Articles in Anchorage
AO 64 Passes – Call Mayor Sullivan Today
Assembly PASSES Ordinance 64!
The Anchorage Assembly passed Ordinance 64(S-2) tonight, voting 7-4 to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the city’s non-discrimination policies. Coffey’s resolution to commission another study of LGBT discrimination, instead of passing the ordinance, failed.
“We are thrilled that the Assembly gave us a majority vote and passed version S-2,” said Jackie Buckley, spokesperson for Equality Works. “We are looking forward to Dan Sullivan doing the right thing and making it economically safer for our families.”
Ordinance 64(S-2) will protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people against discrimination in housing, employment, finance, education and public accommodations in the Municipality of Anchorage.
Many LGBT residents and allies gave testimony to the Assembly on the need for protection, including several who risked their jobs to testify. A series of supportive testimony is posted on Bent Alaska.
The Assembly held 6 public hearings on Ordinance 64 this summer, because anti-gay leaders encouraged opponents from as far away as Wasilla to testify on the Anchorage ordinance, to delay the vote until after Mayor Sullivan took office on July 1.
Mayor Sullivan has not stated a position on the equal rights ordinance that was introduced three months ago. However, Sullivan ran on a conservative platform, took anti-gay positions as an Assembly member, and is likely to veto the ordinance.
This is the third time Anchorage has tried to pass protections for gays and lesbians. Each time, the right-wing religious groups organized against us and threatened to unseat Assembly members who voted for the protections. Mayor Sullivan’s father, then-Mayor George Sullivan, vetoed one of the ordinances.
At least 108 cities have trans-inclusive non-discrimination laws, including El Paso, TX, Kansas City, MO, Gainesville, FL, and Columbia, SC. In addition, 13 states and Washington, D.C. have LGBT non-discrimination laws.
Will Anchorage join those cities and protect its residents against anti-LGBT discrimination, or will Mayor Sullivan tell the world that Anchorage will continue to allow discrimination?
Contact Mayor Sullivan today and ask him to let Ordinance 64 become a law! Call (907) 343-7170 or (907) 343-7100, or email him at mayor(at)muni(dot)org.
YOU in BLUE, Today at the Library
Bob Poe on the Equal Rights Ordinance and the Value of People
Coffey Ignores Evidence, Calls for Yet Another Study
“The State of Alaska Human Rights Commission—an unbiased agency—declared nearly twenty years ago that the State Legislature should pursue a statute banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation [Resolution 90-01]. The case has already been made. It is time for our representatives to act.”
Of the 734 respondents to One in 10:
- 61 percent reported being victimized by violence and harassment while in Alaska because of their sexual orientation;
- 39 percent reported discrimination in employment, housing, and loans/credit; and
- 33 percent reported discrimination from services and institutions.
From the “Closed Doors” component of Identity Reports:
- 31 percent of the 191 employers in the survey said they would not hire or promote, or would fire, someone they had reason to believe was homosexual.
- 20 percent of the 178 landlords in the survey said they would not rent to, or would evict, someone they had reason to believe was homosexual.
From the “Prima Facie” component of Identity Reports:
- 84 actual instances of antigay bias, discrimination, harassment, or violence (including three murders) were recorded involving 30 men and 21 women. 64 of the cases we documented were in Anchorage.
- Victims were predominately gay men or lesbians, but also included heterosexuals who were erroneously assumed to be gay or lesbian.
The public policy of the municipality is declared to be equal opportunity for all persons.
More about Dan Coffey’s task force resolution, starting with the text of the resolution itself:
- AR NO. 2009–186. “A resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly authorizing a citizen task force to review the nature and extent of discrimination based on sexual orientation and the potential for conflict with constitutional rights.” Submitted by Assembly Member Dan Coffey for reading August 11, 2009.
- 8/6/09. “Coffey says city needs gay rights task force — NO DELAY: But backers and critics want to see assembly vote on proposed ordinance” by Don Hunter (Anchorage Daily News)
Incidentally, Don Hunter’s ADN story is incorrect in stating that there are “three versions of the original sexual orientation ordinance” for consideration by the Anchorage Assembly. In fact, there are four versions: on July 23, Assembly Member Patrick Flynn announced on his blog that he had written a new draft, version S-2.
