West Anchorage assembly candidate Liz Vasquez was asked at the UAA forum if she supports an LGBT non-discrimination law, and she gave an awkward reply about the Supreme Court, lifestyles, and hate crimes against religious minorities. Here is her complete answer: (transcript is below the video)

Q. Would you support an equal right ordinance extending equal protections to gay, lesbian and transgender persons in Alaska’s workforce, similar to the proposition Mayor Sullivan vetoed in 2009?

A. “Well, first of all, a question like this should be decided by the state supreme court or the United States Supreme Court. There’s an extensive analysis that is done in extended [sic] protected class to any given group and indeed part of the analysis, what socio-economic factors have been of hinderance to this particular group, and the recent Department of Justice, United States Department of Justice studies indicate that 80% of the hate crime is committed against individuals of the Jewish faith, 10% is committed against those individuals of the Muslim faith. So the assembly really is not the forum to consider this very serious issue. I do believe sincerely that people need to respect each others’ lifestyle, as long as people are not hurting other people.”

Wow. Let’s take it apart:

“Well, first of all, a question like this should be decided by the state supreme court or the United States Supreme Court.”

This is a shocking statement coming from a conservative. Alaskans don’t want the federal government telling us what to do about polar bears, health care or education, but somehow we need big government to interfere in the daily lives of our workers and local businesses. Never thought I’d hear a conservative say that.

Look, it’s simple: The Anchorage Assembly doesn’t need permission from the U.S. Supreme Court to make city laws protecting city residents. It doesn’t work that way.

“There’s an extensive analysis that is done in extended [sic] protected class to any given group and indeed part of the analysis, what socio-economic factors have been of hinderance to this particular group, and the recent Department of Justice, United States Department of Justice studies indicate that 80% of the hate crime is committed against individuals of the Jewish faith, 10% is committed against those individuals of the Muslim faith.”

First of all – WTF?? 80% of American hate crimes are not against Jewish people. I’d guess that around half of the hate crimes in America are based on racial prejudice, and that the other half are about equally divided between hate crimes based on anti-LGBT bias and those based on bias against religious minorities. Turns out that I’m (mostly) right. (Thanks to Alaska Commons for the DOJ link, and the audio clip.)

In truth, slightly less than 14% of hate crimes are targeted against Americans because they’re Jewish – a serious problem, but not Nazi Germany.

We’ve cleared up that lie, but the main point here is that she (mis)quoted hate crime statistics against religious groups when asked about protecting workers from being fired for being gay. Either she doesn’t know the difference between job discrimination and being beaten up, or that was her convoluted way of saying that prejudice against religious minorities is important but prejudice against gays isn’t.

“So the assembly really is not the forum to consider this very serious issue.”

The Assembly is exactly the right place to have an Anchorage discussion about protecting Anchorage workers. It’s hard to believe that a candidate running for the assembly would say that the assembly should not consider serious issues.

“I do believe sincerely that people need to respect each others’ lifestyle, as long as people are not hurting other people.”

Ow. This sentence hurts my brain. It’s a people word salad. All she needs is a “you betcha” at the end.

The West Anchorage candidates for assembly are worlds apart on LGBT issues: ally and incumbent Harriet Drummond voted for the non-discrimination ordinance in 2009 and will continue to support equality. Liz won’t.

Please vote for Assemblywoman Harriet Drummond for the West Anchorage assembly seat.