Articles by E. Ross
E. Ross is the founder of Bent Alaska.
2 Concerts benefit homeless youth in Fairbanks (this weekend)
Did you know there are between 500-800 homeless youth at any given time in Fairbanks, Alaska? About 300 of them are in the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District. Help us to help them!
FCA SOAP is holding two concert fundraisers this weekend to benefit homeless, runaway and at-risk youth in Fairbanks. The Concert & Silent Auction for adults 21+ is Friday night at The Pub, and an all-ages We Are Visible concert is Saturday afternoon at the 310 First Avenue Banquet Hall.
For both events, please bring new or gently used clothing for a clothes drive for the youth, and keep in mind that most of the clients are ages 15 to 21 years old.
Also, they’re selling a 14-track benefit album for $10:
WE ARE VISIBLE! is a compilation benefit album with 14 tracks donated by mostly local Fairbanks bands with an ultimate mission of supporting the clients we serve. It will be available at our SOAP Benefit Weekend events, April 8 & 9, 2011. After that, if you’d like a physical copy, please e-mail vista@fcaalaska.org or call 907-374-9913. All proceeds from this album go toward helping each one of our clients recognize his or her value as a human being in a world that seems to change faster with each passing day.
Friday, April 8
SOAP Benefit Concert & Silent Auction @ The Pub
Come to The Pub and help us create a better city for our youth!
$5 Students / $8 General Admission — Ages 21+
Silent Auction Starts at 7pm and Music Starts at 9pm
9:00 Danny & The Jampires
9:45 Phineas Gauge
10:30 The Avery Wolves
11:15 Alaska Redd
Silent auction items will be highlighted by some awesome photographs by Krista Heeringa. We’ll have door prize giveaways, as well. For more information, please e-mail vista@fcaalaska.org or call 374-9913.
Many thanks to our other donors: Pro Music, Grassroots Guitar, Music Mart, College Coffeehouse, Gulliver’s Bookstore, Sipping Streams, Forget-Me-Not Bookstore, McCafferty’s, College Town Pizzeria, Mona Vie, UAF Pub, KSUA, and others.
All proceeds benefit Fairbanks Counseling & Adoption’s Street Outreach & Advocacy Program. SOAP is brought to our community through FCA and United Way of the Tanana Valley.
Saturday, April 9
WE ARE VISIBLE: A Benefit Concert for Homeless Youth
Join us for the ALL-AGES version of our concert fundraiser
Saturday, April 9 · 12:00pm – 11:00pm
310 First Ave. Banquet Hall
310 1st Ave, Suite 100
Fairbanks, AK
$5.00 — Fun, Music, Arts, Crafts, Guitar Lessons, $10 Haircuts from noon-2 & 4-6, Soda/Water, Door Prizes, Raffle!! Oh yeah, FUN TOO!
Bands (subject to change):
12pm InVein
1pm Bernie Bousa (of Danny & The Jampires)
2pm Bryan Whitten
3pm Alex Beasley
4pm From The Ashes
5pm Not Enough Flannel
6pm New Teen Paranormal Romance
7pm Eating For Two
8pm Until Death
9pm Alaska Redd
10pm Phineas Gauge
(DJ sets if there’s time)
Fairbanks Counseling & Adoption: We Take Familes to Heart
As a program operated by Fairbanks Counseling & Adoption, the Street Outreach & Advocacy Program (SOAP) reaches out to 10- to 21-year-olds who are homeless or at-risk of becoming homeless. “Our goal is to protect these youth from abuse, sexual exploitation, assault, and criminal activity due to their lack of money and beneficial resources.”
Hours: Monday – Friday, 9am-6pm
Drop-in Center, 2pm-6pm
-Drop-in Services in downtown Fairbanks, Alaska
-Transportation to resources and shelter
-Survival supplies: food, hygiene, clothes
-Assistance using the Fairbanks justice, business, and social service system
-Mediation and Conflict Resolution
-Counseling Services
-Referrals to community resources
-Independent Living Skills classes
-Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Seasonal Activities
Fetish Ball 2011
What’s better than having a fetish? Having a night devoted entirely to FETISH!
Saturday is Fetish Ball 2011: The Fall of Rome – Caligula’s Revenge. Come in theme, or as your own fetish. Either way, it’s a night you won’t forget. The people are the show!
The Fall of Rome – Caligula’s Revenge is Saturday, April 9 at Mad Myrna’s, beginning at 8pm. Admission is $15.
The Fetish Ball is an annual benefit for the Four A’s during their $1 Million Challenge food bank fundraiser.
Four A’s and the $1 Million Challenge
Four A’s is participating in The Feinstein Foundation’s spring food bank challenge again this year. Your donations to Four A’s this month will help them qualify for a larger amount of the challenge funds.