Here are all four versions of Ordinance 64:
- AO No. 2009-64. Original draft submitted on behalf of then-Acting Mayor Matt Claman, for reading May 12, 2009.
- AO No. 2009-64 (S). First substitution version submitted on behalf of then-Acting Mayor Matt Claman, for reading June 9, 2009.
- AO No. 2009-64 (S-1). Second substitution version submitted by Assembly Chair Debbie Ossiander, for reading June 16, 2009.
- AO No. 2009-64 (S-2). Third substitution version submitted by Assembly Member Patrick Flynn, for reading August 11, 2009.
This Week in LGBT Alaska 8/7/09
Juneau
SEAGLA Social Fridays (6-8 p.m.) for GLBT people and our friends over 21, at The Imperial Bar, downtown.
Fairbanks
Ducal Ball 2009 – A Fetish Ball 8/8, doors open at 7 p.m., show at 8 p.m., to elect a new monarch for Fairbanks. Pioneer Park Civic Center. Fun, food, entertainment, and fetish-friendly attire (no nudity.) $15 at the door, 18 and older. (18-21 in a separate area.)
PFLAG Booth at the Tanana Valley State Fair 8/7-8/15. Volunteer at the booth for a 2-hour shift and enter the Fair free for the whole day. Email Mike to volunteer or visit Fairbanks PFLAG for more info.
Parks Hwy
Ever Ready at the Talkeetna Bluegrass Festival 8/7, 4-5 p.m. Mile 102 Parks Hwy, Talkeetna.
Mat-Su Valley
Mat-Su LGBT Community Center in Palmer is open M-F 5-8 p.m. (except 6-8 on Wed.) The social group meets Wednesdays, 5-6 p.m. at Vagabond Blues.
Anchorage
Compassionate Communication Workshops for Parents and Anyone Working with Children 8/6-8/8, 6:30-9 p.m. T-F, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat.
Side Street Saturdays, an informal meetup for LGBT writers, at noon in Side Street Cafe.
Friday Night Divas Variety Show benefit for The Roscoe (Pet) Fund 8/7, 9p.m. $5, followed by Karaoke with Paige. Saturday DJ Mad Mike 8/8 at 11 p.m. Both at Mad Myrna’s.
Irina Rivkin performs 3 nights in Anchorage: Organic Oasis on Saturday August 8, at 7 p.m. Midtown Studio concert on Sunday August 9, at 7:30 p.m. with an optional audience-participation live-looping piece, 6407 Brayton Drive, $5-15 sliding scale. Tap Root Café on Monday August 10, from 7:30-8:30 p.m.
Sunday worship and monthly potluck with MCC Anchorage, 2 p.m.
TLFMC Potluck meeting & social 8/9, 6 p.m. at Mad Myrna’s.
Transgender Support Group, Sundays 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the GLCCA.
Assembly meeting and possible Ordinance 64 vote, Tuesday 8/11, 1st floor of Loussac Library, meeting begins at 5 p.m but come early for a seat inside. Wear blue.
Anchorage Frontrunners, Tuesdays, 6 p.m.
August 11th Assembly Meeting: YOU in BLUE
Tim’s testimony: The research is clear
Good evening. I live in Anchorage, I’m 52 years old and I’m gay, and I make no apologies for that. EVER. But what’s wrong with being gay anyway? Absolutely nothing.
The research on homosexuality is very clear:
Homosexuality is neither mental illness nor moral depravity. It is simply the way a minority of our population expresses human love and sexuality. Study after study documents the mental health of gay men and lesbians. Studies of judgment, stability, reliability, and social and vocational adaptiveness all show that gay men and lesbians function every bit as well as heterosexuals.
This is from The American Psychological Association’s “Statement on Homosexuality” from way back in July 1994.
The Church also teaches understanding and compassion toward gay and lesbian people. In their 1976 statement, To Live in Christ Jesus, the American bishops wrote, “Some persons find themselves through no fault of their own to have a homosexual orientation. Homosexuals, like everyone else, should not suffer from prejudice against their basic human rights. They have a right to respect, friendship, and justice. They should have an active role in the Christian community.… The Christian community should provide them a special degree of pastoral understanding and care.” In 1990, the U.S. National Conference of Catholic Bishops repeated this teaching in their instruction, Human Sexuality.
