In the wake of Mayor Dan Sullivan’s veto of the Anchorage equal rights ordinance AO 2009-64, lots of people noted the irony of his having vetoed equal protection from discrimination for LGBTQ people in Anchorage just a month before Mayor’s Diversity Month.
Then the mayor, who seems more comfortable with “melting pot” views of American culture — we should all melt ourselves into some imagined universality that looks suspiciously like the same old “upper & middle class white heterosexual males are universal & everyone else is not” stuff that has served the “everyone else” of us so poorly, & has served plenty of white heterosexual males pretty badly too — decided to change the name of the Mayor’s Diversity Dinner to the Mayor’s Unity Dinner.
I don’t actually want to be assimilated. I kinda like being who I am.
Nor do I believe that resistance is futile.
Nor are we a “melting pot.” You all know the alternative analogies for meals that are far more nutritive & colorful: Stew. Salad. Something like this looks a lot better to me than what the mayor wants to serve up:
A few of us decided to do something about it.
So while Mayor Sullivan is serving up a $60/plate Borg dinner at the downtown Hilton, we’ll be celebrating the true richness of Anchorage’s diversity just a few blocks away at the Snow Goose — $10, just enough to cover costs. Progressive radio host and blogger Shannyn Moore will be the keynote speaker. And we’ll be handing out our own diversity awards.
See the True Divesity Dinner blog for more information, and to nominate and vote for diversity awards in the categories of
- Excellence in Business Award
- Excellence in Non-Profit Award
- Individual Excellence in Print Media Award
- Individual Excellence in Online Media Award
- Individual Excellence in Outreach Award
- Lifetime Achievement Award
and let’s not forget the ever-popular
- Epic Fail Award
I hope to see you there.
* * *
The idea for this dinner came in conversation between the bloggers and activists of:
- Alaska Commons
- Bent Alaska
- Floridana Alaskiana v2.5
- Grrlzlist Alaska
- Henkimaa (that’s me!)
- SOSanchorage.net (the alternative to Prevo’s poisonous site)
Special kudos to John Aronno of Alaska Commons and Heather Aronno of SOSAnchorage.net for their effort in organizing this event.
