Liveblogging Assembly meeting, June 16 (Assembly public hearing #2)

Identity Reports (1989) and One in 10 (1986)

I will be testifying about these studies at tonight’s Anchorage Assembly meeting. They are online by following this link:http://www.henkimaa.com/identity/. Liveblogging commences below. I will also be occasionally twittering at http://twitter.com/yksin which also updates my Facebook status.  This is partly to save power on my laptop — no plug in here so I need to conserve power.

Two other livebloggers sitting right next to me here: Heather James of SOSAnchorage.net — the good version not the Prevo antigay version and John Aronno of Alaska Commons. Check them out during tonight’s proceedings, too.

[Update: 6/17/09. I’ve just integrated my Twitter feed from last night into this liveblog.  Handily, my Twitter feed updates my Facebook status, & FB gives times so I was able to get this stuff all nicely chronological.  Tomorrow I’ll have some observations — not tonight, because I promised to get sleep tonight so my exhaustion doesn’t crash me into a depression, which getting worn down can sometimes do to me.  Enjoy.]

Liveblog

Inset comments in green were via Twitter

• 328 PM. Outside assembly chambers. Many people in line. Now told they won’t open doors until 4:30. #
• 330 PM. Once I’m eventually able to sit down will live blog at henkimaa.com. As well as some tweeting here. #
• 428 PM In chambers. Ossiander’s new version of the ordinance throws gender identity under the bus. throws out employment protections. #
• 428 PM. moving to blog for live blogging at henkimaa.com #

4:30 PM. We were finally let into the Assembly chambers at 4:00.  By now the room’s pretty full. There are a few copies around of the new version of the ordinance drafted by Assembly Chair Debbie Ossiander.  It’s not, from my perspective. good.  It removes gender identity, thereby throwing transfolk under the bus.  It removes all employment protections for sexual orientation in the private sector.  It does empower the Equal Rights Commission to investigate other discrimination on the basis of sexual orientations and also gender identity/expression, but does not empower the ERC to do anything about it unless it’s within the scope of the law.  Basically, it falls into a “let’s have a task force & study this stuff that’s already been studied & that we already know” end of things.  It’s unacceptable.  We need to go with one of the two prior versions.

Now 4:45 PM.  I’m shutting down for a little to conserve power.

• 501 PM. I’ll be trading off between liveblog on henkimaa.com & tweeting @yksin on iPod tonight to conserve laptop power. #
• 504 PM. Assembly called to order. Other biz first. Testimony begins 7:00 PM. New sign ups begin then. Still 250+ already signed up. #
• 507 PM. Ossiander thanked us for civility in chambers last week. Expressed hope outside people will be more civil too. #
• 514 PM. Ossiander explains all 3 versions of ordinance still in play. The one she did is not necessarily “it” depending on how debate goes. #
• 517 PM. Assembly now on other biz. Going offline for a little to edit my testimony for length. #

6:00 PM. Recapitulating I’ll be switching off between liveblog here & tweeting at http://twitter.com/ on my iPod Touch to conserve battery power on my laptop.  So check my Twitter feed too.  Other Assembly business going on right now. I’ve timed my testimony three times now & am pretty sure it’ll come under 3 minutes.  Took some photos.  Just checked other blogs & posted a couple of comments at Mudflats and Bent Alaska about my liveblogging activity & that of Heather & John.  Checked out Facebook & found some helpful advice & “I’m there with you” stuff from Jay Dugan-Brause, who was my coauthor on Identity Reports & headed up the One in Ten study.

I’m down to 69% on battery power.  Signing out, see me on Twitter.  My iPod doesn’t eat the power as quickly.  Later I’ll put the two sets of comments together so that this liveblog post will have a continous tale to tell.

• 610 PM. RT @Mudflats: i see rainbow flags at the assembly mtg! #
• 610 PM. @Mudflats when we waited in line to get into chambers it was heartening to see those rainbow flags out there in reply to Mudflats #
• 611 PM. Oops someone forgot to turn off their cell phone #
• 611 PM. Btw a minute ago posted brief update on henkimaa.com #
• 613 PM. I can hear people chanting outside. Heather next to me is listening to an audio book. I’m gonna go for a bathroom break. #
• 614 PM. I think just one more item before testimony #

6.50 PM. Just back from bathroom break, which was long because it was also an Assembly dinner break.  Testimony is about to begin.  I ran out my camera battery’s juice taking photos outside.  Let me tell you, my people know how to have a great time!  My people being not just LGBT but also our fantastic allies, throwing one heckuva great Pride party out there in front of the library on 36th Ave. Nearer to A Street, lots of mostly teenaged kids in red with preprinted signs who didn’t look like they were having half the fun that the LGBTA folks were.

First testimony tonight from a pastor who loves us so much he wants to tell us all about the great ministries and counseling available to help us deal with our sexual issues.  Or something like that.