At least 3 allies re-elected to the assembly
Three of the four pro-equality assembly members were re-elected by Anchorage voters on Tuesday, with solid leads over Mayor Sullivan’s conservative challengers.
The preliminary election results show assembly allies Elvi Gray-Jackon, Harriet Drummond and Patrick Flynn being re-elected, while the East Anchorage race between incumbent Mike Gutierrez and challenger Adam Trombley is too close to call. As of this writing, Trombley leads Gutierrez by about 250 votes.
Dave Bronson of the Alaska Family Council was soundly defeated by Assemblywoman Elvi Gray-Jackson, who won with a margin of over 15% of the vote.
Two assembly members who oppose equality – Bill Starr and Chris Birch – were also re-elected.
In the school board races, Gretchen Guess has a good lead over Treg Taylor, while Pat Higgins leads Bob Griffin by 186 votes.
Absentee ballots will be counted on April 15.
Vasquez may respect your ‘lifestyle’ but not your rights
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.
Anchorage election: Assembly and school board candidates to vote for
Anchorage voters going to the polls Tuesday will see pro-equality assembly members up for re-election in 4 districts, a supportive challenger, and 2 good school board candidates on the ballot, running against a slate of anti-gay candidates endorsed by Mayor Sullivan. Here are Bent Alaska’s recommendations.
Alaskans Together brings Why Marriage Matters to AK
State laws, senator support, UA policies and new campaigns: Alaskans Together has been busy! Their spring newsletter updates us on the recent successes they contributed to and their current efforts, including the Why Marriage Matters project. Here’s the message from Board President Elias Rojas:
Your statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization – Alaskans Together for Equality Inc. — has been hard at work the last several months promoting civil equality throughout the state. It has definitely been a whirlwind of LGBT initiatives in Alaska and across the country over the last several months.
The highlights of our successful involvement and support of ATE over the last several months include:
- The repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law with both Sen. Murkowski and Sen. Begich voting in favor of the repeal.
- The University of Alaska Regents passing a non-discrimination policy change that now includes sexual orientation as a protected class.
- The introduction of the Alaska Hate Crimes bill (SB 11 – Davis) and its successful passage through the Senate Judiciary Committee.
- The introduction of a statewide non-discrimination bill (HB 165 – Kerttula) that would add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes in our existing state non-discrimination laws.
The last few months have been great in terms of progress towards civil equality for LGBT Alaskans. In addition, ATE is at the tail end of a very successful membership drive and renewal campaign. Your membership keeps us going. If you have yet to become an ATE member for 2011 you can still do so by clicking here. For those of you who became members…thank you…thank you…thank you.
All these successes and continuing efforts could not have been done without your activism and financial support. Our board thanks you for all your support.
ATE is looking forward to continuing to provide you with the latest news and updates that can help you be informed and active in your community and state. As always, if you have any suggestions or would like to get involved please email us at alaskanstogether@gmail.com.
Recently, the ATE board voted to become a partner of the Freedom to Marry national campaign in support of marriage, called “Why Marriage Matters.” It’s a public education campaign that will talk about our rights and tell the story of why gays and lesbians want to get married – to share love and commitment with the person they love. Stay tuned and visit Alaskans Together as we begin rolling out this campaign in the coming months.
Check out Freedom to Marry, and watch the intro clip on Why Marriage Matters:
k.d. lang & Lily Tomlin in Anchorage & Fairbanks 2011-12 concert season
OMG! k.d. lang is coming to Anchorage! Swoon.
Two lesbian icons are on the calendar for the Anchorage Concert Association’s ’11-12 season: k.d.lang opens the season with two concerts in September, and Lily Tomlin performs her one woman comedy show on the last night of March 2012.
The season also includes Broadway shows and an impressive array of music. Subscription tickets are on sale now, and individual tickets for k.d. lang will be on sale in June.
Update: Both k.d. lang and Lily Tomlin are also performing one show each in Fairbanks for the Fairbanks Concert Association’s 2011-2012 season! k.d. croons on Thursday September 15, and Lily will make you laugh on Friday, March 30.
k.d. langFriday – Saturday, September 16-17, 2011
7:30pm
Atwood Concert Hall
Four time Grammy Award winner k.d. lang is bringing her perfect pitch to Anchorage. lang launched her career with a blend of country-rock styling and a playful punk-like attitude, but it’s her voice that makes her stand out. 20 years after she burst onto the music scene that flawless, smooth-as-silk voice, continues to impress audiences and critics alike throughout the entertainment world. Don’t miss what promises to be enthralling performance that will touch your soul.
