Republican Senator Denies Comparing Homosexuality To Bestiality, Pedophilia During Visit With High School Students

Republican State Senator Lynn Hutchings of Wyoming has denied accusations that she compared homosexuality to bestiality and pedophilia during a meeting with a group of high school students hoping to convince lawmakers to support HB 230, a state bill seeking to ban workplace discrimination against members of the LGBT community.

Hutchings has faced calls to resign after Wyoming Equality, a statewide LGBT advocacy organization accused the state senator of having made the comparison earlier this month.

In a complaint sent by the advocacy group to Drew Perkins, the Republican president of the Wyoming State Senate, Wyoming Equality asserted that it had arranged to have a Gay-Straight Alliance student group meet with state legislators in the capital, Cheyenne, on February 1.

Among the legislators who met with the students was Hutchings, who Wyoming Equality said told students that she was "unfamiliar with the bill's language."

"So the students shared that they wanted her support because the bill would protect the students from workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity," the advocacy group explained.

According to Wyoming Equality, Hutchings took issue with the students' use of the term "sexual orientation," asserting that: "If my sexual orientation was to have sex with all of the men in there and I had sex with all of the women in there and then they brought their children and I had sex with all of them and then brought their dogs in and I had sex with them, should I be protected for my sexual orientation?"

The complaint asserts that the student group tried to clarify and correct Hutchings "only to be rebuffed" by her "repeated interruptions." It also states that the state senator tried to fist-bump members of the group before departing.

The advocacy group asserted that the exchange left students feeling "hurt and disturbed," a sentiment it said was "exacerbated especially after Sen. Hutchings hypothetically recounted the idea of sexually engaging with children, then physically engaged with the students."

"At Wyoming Equality, we are horrified," the group added. "As guaranteed by the First Amendment, Senator Hutchings may express her beliefs and views however she wishes, but her behavior is not what we expect of adults in the workplace, and we expect even more from a Wyoming elected official."

After news of the alleged exchange broke, Joe Barbuto, who serves as chairman of the Wyoming Democratic Party, called on the Republican to resign, calling the comments she was accused of making "indefensible, insensitive and repugnant."

"Her remarks were not appropriate for any audience, but that she said this to children is especially revolting. It shows a clear lack of good judgment," Barbuto said in a statement shared by the Wyoming Democratic Party.

"Senate District 5 deserves a Senator who they can trust to behave and speak in a manner that upholds the dignity of the office and reflects an understanding that every person deserves to be treated with respect," he said of Hutchings constituency. "Lynn Hutchings is now incapable of providing that level of representation. She must resign immediately."

In a statement released on Tuesday, Hutchings denied the accusations, however, asserting that she "at no time compared homosexuality with bestiality or pedophilia," according to NBC News.

"That never happened," she said.

I made an attempt to best engage several of them by asking four rhetorical questions," the state senator said. "My questions to them were intended to highlight the vagueness and subjectivity of the term 'sexual orientation' and how it can be defined in so many ways. After spending more time with them than I expected, we cordially parted company with fist bumps all around."