GOP Senator Apologizes to High School Kids for ‘A Guy Who Wears a Tutu…Asks for It’ Remarks on LGBT Equality

‘A Guy Who Wears a Tutu and Goes to Bars on Friday Night and Is Always Surprised That He Gets in Fights’

Republican U.S. Senator Mike Enzi has apologized for remarks he made while speaking to students in grades 6-12 last week. Senator Enzi was asked a question about LGBT equality, and proceeded to suggest that LGBT people shouldn’t “push it in somebody’s face,” and if men wear tutus they’re asking for a fight.

“What work are you and your comrades doing to improve the life of the LGBT community in Wyoming? How do you plan to help Wyoming live up to its name as ‘The Equality State?'” Enzi was asked by a student.

Denouncing federal “one-size-fits-all” solutions, Sen. Enzi called for “a little civility between people,” as The Greybull Standard’s Mathew Burciaga reported.

“We always say that in Wyoming you can be just about anything you want to be, as long as you don’t push it in somebody’s face. I know a guy who wears a tutu and goes to bars on Friday night and is always surprised that he gets in fights. Well, he kind of asks for it. That’s the way that he winds up with that kind of problem,” Enzi said. 

He also denounced bullying, telling the students, “I guarantee it if you embarrass somebody, that they will remember it for life. It’s all about how you treat each other.”

As the Senator’s comments drew national attention, he issued an apology.

“None of us is infallible and I apologize to anyone who has taken offense,” Enzi said in a statement, as the Casper Star Tribune reports. “No offense was intended. Quite the opposite in fact, and so I ask for your understanding as well.”

“No person, including LGBT individuals, should feel unsafe in their community,” the statement continued. “My message was intended specifically to be about promoting respect and tolerance toward each other. I hope if people look at the entirety of my speech, they will understand that. I regret a poor choice of words during part of my presentation.”

Wyoming’s Matthew Shepard died a horrific, violent death as a result of anti-LGBT hate. The federal hate crimes law bears his name.

The Matthew Shepard Foundation issued a statement calling Enzi’s comments “exactly the kind of hateful remarks we are working against in Wyoming and beyond.”

“To tell a person that they are ‘asking for it’ is the same kind of harmful rhetoric people use to disqualify the claims of sexual assault victims,” the statement says. “It’s the same kind of rhetoric that keeps up to 61 percent of hate crime victims from reporting because they are afraid of not being believed while also having to be fearful of being re-victimized by those in power, who should be defending their rights.”

In 2014 Sen. Enzi was the chief co-sponsor of a bill that would allow faith-based organizations to discriminate against same-sex couples in areas including adoption and foster care.

In 2013 he voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act. He has voted to amend the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. That year he was the only Republican among 80 lawmakers to sign a letter calling to end the ban on gay men giving blood. In 2000, Sen. Enzi voted against including sexual orientation in hate crimes legislation. He is an original co-sponsor of the First Amendment Defense Act.

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Image by CJ Baker via Flickr and a CC license