The month in photos
From “No Kings” to Drag Queens, April saw Laramie rally, protest and revel. The Laramie Reporter was there to capture the action, and the emotion, thanks to subscribers like you.
From protests to speakers to sold-out drag bingos, it’s been an eventful month in Laramie. And I was lucky enough to be there, capturing all of it.
The Laramie Reporter invested in a camera this year — a Sony a6400 mirrorless with an 18-135mm lens — and I’ve been using it to document community events, snap file photos and more.
This investment was only made possible by your support. Without your subscriptions, without your donations, I never would have been able to put a $1,000+ purchase on the company card. I bought it used and I’m very, very careful with it, but even so, this would not have been a feasible investment if I didn’t know I had continued community support.
Your financial backing keeps this outlet running.
It has paid my rent as I uncover injustices in Laramie’s mobile home parks. It has kept me fed as I highlight marginalized groups hungering for human rights. It has been my employment as I dig ever deeper into the ousters and removals that have rocked our local university.
Your continued support allows me to expand this operation.
Consider, as you view the photos below, that this photography almost didn’t exist. These community gatherings might have been captured in Facebook videos or iPhone snapshots. But now they exist, for posterity, as high-resolution reminders of what the people of this community were doing in April 2025.
At a March 19 town hall, Rep. Harriet Hageman was challenged by a raucous crowd, especially after dismissing a question about transgender and nonbinary rights. Hageman visited Laramie in March 2025. But her town hall helped to fuel protests in the weeks that followed, by bringing together a diverse crowd who opposed both the representative and the Trump Administration she supports.
On April 7, UW President Ed Seidel hosted an emergency town hall to defend — without divulging details — the abrupt removal of a popular dean the previous week. Seidel was facing a no confidence vote from the Faculty Senate, which he lost just hours after the town hall. In the aftermath of that vote, the UW Board of Trustees launched a new shared governance committee, hoping to quell faculty unrest.
On April 12, Laramigos rallied in front of the Albany County Courthouse for the “Hands Off” protest. The local demonstration was hosted in solidarity with similar demonstrations nationwide. They opposed the Trump Administration, Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, and the cuts both are making to federal funding, agencies and programs.
One week later, protestors gathered once more in the same spot, giving voice to much of the same anger. The “No Kings” protest, as the April 19 gathering was known, also rallied against the Trump Administration’s deportation policies and the lack of due process afforded Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man mistakenly deported to a notorious El Salvadoran prison. Several trucks “rolled” the protestors with thick black exhaust smoke, prompting at least one traffic stop by the Laramie Police Department.
On April 24, right-wing activist and Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk spoke to a packed auditorium on the UW campus. Kirk praised the president’s recent executive orders regarding diversity, equity and inclusion and related concepts. During his time on stage, he scoffed at the idea of being called a white supremacist. But his opener, local TPUSA chapter president Gabe Saint, has ties to white supremacist and antisemitic organizers. Kirk debated UW students about deportations, vaccines and autism.
On April 26, the Stilettos drag troupe returned for an interstellar Drag Queen Bingo, ultimately raising more than $41,000 for Wyomingites living with HIV/AIDS. The bingo caught the ire of right-wing lawmakers during the last legislative session, when Freedom Caucus members and allies sponsored a bill to restrict drag events across the state. The bill failed, but HIV prevention efforts and research remain under attack.
What will I shoot next? Once the university semester ends, I’ll be going around to various public meetings, trying to get file photos of our various electeds. You’ll probably see me at the Farmers Market and other events this summer snapping shots too. See you out there.
Thanks for being there with your camera and your "notepad". It's so important to have independent, quality journalism capture these events.
Buy insurance for that camera! Those are good photos, please keep it up.