Lily TomlinSaturday, March 31, 2012
7:30pm
Atwood Concert Hall
The incomparable Lily Tomlin brings many of her classic characters to life in a one-woman show. One of America’s foremost comediennes, Tomlin continues to venture across an ever-widening range of media starring in television, theater, motion pictures, and even animation. Throughout her extraordinary entertainment career, Tomlin has received numerous awards, including six Emmys, a Tony, a Grammy and winner of the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for Humor in 2003. She continues to be at forefront of American comedy even after more than 30 years in the business.
**
I don’t know if Lily Tomlin has been to Alaska before, but k.d. lang has: parts of her movie Salmonberries were filmed here (it takes place in Kotzebue), and I posted the love song Barefoot on Valentine’s Day last year. Watch it again.
April’s Trash Drag Spectacle in the Valley
Aprils Follies, the Mat-Su Valley spring drag extravaganza, is back by popular demand, this time with two shows: 6 and 9 pm on Saturday, April 2.
“A jammed-packed night of singing, dancing, and live entertainment from performers around Alaska and beyond, including mini fashion shows sponsored by Mila’s Gowns and Alterations and The Younique Boutique. The line up for the night is EPIC, with MC’s April Rains, Daphne DoAll LaChores, and Kristara!”
This is a fundraiser for the West Lakes Fire Fighters, and other charities that will be chosen by the audience.
“A MUST SEE VALLEY TRASH ALASKAN EVENT!!”
Aprils Follies: “A Valley Trash Drag Spectacle”
Time: Saturday, April 2 · 6-8pm and 9-11pm (doors open at 5:30pm and 8:30pm)
Location: The Rock Cafe (the old Mile 49 Cafe)
Parks and Pittman, mile 49 at the BJ Center
Meadow Lakes, AK
Tickets: $15 at the door
The first Aprils Follies in the Valley was in 2009. Read April’s adventures On The Way to the Follies.
Gov. Parnell, Choose Respect for All Alaskans
Today is Governor Sean Parnell’s Choose Respect rally against domestic violence, sexual assault and child sexual abuse. It’s an important cause, and members of the LGBT community will be there, some marching with rainbow sashes. But does Parnell respect LGBT Alaskans?
The website for Parnell’s Choose Respect project includes information on the marches, local resources for victims of abuse, and something called the Safe Homes Strong Families proclamation. [The proclamation is in bold, my comments are in italics.]
“The 2010 Public Safety initiative continues our commitment to establish safe homes and build strong families for all Alaskans.”
ALL Alaskans? Since I can personally verify that LGBT people live in Alaska, that means Parnell is committed to promoting safe homes and strong families for LGBT Alaskans.
“This year, we are addressing key elements to end exploitation and harm inflicted upon minors, seniors, and vulnerable adults.”
Gay and especially transgender Alaskans are at high risk for a variety of harms committed against us and we qualify as vulnerable, especially LGBT minors and seniors.
“The initiative proposes tougher punishments for crimes against seniors, harsher punishment for criminals accused of child exploitation, increased investigation of child exploitation cases, and enhanced enforcement for registered sex offenders.”
Parnell is a big fan of harsher punishments for crimes against vulnerable people, so tougher punishments for crimes against LGBT Alaskans is right up his alley! The Alaska Hate Crimes bill (SB 11) is currently stalled in the legislature, but I’m sure it will jump forward and pass quickly when the Governor assures everyone that he supports tougher punishments.
“These efforts, combined with the progress and partnerships we made this last year, draw us closer to shifting the tide against abuse, exploitation, harm, and fear that has gripped our communities.”
LGBT Alaskans know about the harm and fear that grip our community. The fear that we can be fired simply for being gay, the harm caused by public officials when they appoint people who say our very existence should be illegal… Oh, wait. (see below)
“Last year, my administration began a dialogue and awareness effort with the Choose Respect initiative. The Choose Respect initiative included increased funding for shelters,”
Good. In addition to the women and children who flee abusive husbands and need these shelters, some are fleeing abusive partners of the same sex. This should also include increased funding for homeless youth shelters, because abused youth often end up on the streets and LGBT youth are abused and kicked out of their homes at alarming rates.
“… harsher punishment for offenders,”
Again with the ‘harsher punishment’ for crimes against vulnerable Alaskans. He’s really going to love the Alaska Hate Crimes law!
“… increased VPSOs in villages,”
Good to see more funding for the Villages.
“… and hired the state’s first Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Coordinator.”
I hope the person Parnell hired for this position has a more realistic understanding of criminal behavior than his recent choice for the panel that nominates state judges. That appointee believes all sex outside of marriage should be a crime. (Really. See below.)
“The Parnell administration will continue to take action to protect the defenseless and establish safe, strong homes. Together, we can make Alaska safer.”
