Occupy Wall Street movement spreads to Anchorage and Fairbanks
Bent Alaska’s news tweets over the past few days included a few about the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has now spread to cities nationwide — including Anchorage and Fairbanks. “Occupy” demonstrations were held in Anchorage last Wednesday, and in both Anchorage and Fairbanks on Saturday.
The national LGBT news blog LGBT | POV wrote last week about the relevance of the Occupy Wall Street movement to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people:
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="180" caption="Felix Rivera of the One Anchorage Campaign asks Occupy Anchorage attendees to sign the petition."]LGBTs have a stake in this growing protest movement since our unemployment numbers and job searches are often made more complicated by having no job protections such as would be provided with the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. For instance, the Labor Department reported the unemployment rate for African Americans surged to 16.7% in August, its highest level since 1984, while the unemployment rate for whites fell slightly to 8%. The unemployment rate in California is 12.1%. LGBTs are in those statistics.
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About 200 to 250 people attended the Occupy Anchorage rally on October 8, including many members of Anchorage’s LGBTQA community — among them several activists circulating with One Anchorage petitions. One Anchorage is a campaign by Equality Works for a ballot measure on the April 2012 Anchorage municipal ballot to add sexual orientation and transgender identity to the Anchorage equal rights code. The campaign has until December 12 to get a minimum of just under 6,000 signatures of registered Anchorage voters in order to put the measure on the ballot; as of last Monday, they had already gotten about 3,000 signatures.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Scott McAdams"]
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Occupiers heard from a variety of speakers, including former Senate candidate Scott McAdams and radio personality and blogger Shannyn Moore.
Another demonstration in Anchorage is planned for Saturday, October 15 to coincide with demonstrations across the country. Attendance by local LGBTQAs will probably be lower than otherwise, as the rally conflicts with the 2011 Alaska Pride Conference to be held on the Alaska Pacific University campus.
Bent Alaska editor Mel Green attended the Occupy Anchorage demonstration at Town Square on Saturday, October 8, and took lots of photos. Watch the slideshow, or see the set in her Flickr photostream:
Resources
- Occupy Anchorage Facebook group
- Occupy Fairbanks Facebook group
- Occupy Together: “An unofficial hub for all of the events springing up across the country in solidarity with Occupy Wall St.“
- The 99% Movement: Resource guide at Think Progress
News stories for Alaska
- 10/5/11. “Occupy Anchorage Protest Joins Nationwide Movement” by Christine Kim (KTUU Channel 2 News).
- 10/5/11. “Happening Now: Occupy Anchorage” (The Northern Light, UAA student newspaper).
- 10/6/11. “Square deal” [opinion] by Frank Gerjevic (Anchorage Daily News).
- 10/6/11. “Occupy Wall Street: The movement comes to Alaska” by Ben Anderson (Alaska Dispatch).
- 10/8/11. “Occupy Anchorage!” by Jeanne Devon (The Mudflats).
- 10/8/11. “Occupy Anchorage – One of the Most Depressing Days of My Life” by Phil Munger (Progressive Alaska).
- 10/8/11. “Occupy Anchorage protesters point to empowerment, jobs” by Casey Grove (Anchorage Daily News). See also ADN’s photos.
- 10/9/11. “Occupy Anchorage PA Poll – Scott McAdams and Shannyn Moore Videos” by Phil Munger (Progressive Alaska).
Our tweets
- LGBT | POV: LGBTs have stake in Occupy Wall Street protest movement due to lack of nondiscrim laws like ENDA. http://t.co/mGobx90O #
- Protest begins in Anchorage Alaska #OccupyWallSt http://t.co/13hjvKle (photo via @MattCaprioli) #fb #
- Thanks// RT @MattCaprioli: In case you missed the Occupy Anchorage protest or just want some background info: http://t.co/EPi24CeR #
- Wall Street protest spreads to Anchorage, Alaska http://t.co/Pjlj1Kgy (article & video via ADN) #fb #
- Awesome RT @txgdb: Believe it or not, there is a small #OccupyFairbanks protest tonight, even way up here in the Arctic. #OWS #
- Occupy Anchorage, today 3-6pm at Town Square Park. FB page: http://t.co/noJC7llV #occupyalaska #