When I discussed this ordinance with my family who lives in the Deep South, I was surprised at a comment I received from my sister-in-law, a woman who lives in rural North Carolina. She wrote “this is about fundamental decency towards each other and if one doesn’t have that type of basic respect for another human being, all of the religion and political views in the world are meaningless.”
Before I run out of time I would like to state that I enthusiastically support Ordinance 64. Please vote YES…. all 11 of you!
Obviously some disagree with me and I’d like to address a few of their objections:
Including sexual orientation as a protected class, grants “special rights” or privileges to gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. This is factually incorrect because the legislation protects every person without exception, whether they are heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual or, sometimes, asexual.
Including sexual orientation will criminalize any religious speech that presents homosexuality as a sin. This is factually incorrect because in the U.S., speech attacking a minority group is protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. Hate-crime legislation does not inhibit speech, it only is applicable if a violent crime has first been committed such as attempted murder, assault, aggravated assault, etc.
Including sexual orientation as a protected class is invalid because such classes must be reserved for innate, unchangeable, unchosen factors in a person’s life, like race, skin color, sex, degree of permanent disability, etc. This is not a defensible argument because religion has traditionally been included in hate-crime and human rights legislation. One’s faith identification is certainly changeable and chosen. Also, according to the vast majority of mental health therapists, human sexuality researchers, the Roman Catholic Church, liberal faith groups and some mainline faith groups, sexual orientation is neither changeable nor chosen.
Sexual orientation and gender identity may be words that cause unease or fear for individuals who have not studied the issues, and this is exactly why major civil rights changes usually come from legislatures, judges, or executive decree rather than by popular vote.
Take slavery for example. Late in the 17th century, Leander, a Roman Catholic theologian wrote:
It is certainly a matter of faith that this sort of slavery in which a man serves his master as his slave, is altogether lawful. This is proved from Holy Scripture…It is also proved from reason for it is not unreasonable that just as things which are captured in a just war pass into the power and ownership of the victors, so persons captured in war pass into the ownership of the captors… All theologians are unanimous on this.
Is it difficult to guess what a “vote of the people” would have decided about abolishing slavery in those times?
On women’s right to vote: In March 1884, Rev. Professor H. M. Goodwin wrote in the New Englander and Yale Review, Volume 43, Issue 179:
Before committing ourselves to one more radical and irremediable error, and plunging blindly into this gulf of women’s suffrage, it will be well to pause and see whither we are going, and what this new movement, or ‘reform’ really signifies; whether it rests on a true principle or a shallow and pleasing fallacy, and whether its results are likely to be beneficial or disastrous. This whole movement for female suffrage, is, at least in its motive and beginning, a rebellion against the divinely ordained position and duties of woman, and an ambition for independence and the honors of a more public life; as if any greater and diviner honor could be given to woman than those which God has assigned her; as if the sanctities of home and the sacred duties of wife and mother, with all their sacrifices, were not a higher sphere and a truer glory—a glory she shares with the world’s Redeemer—than the vulgar publicity of the polls and speech making, or the campaigning, or even the Senate and the bar.
Were women allowed to vote in 1884? In some places yes, but in many places not until the Nineteenth Amendment was passed by Congress and ratified by the states in 1920.
It was only 42 years ago — on June 12, 1967 — that the U.S. Supreme Court knocked down a Virginia statute barring whites from marrying non-whites. The decision also overturned similar bans in 15 other states. Since that landmark Loving v. Virginia ruling, the number of interracial marriages has soared; for example, black-white marriages increased from 65,000 in 1970 to 422,000 in 2005, according to Census Bureau figures. Factoring in all racial combinations, Stanford University sociologist Michael Rosenfeld calculates that more than 7 percent of America’s 59 million married couples in 2005 were interracial, compared to less than 2 percent in 1970.
Opinion polls show overwhelming popular support, especially among younger people, for interracial marriage, but that’s not to say acceptance has been universal. Bob Jones University in South Carolina only dropped its ban on interracial dating in 2000; a year later 40 percent of the voters objected when Alabama became the last state to remove a no-longer-enforceable ban on interracial marriages from its constitution. The US Supreme Court, not a vote by the majority of citizens, is what has allowed several of my friends to be married today.
So in summary, your YES vote on Ordinance 64 will help ensure that ALL citizens of Anchorage are treated fairly, equally, and without discrimination. Thank you.