Most people who missed last week’s testimony aren’t showing up for this week’s.  I expect to be up in about 45 minutes to an hour.

Now a self-identified Christian woman who is arguing very eloquently in favor of the full ordinance.

Now a guy with weird diagnoses of why gay people are gay.  [sigh]

63% on battery. Moving for awhile back to Twitter.

• 700 PM. RT @Mudflats: See giant sign that says “Jesus is Lord of Alaska.” #
• 702 PM. Just posted on henkimaa now back here #
• 704 PM. Young black guy who just finished had some really bizarre stars wonder where he got them. Pulled outta somebody’s … errr. #
• 706 PM. I guess this military landlord doesn’t like tattoos either. Wow and big applause from reds on the room. Birch letting him go on. #
• 706 PM. Birch is not a supporter prob. Now military is going on about pedophiles and necrophiliacs and bestiality none of which are in ordinance. #
• 707 PM. Harriet Drummond pointed out that stuff illegal. Go Harriet! #
• 712 PM. I’m about to testify three people away #
• 728 PM. Just finished testifying. How’d I do? #
• 730 PM. Barb now up – I Worked with her to prepare her testimony – she’s doing great. Good job Barb! #
• 733 PM. Does this guy even get that any time he mentions his wife he’s being publicly a heterosexual? #
• 734 PM. Jim Minnery: gays are great but discriminate against them anyway. #
• 738 PM. Rachel Runyan just now: great! #
• 741 PM. Jeff Mittman of AkCLU : discussing religious freedom issue to address misinformation from opposition. He’s a great ally. #

7:43 PM. Just spent some time over on Twitter, now on my laptop to catch up on what other people are saying.  Some great liveblogging entries from John & Heather.  How would it be if later (tomorrow maybe, after sleep!) I collated their live blogs w/ mine? as well of course of my tweets.  I’ve also retweeted a couple of Mudflats tweets, & am wondering if all the mudpuppies over at Mudflats are liveblogging the streaming feed of this hearing as they did last week.

I’ll be here until tonight’s adjournment at 11:00 PM, but tomorrow I’ll probably be outside.  Tomorrow’s testimony starts at 4:00 PM, when I’ll be at work, so I doubt I could get inside the Assembly chambers anyway.  So tomorrow I’ll just enjoy the Pride party outside, in hopes it’ll be as fun as the one I saw going on a little while ago during the Assembly’s dinner break.

52% on the battery.  Back to Twitter.

• 751 PM. Heather likes the photo on my Twitter profile. #
• 754 PM. I posted again on henkimaa a couple minutes ago btw #
• 756 PM. This guy wasn’t protected re his religious beliefs — which is wrong. But did he file a discrimination complaint with the ERC? #
• 758 PM. 2nd case he says he did and wasn’t taken seriously. Lynne next to me says she thinks he’s lyon. #
• 788 PM. Lying that is #
• 800 PM. Unitarian Universalists standing up for the ordinance. Go UUA! #
• 801 PM. I’m hungry haven’t eaten all day. Time for my protein drink. Oh yum….. #
• 801 PM. Lutheran for ordinance #
• 803 PM. Someone over by the acting mayor is having probe with tinny music being emitted from her computer. #
• 804 PM. This Lutheran pastor is great #
• 805 PM. Mmmm breakfast #
• 807 PM. Ooh hidden liberals on the Assembly! I’m skeeeeered! #
• 811 PM. One must take time out to get some exercise. I call it: “rolling my eyes.” #
• 819 PM. Guy now identified himself as a gay Eskimo – very well spoken. #
• 821 PM. Next up Sara Gavit from St Marys darn not allowed to speak for ill minister #
• 822 PM. Breakfast over. What’s for dinner? Still hungry. #

8:23 PM. Debbie Ossiander just explained that when you have a proposed ordinance with S versions — we now have two different S versions — that it doesn’t mean that the original version has been replaced.  Any of them could be the proposed ordinance that the Assembly chooses to debate & act upon.  This is a good thing, because Ossiander’s version is really horrible.  We don’t want it, for reasons already explained.

My friend Lynne just left.  I halfway feel I should too, because of how tired I am. Haven’t been getting enough sleep these last few days, what with blogging etc.  But I’m in it for the long haul tonight.  Maybe tomorrow night, since I won’t be in chambers, I’ll make it a shorter night.  However, now I’m finding my iPod Touch is getting slightly low on the juice.  So here I am on my laptop, currently at 46%.

