To Be Young And Gay In Wyoming

Winter is coming fast to Wyoming, and it will be as it always is--beautiful and wicked. You could feel it in the air last week as ships of clouds sailed the blue sky above Laramie, snow-capped mountains rose in the distance, and a small herd of deer roamed the rocky ridge where Matthew Shepard, a gay student who loved Wyoming, was lynched.

They hold vigils and teach-ins in Laramie, a town searching its soul, but some people climb the hill as if there is something to confront up there. They go to where a small basket of dry flowers hangs from...