'A Sissy in Wyoming' tells the story of Larry Goodwin's life

Sep. 24—Eventually, Larry Goodwin decided he should just go by "Sissy."

It was an ironic middle finger to those who gave him the name — the intolerant fear-mongers living in Wyoming who would beat him in front of his children, address him with slurs, and arrest him for his one simple, traditionally subversive lifestyle choice — cross-dressing.

The name "Sissy" became a point of pride for the grizzled, dress wearing, true-blooded Douglas, Wyoming resident. In turn, he became a symbol for the oppressed minority groups of the state.

His story was recorded regularly in the Casper Star-Tribune and other Wyoming papers, eventually being picked up by national publications like the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and NPR. That's excluding all of the national broadcast programs, like "Dateline," that also focused on Goodwin's story.

Gregory Hinton wanted to take it in a different direction.

"As a little kid, I didn't even know what being gay was, although I was probably a gentle child, as was my brother," Hinton said in a Zoom call with the Wyoming Tribune Eagle on Tuesday. "I'm guessing that I would have probably been called a sissy while I was in Wyoming as a young kid. I mean, this (story) is a bit of a metaphor for me."

Hinton, now living in Los Angeles, grew up gay in Cody, where the word "sissy" unearthed in him a threatening sense of anxiety. He is the founder of Out West in the Rockies, a nationally traveling museum exhibit that chronicles the stories of the LGBTQ+ community in the American West. It has been featured in the Buffalo Bill Museum of the West and other major museum throughout the state.

He currently works as a playwright.

Among his works are a series of five stage plays that document LGBTQ+ stories throughout the country, one of which is autobiographical. They have since earned an anthological working title of "Blue Plays for Red States."

One of these plays is "A Sissy in Wyoming," which chronicles the experiences of Goodwin, as told through personal journals and documents written by Goodwin before he died in 2020 from brain cancer. The rest of the story was created based off an oral history as told by his wife, Vickie Goodwin, who was unable to be reached for comment at the time this story was being written.

Hinton is currently on tour, traveling through Wyoming to nine different venues from Sept. 20 to Oct. 9, presenting a reading of his play, with the backing of the American Heritage Center and the University of Wyoming.

Additional funding comes from Wyoming Humanities, Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, Wyoming Arts Council and Wyoming State Historical Society.

There's no way of knowing if state organizations would have supported the telling of an LGBTQ+ story when Hinton was younger. If he was going to identify a shifting of the tide in the rhetoric, it would have been with the murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998.

"That's when I see the turning point, where all eyes really started to focus on rural communities and how they support or (don't) support their LGBTQ+ children," he said.

There was a time when he wouldn't return to Wyoming, but now, it's a part of the mission.

"We feel a need to evacuate. If we leave our communities behind, we lose a chance to get to know them and they us. That's why coming back as has really been so important to me," he said.

The interviews with Vickie Goodwin, of which there are more than 20 hours of recordings, were conducted by Leslie Waggener, an oral historian for the American Heritage Center, who was present on the call with Hinton and the WTE. Throughout the sessions, she not only discussed with Vickie the experiences of Sissy's life, but the way his lifestyle affected her and their family.

"She told me in detail about Sissy and their life together, their children and what it was like to be with a man, a strong man, humanitarian man, but a man who in Wyoming wore women's clothing," Waggener said. "Just all the ins and outs of a life like that, of watching your husband get beat up and followed, threatened, insulted and arrested."

For every piece of information about Goodwin's abusive childhood growing up in an oil-patch family — like memories of his father pushing his mother out of a moving car — there's advocacy on Vickie's part for providing background on who Sissy was as a person.

Not only is this important for Sissy's story, but it follows a larger trend in the country of returning to previously disregarded LGBTQ+ history, a field that has been largely neglected due to historical prejudice toward the group.

This is one of the core reasons for the play's existence and touring of the state.

"I love to see our material brought to life as Greg is doing it, especially oral history," Waggener said about the incorporation of her interviews. "The American Heritage Center is making sure that the LGBTQ community knows that we care about their history. We care about their accomplishments, we want to document them, we want to preserve them.

"So, a play like what Greg has done allows us to spread the word, to say this was based on an oral history, and history like this matters. We want to preserve it."

"A Sissy in Wyoming" is traveling throughout the state, and will make a stop at The Lincoln Theatre on Oct. 2. It is not a play, only a theatrical reading, where Hinton will sit on stage and read from the script, with help from stage directors.

So far, the readings have proven effective and emotionally resonating with the audience, despite the simple presentation. A Q&A with Hinton and Vickie Goodwin will be held after the reading.

Hinton hopes that one day he could see this script come to life after the resounding support the project has received from state and private organizations alike.

Will Carpenter is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's Arts and Entertainment/Features Reporter. He can be reached by email at wcarpenter@wyomingnews.com or by phone at 307-633-3135. Follow him on Twitter @will_carp_.