• 833 PM. Sorry, lady: we can’t just like that give you discrim stats for 2008 just like that. Those studies take lots of time & money. Lotsa lotsa. #
• 835 PM. I count 6 new followers on Twitter now 7 since starting this tonight. Welcome! And whoa, Finland Blackjack hey there from another Finn! #
• 835 PM. More testimony at which one can only roll one’s eyes. #
• 837 PM. I see from my WordPress stats that my liveblog at Henkimaa.com isn’t as popular by far as my “new Carrie Prejean?” post about Mrs. Alaska. #
• 839 PM. Also prob not as as watched as my Twitter, so I’m guessing most people following my Assembly experience are following it here. #
• 841 PM. Woman testifying now about how Jay Brause & Gene Dugan mentored her heterosexual son when they ran Out North. A big shout-out to London! #
• 845 PM. Shannyn Moore opines that it’s time for Anchorage Baptist Temple to register as a political action committee. http://tinyurl.com/lfcegs #
• 846 PM. Chronicles wasn’t written to Christians. It was written to Israelites. You might be a pastor, but you sure ain’t no scholar. #
• 849 PM. Trini at Mudflats posted earlier I talked “about statistics (huge) of discrimination. (while wearing what looks like a prisoner’s shirt).” #
• 850 PM. haha i loved that: prisoners shirt. this is actually my favorite poetry slam shirt. #
• 850 PM. But big shout out to all the mudpuppies watching the livestream & liveblogging it. Looking forward to reading it in full tomorrow. #
• 851 PM. People who don’t know where that is: http://bit.ly/JuPSY #
• 853 PM. Quotes from Playdough? #
• 856 PM. Plato was a dork. He didn’t like poets either. #
• 902 PM. What gets me about these people claiming ordinance is poorly written is so many have probs ru bing two wprrds together. #
• 902 PM. Sorry about the twitted typos #
• 906 PM. This woman is pretty… um… not articulate. #
• 907 PM. This ordinance can’t wreck one woman one man language. This is a muni ordinance. That is a state constitutional amendment. Duh. #
• 908 PM. Lots of seats in Assembly chambers emptying. #
• 913 PM. That’s a state road sorry #
• 915 PM. Last guy was great. After this guy Mary Elizabeth Rider #
• 915 PM. This guy though makes no sense #
• 920 PM. Greenshirt employer is pretty ridiculous. Militia? “I’m sorry” – yeah you should be. #
• 920 PM. Go M.E.! #
• 923 PM. M. E. rocked! #
• 926 PM. Great testimony on psych professions on homosexuality. Liked what she said about LGBT witnesses’ dignity. #
• 930 PM. Member of Jewish community. I’m unclear if he’s clergy – ah he read rabbi’s statement. Now his own words #
• 936 PM. Ooh this guy was great. really pulled in the redshirts. though too simplistic to call what opponents feel as “hate.” #
• 948 PM. Good thing we don’t live in a theocracy especially not one eun by this confusing woman #
• 950 PM. Good job Prevo your website convinced this woman of how much this ordinance is needed. #
• 954 PM. This guy prompted me to take a nap. #

9:58 PM. I’m going glassy-eyed with a lot of these people. A coupla guys ago made me fall asleep. I wonder how many of these people in red are from the bused-in-from-Mat-Su brigade. Now this woman is going to take Julia O’Malley’s article & takes what Julia said about herself not personally having experience discrimination (Julie, btw, is daughter of Assemblywoman Sheila Selkregg), that somehow that wipes out the evidence of all the people who’ve stood up tonight & last Tuesday night to testify about the discrimination they had eperienced.  Now this next woman doesn’t remember ever hearing reading or hearing about homosexuals being discriminated against.  Hear no evil, see no evil: plug your ears, cover your eyes.  Hear only what you want to hear, & then tell lies about what you know.  Willful willful ignorance.

• 1009 PM. A pastor jailed for his sermons against homosexuality: “it cd happen here.” Oh yeah? Prevo, jailed for his sermons? I cd get down w/ that. #
• 1014 PM. Just caught up with John’s liveblog. Some very witty observations. #
• 1016 PM. “I’ve lived in Anchorage since 1951 and I see no evidence of discrim b/c I haven’t listened to last 2-1/2 hrs of evidence.” #
• 1024 PM. The Sports Authority shooting is relevant to this ordinance _how_? #
• 1029 PM. Red shirts all lining up #
• 1034 PM. Another person blithely ignoring any evidence that’s been presenting that contradicts her preconceptions. #
• 1038 PM. A lot of the redshifts are just meandering aimlessly taking up time on nothing. #
• 1046 PM. What a coincidence, Ive been propositioned by men when I was unavailable too. I never beat any of them & sent them to the infirmary though. #
• 1049 PM. Ten minutes of these tedious testimonies to go. #
• 1100 PM. Methinks Ossiander has lost track of the time. And here’s another of the hohum “special rights” testimonies. #
• 1101 PM. Three people to testify & then we go. All reds. #
• 1102 PM. If this was all a secret agenda thing to keep people from stopping it, why in hell are we all here listening to you blather then? #
• 1103 PM. Shutting down. out of here shortly, then to bed. #
• 1104 PM. 18 new followers on Twitter from tonight. Whoa, lots of interest. Are y’all mudpuppies? Sent me some @ tweets & talk to me. #
• 1104 PM. About to adjourn. yeah. #