It’s almost always cold or snowy here and we always feature hunt, so every now and then (twice per week at least) the two converge. Sometimes it works out and sometimes…most times…not so much. The first one is my favorite. Thanks for looking.
Freezing at the car wash, yeah.
Not a plugin hybrid...plug in to get started because it's 20 below.
Kindergarten registration day...people without people?
So, I worked on a story last week related to a joint proposal in the Wyoming legislature to put a referendum before Wyoming voters to effectively ban same sex marriages in Wyoming and to also invalidate same sex marriages performed in other states or countries. Gillette is one of those places that I bet a lot of residents believe that there aren’t any gay or lesbian couples, but — like most parts of the planet — that isn’t the case. To illustrate how this would affect real people we found a gay couple and a lesbian couple and talked to them about the realities of being a same sex couple in Gillette. I only got a few shoots, but here are a few images from it.
It’s a story I feel is really important and Rachel, Ariane, Robert and Jowe really opened up to us and trusted us with their stories. It was really admirable, because Gillette seems like an exceptionally difficult place to be openly homosexual and both couples were taking a risk to speak out.
Nate, my editor, wrote a really nice story too, which you can read here: Unequal Unions?
Rachel Kalenberg and her partner Ariane Jimison embrace before sitting down to dinner in their home. Jimison and Kalenberg started dating in 2005 and in 2009 held a commitment ceremony in lieu of a legally recognized marriage. "How in the world can you say that your love is better and more important than my love? Can one love be greater than another? I can't understand that," Jimison said about opposition to same sex couples being allowed to legally marry. "That's just crazy trying to put love on a scale like that and seems really, really unjust and silly. Especially when we're talking about something as wonderful as love."
Ariane Jimison, center, feeds dinner leftovers to Copper, the family dog, while Rachel Kalenberg, Ariane's partner, watches. Although they cannot legally marry in Wyoming, Jimison and Kalenberg held a commitment ceremony in September, 2009 and live a typical, domestic, married life. 'I think it's important also for people to realize that we are just people,' Kalenberg said. 'We're not some weird scary, freak show. We're just human, trying to do the best we can, with what we've got. And for us we have homosexuality. That's just part of who we are.'
Ariane Jimison and her partner Rachel Kalenberg scratch their cat, Charlie Garbonzo, after spending an evening working on tax returns. When Jimison and Kalenberg decided to commit themselves to each other, they spent a lot of effort looking for rings and found a company that sells rings made from a special ceramic composite also used to insulate the space shuttles. 'It can never rust. It'll never be tainted. It will always be whole,' Jimison said about the rings. 'They're unbreakable. They're unscratchable. To me, they're a much better symbol of forever than a diamond. And rather than being created through pressure. They've been through the fire. And I like that symbolism. We have gone through hell to make a relationship. To make a family. It's been really hard for both of us.'
Ariane Jimison takes a moment to reflect after talking about a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages. Jimison explained that laws against same sex marriages translate into intense emotional as well as financial issues for she and her partner, Rachel Kalenberg. 'There are two different battles that we fight on a daily basis. One is being completely rejected by everyone around us and feeling like we don't belong here and feeling like we're not wanted here... That's a whole emotional subset of issues,' Jimison said. But also, Jimison and Kalenberg must cope with practical, financial hardships that they face since they cannot enjoy the privileges of a legal marriage. 'Who knows how many tens of thousands of dollars we'd be saving,' Jimison said, citing one example of not being able to apply for a mortgage with two incomes and secure an interest rate commensurate with their total household income.
A little over one year ago, Robert Van Kerrebrook and his partner Jowie La Vallie left their jobs and decided to open a now-successful, hair salon. Even though they, their families and their close friends consider them married, the state of Wyoming does not and they faced significant financial hurdles trying to establish their small business as well as with other major financial decisions such as purchasing a home.
Trinkets and magnets on Jimison and Rachel Kalenberg's refrigerator. Kalenberg and Jimison grew up in Wyoming and Montana, respectively, and want to stay here. Although other parts of the country may be more friendly towards homosexuals, their families, friends and lives are here. 'It's against what I feel like most Wyoming people's values are,' Jimison said about a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages in Wyoming. 'There's such a long precedence in our state for personal rights.' But even so, 'Especially amongst gay friends, it's the 'equality for some state,'
Shot a feature the other day of the Gillette College basketball team moving a donated piano into the Senior Center. After moving the piano into the Center, the team stuck around for lunch and ate with the seniors.
Players from the Gillette Pronghorns basketball team, from left, Jeremy Geary, Ezekiel Ondonkor, Matt Dick, and Kalen Foreman help their teammates lift a piano out of the back of a trailer and carry it into the dining hall at the Campbell County Senior Center. The piano was donated to the Senior Center to be used in the senior jam sessions and the basketball team carry the heavy instrument. After moving the piano, the team stayed and dined with the seniors.
Immediately after moving the piano into the Center one of the basketball players starting messing around on it until this woman (don't have her name right now) really started jamming while the guys clapped and watched.
Here are some sports pictures from the last week. Still need to improve on lighting gyms and such. Sports aren’t really my thing, as you’ll see shortly.
Gillette Wild score on the Casper Oilers. Game tied 6-6.
Hockey slap.
Somebody won't share the puck.
