedly shouted slurs at her. The Laramie Reporter’s Jeff Victor has been covering the story. Wyoming Public Radio’s Melodie Edwards talked with him about the twists and turns of the case.
Editor’s Note: This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Jeff Victor: Almost exactly one year ago – it was the night of September 13 – on that night, Rihanna Kelver was about to clock in for a late night shift at the Crowbar & Grill here in Laramie. This was about 10:00 p.m.
A man crossing on the other side of the street yelled in the direction of the Crowbar, something to the effect of, "F— the Crowbar." There's some disagreement about exactly what he shouted. It might have just been that. It might have also included slurs, specifically anti-LGBTQ slurs.
When this happens, when the man shouts from across the street, Ríhanna Kelver gets up, says something like, "What the f— did you say?" and starts crossing the street to meet this guy.
They meet in the intersection of 2nd and Ivinson [streets]. When they are close, the man who shouted pushes Ríhanna Kelver, and she flies back [and] hits the ground. We know later [she] injured her back in that fall.
Immediately, really within, like, a split second, she draws a gun and points it at this man as he passes and puts the gun away as soon as he has. I'm told that within moments, there was a heavy police response that showed up. The end result of all of that is that they arrested Ríhanna Kelver that night, and she was later charged with two felonies: aggravated assault and possession of a deadly weapon with unlawful intent. Altogether, if she is convicted on all of those counts, that could net her up to 16 years in prison.
Rihanna Kelver claims that she was acting in self-defense when she drew that gun, and so she is fighting these charges in Albany County District Court right now.
Melodie Edwards: Can we go back just a little bit and talk about who Rihanna Kelver is and how we might have seen her name in the news even before all of this happened?
JV: Rihanna Kelver, in addition to being a bar manager at Crowbar in Laramie, is also a very vocal trans rights activist. She is a transgender woman, and she has been very involved in pushing back on state legislation that restricts the freedoms and privacies of trans Wyomingites.
Editor’s Note: This paragraph was added to the written transcript for context: Last summer, a month or two before this altercation, she protested a new state bathroom ban by showing up to the state capitol on the day the law took effect and using the bathroom that's right outside the governor's office in the state capitol itself. So she's very vocal, very unafraid to get in the middle of things, and you might have seen her in headlines because of that.
ME: Would you like to expand on the arguments for why – what case she's making? And then also, can you talk about what the pushback has been?
JV: It's worth noting that in another state, we would not really have an open question at this point, because she did not try to retreat or get away after she was pushed. Some other states have a duty to retreat. Wyoming does not have a duty to retreat.
The prosecutor bringing this case argues that, one, she was the initial aggressor by crossing the street, and as we can see in the video, she has her hand on her hip as she does it. Now, this isn't [her] hand on the gun. The gun is not drawn. The gun is actually in a satchel during this time. But different people have seen this video and interpreted it [in] different ways.
They further argue that once she was on the ground, the threat was not really active and she did not need to pull the gun to defend herself.
On the other side, Kelver and her lawyer argue that crossing the street does not make you an aggressor. She has every right to be in that street, and we all have the right to, in general, yell at each other here in America.
ME: Now can you catch us up [on] what has the judge decided so far?
JV: Kelver has pleaded not guilty because she's fighting this, and she is claiming self-defense. That's where we get into the weirdness of Wyoming's stand your ground law.
Basically, it has been applied in such a way that sometimes, if you are acting in self-defense, it's not just justifiable legally. It doesn't just make you immune from being convicted. It might also grant you immunity from the prosecution itself, from the prosecutorial process.
So there was a possibility that Rihanna Kelver should maybe even not have to stand trial if her lawyer can show immediately, "Hey, this is self-defense. We shouldn't even have to go to trial."
[Last month there was] a self-defense hearing, basically a pretrial immunity hearing.
The lawyers cross-examined, and the judge ruled that they had shown that their case made sense on its face. So that's all a pretty complicated way of just saying the prosecution had to show that they at least had a good chance of this not being a waste of time for everybody if they went to trial. And they did show that.
ME: So at this point, where do things stand?
JV: At this point, we're headed to trial with this case, and that has been scheduled to begin in late November. That's just where we're headed.
Other things could happen. Kelver could take a plea deal between then and now. The charges could be dropped if the prosecution decides they don't like their chances after how that hearing went. Or, obviously, [a] plea deal could happen, and then we would avoid trial.
ME: How does the fact that Wyoming doesn't have a [gender identity] hate crime law maybe play into this? One of the things that seems relevant to me [is that] this took place three blocks away from where Matthew Shepard was picked up and was later murdered. I just wonder if you might be willing to talk a little bit about Wyoming and the climate in which this particular event took place.
JV: This is an important point, because Rihanna Kelver is very aware of the kind of bigotry that trans people in Wyoming can face. Over the past few years, there has been a lot of legislation. I think it's something like eight bills over the past three or four years that have targeted transgender rights and privacies. We've seen bathroom bans. We have seen bills that require school counselors to out gay and trans students [to their parents] if those students come out at school, even if they know that [their] home life is not supportive.
That all factors into what is in Rihanna Kelver’s head as she's approaching this. She knows that there's a non-zero chance that she could be the victim of a hate crime.
