Alaska’s GLBT communities and our Allies all over the state have a rare opportunity to participate in a gay event together on the same night – and it doesn’t have to stop there.

On Thursday, the rest of Alaska will see what Juneau gays, lesbians and allies helped to create last month: an Alaskan response to the film Anyone & Everyone, a PBS documentary about the reactions of parents whose son or daughter ‘came out’ as gay or lesbian. Both the documentary and the Alaskan response will air on April 17 on KTOO, KAKM and their affiliates in Fairbanks, Bethel, Kodiak, Anchorage, Juneau and many other locations.

In March, PFLAG and Iron Zeal Films sponsored Juneau screenings of Anyone & Everyone, and KTOO-TV filmed a panel and audience discussion about the film. In the KTOO production, Anyone & Everyone: An Alaskan Perspective, Juneau mayor Bruce Botelho hosts Casady Herding, The Reverend Mark Boesser, Willie Anderson and Karen Donovan as they share reactions, resources and personal stories as gay Alaskans, our family members and allies.

Anyone & Everyone features parents from a wide range of religions, ethnicities, and political leanings discussing their initial reactions to their child’s coming out. Some respond with unconditional support, but others struggle, fearing alienation from their extended family, their church, or their community. For more about the film and the screenings, see Juneau Responds to Anyone & Everyone.

To draw attention to the show, KTOO Radio’s Community Forum host Dr. Carolyn Brown invited five members of the public for a discussion about Anyone and Everyone. “One is my mother, Mildred Boesser – a grandmother, an active Christian, a mother of a lesbian, and active PFLAG advocate,” writes Sara Boesser from Juneau. “I’m on the panel too, as a 50-something lesbian and activist, along with a lesbian woman in her early 20’s, an older man whose two gay brothers came out to his family in the 1940’s, and a woman counselor who works with Four A’s and has friends who are gay, lesbian and transgendered.”

The Juneau Community Forum radio panel can be heard on www.ktoo.org. Look under KTOO Audio Files – Anyone & Everyone.

The TV broadcast of Anyone & Everyone and Anyone & Everyone: An Alaskan Perspective is on Thursday, April 17 on KAKM-TV, Anchorage from 8:00 to 9:30 pm, and on AlaskaOne (KTOO-Juneau, KUAC-Fairbanks, KYUK-Bethel) and 360 North from 9:00 to 10:30 pm. The programs will be rebroadcast on Saturday, April 19 on ARCS and 360 North from 7:00 to 8:30 pm.

This is a great opportunity for Alaska’s GLBT and Allied communities to see and hear our friends in Juneau. But why stop with Juneau? Let’s continue the discussion, with Alaskan perspectives from different parts of the state. Watch Anyone & Everyone and An Alaskan Perspective, then share your reactions, your family experiences, and your local resources for GLBT Alaskans and our families. 

Send an email to BentAlaska@gmail.com or add a comment to this article. I’ll put the responses together in a new post. Can we hear from each of the regions where the programs are broadcast: Interior, Western, Southcentral and Southeast? Anonymous replies are fine.

Let’s start with Juneau and make it a statewide Alaskan Perspective. How about it?