Yes, Gov. Parnell, together we can protect the defenseless gay and transgender young Alaskans who are kicked out of their family homes by unloving parents and out of housing rentals by bigoted landlords simply because they are LGBT. Together we can help to establish safe, strong homes for gay and lesbian couples and their children, with the same rights and responsibilities as heterosexual couples. Together we can choose respect and take action to make Alaska safer for ALL Alaskans. Yes!
Unfortunately, I don’t think he means that.
Last week, the state senate questioned Don Haase, recent president of the anti-gay Eagle Forum and Parnell’s choice for the panel that nominates state judges. Haase kept off his resume his leadership role in the extreme conservative group, but admitted that he thought sex outside of marriage should be illegal, saying, “I think that would be up to the voters… I can see legitimate reasons to push that as a crime.”
(The judicial panel only has three members of the public, and already has one far right member: Sarah Palin appointed Kathleen Tompkins-Miller, wife of tea party Senate candidate Joe Miller, to the council in 2009.)
Let’s put the pieces together on Don Haase – the person Sean Parnell wants to pick our state judges – and LGBT Alaskans: Leader of the Eagle Forum which pushes a strong anti-gay agenda, worked against the effort to allow same sex marriages in Alaska, worked to take away domestic partnership benefits for same sex partners of state employees, worked against hate crimes protections and non-discrimination laws, and clearly does not support even civil unions. So sex outside of marriage is a crime, and gay and lesbian couples must not be allowed to get married, therefore… consensual sex between two adults of the same gender should be illegal.
This is not the way to choose respect for all Alaskans.
Last year, Parnell flew to Colorado on state money to spend the day with Focus on the Family. He told them about his Choose Respect project and other ideas for Alaska. Why? He doesn’t need their approval to start a sexual assault and child abuse prevention program in Alaska. What would a corporation that sells harmful pray-away-the-gay workshops tell the governor of another state about his domestic violence project?
The hate watch site Good As You writes:
“Focus on the Family dedicates much time to keeping same-sex couples away from adoption, foster care, and a whole host of protections that strengthen LGBT families. And of course they work every day to deny a fair shake to gay kids and/or the kids of gay parents… [They] talk only about the kind of ‘strong family environment’ that’s defined by evangelism and heterosexuality.”
This is not the way to choose respect for all Alaskans.
Back on the Governor’s Choose Respect website, Parnell has strong words for Alaska:
“As a society – as Alaskans – we must change our practice of preserving silence. And, we must promote a culture of respect that will not tolerate this conduct.
The first step to prevention is raising awareness.
On March 31st, … I’ll lead a march from the steps of the capitol to raise awareness and call for a cultural shift. A shift towards honor and respect for all Alaskans.
… I am challenging all Alaskans to step up – to march forward into a new day, when Alaskans live with hope and opportunity, rather than fear and despair. Together, we can make a difference.”
He’ll call for a cultural shift towards honor and respect for all Alaskans… WOW. If only he meant that!
As for today’s Choose Respect marches:
“And you can join me at the point of the spear. We are having the second Choose Respect march here in Anchorage and across Alaska on March 31. Last year, 18 communities rallied; this year I set a goal of 40 communities participating. Think about what it means to be a survivor of domestic violence or rape or child abuse. Imagine what it will mean to see hundreds of people marching together to proclaim ‘Enough, already! We support you. You are not alone. You are not to blame.'”
Governor Parnell, please say that to Alaska’s gay and transgender youth who are abused by their families for being queer.
I can imagine what it means – can’t you? – to a young adult standing by himself in downtown Anchorage in late June, his first time at Alaska’s annual LGBT Pride Parade, he came out to his parents and now has to live at the homeless youth shelter, or maybe he hasn’t come out yet because he was beaten by his father for being a ‘sissy’ as a kid and he’s afraid of what his father will do. Or maybe it’s a young women at her first Pride Parade, she was raped by a cousin when he caught her kissing another girl, said if she told anyone then he would tell the girls’ families that they’re dykes. Yes, I can imagine what it would mean to them to see hundreds of people marching together to proclaim “Enough, already! We support you. You are not alone. You are not to blame.”
OK, Gov. Parnell. Put your money where your mouth is. Tell ALL Alaskans who have been abused, including LGBT Alaskans, that you support us and we are not alone. Show all Alaskans, including LGBT Alaskans and those who abuse us, that together we can break the silence and choose respect. Walk the talk: Be a role model for how to choose respect by choosing leaders who respect all Alaskans. Call for a cultural shift towards honor and respect for all Alaskans and encourage the legislature to pass Hate Crimes and non-discrimination bills that include sexual orientation and gender identity. Or start small and proclaim June 2011 as LGBT Pride Month in Alaska. Do it.
Stand at the point of the spear and choose respect for all Alaskans. And mean it.
