The last time Minerals met and Sen. Anderson took the chairman's gavel, we had to submit a complaint. Folks, here we are again. Casual misogyny last time, casual racism this time. He's clearly got a bingo card somewhere.
First 60 seconds of this video:
We're not going to let this go. Words matter. And our elected officials are elected to do the business of *all* the people. Following is a copy of the official complaint we filed (again!) with LSO, the Legislative Services Office.
Dear Mr. Obrecht, On behalf of the Wyoming Women's Action Network and our members, I would like to register a complaint about Senator Jim Anderson's comments at today's Joint Minerals Committee meeting. At the beginning of this afternoon's session (11/05/20), after being advised that the livestream had resumed, Sen. Anderson disclosed his positive COVID-19 status by saying, "I am fully engaged in the Chinese communist chemical warfare experiment coming from Wuhan."
Several times in the course of otherwise brief remarks, Sen. Anderson reiterated that COVID-19 represents Chinese chemical warfare. This kind of specious and baseless claim has led to a wave of anti-Asian violence in the United States. Racism should be intolerable in the Equality State--much less coming from the co-chairman of a committee while doing the People's Business. Casual racism--just like casual misogyny--makes clear that committee meetings are not a space intended for all people. What steps will Legislative Leadership take to ensure that our Legislature becomes and remains welcoming to everyone in our great state?
In addition, Sen. Anderson appeared to see fit to advance conspiracy theories around COVID-19 and testing. As coronavirus case counts continue to rise across Wyoming, the region, and the nation, this is not only irresponsible but also dangerous. I'll look forward to your response. Thank you, Jennifer M Simon, MTS Wyoming Women's Action Network | Founder info@wyomingwomensnetwork.com she/her/hers
ps--Pinky swear: We will have an election wrap up. We will do a summary about how female candidates fared locally, statewide, and nationally. And we will be back with an action plan for those of you wanting to know what to do next. Because, you know what? A few years ago Stacey Abrams lost, and then she went out and organized and an entire state changed as a result. It can be done. So we'll get to work.
Action is how we demonstrate optimism.
Comments