Mike’s testimony: I will fight for liberty
Like Kat, author of yesterday’s testimony, Mike is a young adult who spoke in favor of the ordinance. Bent Alaska is happy to report that many Anchorage youth support LGBT equal rights. — Editor
* * *
As a fantastic orator, Mark Hamilton, once said, “Responsibility means that if you have the ability to respond, then you have the responsibility to speak.” I will take a moment to remind all present of the words in our great Constitution, “That all persons have the natural right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and are equal and entitled to equal rights, opportunities, and “protection under the law.”
The essence of this matter is not what one religion or what one advocacy group feels, but whether We, as Alaskans, can allow inequality to persevere. Denial of the rights of an entire minority is beyond morally reprehensible. It is something I cannot, in good conscience, sit idly by and watch happen in my city.
I want to make it clear: I do not seek to force or push my opinion on others, merely to be free from their persecution against myself, against my brothers and sisters, against our children, and yours.
The protection of a minority from the tyranny of a majority is one issue each and every Alaskan ought to be proud of. I won’t ask you for Liberty; I will scream for it, from the mountaintops, from city hall, from the steps of your courtrooms.
I will fight for Liberty because I know better than most that Freedom is not Free, and because it is the American thing to do. I urge you to vote “yes.”
I would like to end with a quote from one of my first letters to the Editor of the ADN, as it is still pertinent today:
The religious right would like to resort to ad-hominem attacks on us and other illogical counters to our arguments. Well, frankly all this religious hoopla has no place in a secular argument; it doesn’t matter what your Bible says in a debate over how the laws of our country (or city) ought to be. What matters is right and wrong, and that their oppressive policies and limitations on our God-given freedoms are wrong.
Kat’s testimony: Don’t be silenced
Editor’s Note: This is Kat’s testimony and post-testimony comments, exactly as she shared them. Anchorage is lucky to have eloquent young adults like Kat, willing to stand up and be counted.
* * *
i won’t take up much of your time since what i have to say will not take long. but i do thank the assembly for granting me these few moments.
i have lived in and around anchorage since i was 4 years old.
i have tremendous pride in my state and in my city and i had no intention of testifying when all of this began. indeed, i waited until i had reviewed the testimony already given in it’s entirety. what i saw was a great deal of prejudicial speech that proved exactly why these laws were needed. i also saw a great deal of pain and fear from those pleading with you, the assembly, to protect them.
i’m here today in the place of those who would otherwise have no voice. these people are silenced because the law does not protect them. basic needs like housing, employment and loans would be stripped from them for standing where i am now.
i’m extremely dismayed that our city has allowed religious leaders to dictate our laws and how our laws are written like their own personal theocracy for quite a few decades.
i think it is time for our assembly to take a stand and use their elected positions as public servants to protect all the people of our city and not give special rights of discrimination to certain groups.
i believe that rights are not just tokens to be doled out on a whim, but are the foundation for what our fore fathers delivered to us in the act of ultimate personal sacrifice.
i urge you to consider what has transpired and how it is viewed by the people.
we depend on our elected officials to protect the rights of minorities, as the majority would just as soon trample them. we depend on you to do what is just. we depend on you to protect the rights of all the citizens of Anchorage.
you have the voice.
please don’t be silenced.
* * *
At first i wondered if they would even get to my name that night. when suddenly, dozens of names were being called and no one went to speak, my heart pounded in my chest.
then my name was called.
my legal name.
and i went to the front. i waited as the gentleman before me finished speaking. supporters on both sides of me urged me forward. step after step, i approached the podium.
i set down my purse.
and i said my name.
my legal name.
for the record.
my voice wavered and tears nearly stopped me. but i knew that those supporters where behind me. i knew they were silently cheering me on.
i finished with a steady gaze into each assembly members eyes as i spoke those last few words. i wouldn’t have had the strength to do that without the energy of those behind me.
when i was through, i thanked the assembly and turned to walk away. i nearly ran. i didn’t make it all the way out before i had to sit down at the back of the chamber to catch my breath. my hands shook and my pulse choked me.
but i have never been so proud of myself.
because i will be able to tell my children and my grandchildren that my name is on that record as someone who stood on the side of a government that doesn’t kneel to the whims of religion, and of love without conditions.
