A long-overdue Bent Alaska update — October 2013

The noise begins

It’s no big surprise that Jerry Prevo of the Anchorage Baptist Temple plans to battle AO-64, the Anchorage equal rights ordinance. Prevo was also a vocal opponent in the earlier attempts to establish equal rights in Anchorage in the mid-1970s and in 1992-1993.

Against discrimination in Anchorage

Anchorage Assemblymember Patrick Flynn posted on his blog [Sunday] morning that an ordinance to bar discrimination based upon sexual orientation or veteran’s status in the Municipality of Anchorage would be introduced at tonight’s Anchorage Assembly meeting.

Celebration Tickets, Team Alaska for Gay Games, and June Pride 09

This Week in LGBT Alaska 5/8/09

Juneau

SEAGLA Social Fridays (6-8 p.m.) for GLBT people and our friends over 21, at The Imperial Bar, downtown. 

Emma’s Revolution in concert, Pride Chorus opens, Wed. 5/13, 7:30 p.m. at the Juneau Arts & Culture Center.

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. Harmony Choir meets at the Center on Thursdays, 6:30 p.m.

Anchorage

Family Activity Gathering 5/8, 6 p.m.

Side Street Saturdays, an informal meetup for LGBT writers, beginning 5/9, at noon in Side Street Cafe.

Sunday worship and monthly potluck with MCC Anchorage, 5/10, 2 p.m.

Transgender Support Group, Sundays 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the GLCCA.

Anchorage Frontrunners, Tuesdays, 6 p.m.

Anchorage gets a homophobic mayor, New England gets gay marriage

Where to Find GLBT Alaska – Travel Businesses

Visitors, residents and travel professionals want to know where to find LGBT-owned and LGBT-friendly Travel and Tourism Businesses in Alaska. The current list is below.

Do you want to include your Travel and Tourism Business on Bent Alaska’s free Travel Business list? Do you know a gay-owned or gay-supportive travel business that should be here? Please leave a comment below the list or contact Bent through the address in the right hand column.

Disclaimer: This list is not an endorsement or recommendation for the businesses, only a recognition that they are owned by GLBT Alaskans and our Allies.

The main list of Businesses in Alaska is here: Where to Find GLBT Alaska – Business List.

Bent Alaska’s resource list for Alaska’s GLBT organizations, groups and publications remains one of the most often visited pages on the blog. There is also a list for GLBT Alaska’s Annual Events, and Seasonal and Recurring Events.

Alaska’s LGBT Travel Resources

Fairbanks
Tim Stallard
Out in Alaska
Alaska Adventure Travel
P.O. Box 82096
Fairbanks, AK 99708

Anchorage

Earth Bed & Breakfast
Hosts: Lori & Angel
1001 W. 12th Avenue
Anchorage, AK 99501
Phone: 907-279-9907
Fax: 907-279-9862

Arctic Fox Inn
327 E 2nd Court
Anchorage, AK 99501
907-272-4818
(toll free) 877-693-1239

A Wildflower Inn
1239 I Street
Anchorage, AK 99501
907-274-1239
(toll free) 877-693-1239

City Garden B&B
1352 W. 10th Ave.
Anchorage, Alaska 99501
Phone: (907) 276-8686
Fax: (907) 276-2358

Copper Whale Inn
440 L Street
Anchorage, AK 99501
(866) 258-7999
(907) 258-7999

Alaskan Leopard B&B
16136 Sandpiper Drive
Anchorage, Alaska 99516
Toll Free: 1-877-454-3046
Local: 907-868-1594

Mat-Su Valley

Karen Harris
Alaska Garden Gate B & B
950 S. Trunk Road
Palmer, AK 99645
(907) 746-2333

Juneau

The Silverbow Inn
Inn, Bakery, Catering, Cinema, Gallery
120 Second Street
Juneau, AK 99801
(907) 586-4146
(800) 586-4146
Fax (907) 586-4242

Haines

The Guardhouse Boarding House
PO Box 853
Haines, Alaska 99827
Phone: 907-766-2566
Toll free: 1-866-290-7445

Lima Beans for Croft, the Equality Candidate

• “I believe and have always believed that people should be free to choose their life partner and have that recognized by the state,” Croft wrote in a recent email to Alaska GLBT News. “I will continue to fight for and vote for equality.”
• Croft fought against and voted against the gay marriage constitutional ban in the Legislature in 1998.
• “In the House debate, I compared the gay marriage ban to constitutional bans in southern states against interracial marriage, and told my colleagues that we as a state would be embarrassed by this amendment. We lost. In the decade since, I have always been proud of that vote. I am today.”
• On partner benefits, he told the ADN the Supreme Court was right to allow benefits for same-sex couples.
• “I don’t understand why two people expressing their love for each other affects my marriage,” said Croft in 2006. Eric and Joanna have been married for 15 years.
• When asked if he thinks people choose to be gay: “I don’t care. It’s none of my business, really,” Croft said. “I grew up in an Alaska where you didn’t really inquire too much into people’s personal lives.”
• “At one mayoral forum, they asked us to hold up a green or red card on gay marriage and I held up the red signifying that I knew of the constitutional amendment. I did not mean that my position had changed.”

• Dan tried to block implementation of domestic partnership benefits in Anchorage, against the Supreme Court ruling. (we got the benefits despite him.)
• He lead the opposition against selling a municipal building to Out North as their new home. (they bought it anyway.)
• He opposed the School Board over a PFLAG-sponsored display in the high schools.
• He promoted a religious right-wing agenda on the Assembly.
• He doesn’t have lips. (I admit that my partner sent that reply. It’s a pet peeve. How can you trust a lip-less man?)

This Week in LGBT Alaska 5/1/09

Juneau

SEAGLA Social Fridays (6-8 p.m.) for GLBT people and our friends over 21, at The Imperial Bar, downtown. 

Femme Fatale, 5/1 at 8 p.m. and 5/2 at 9 p.m. annual Juneau show and fundraiser for Four A’s.

Rainbow Highway Cleanup with PFLAG & SEAGLA 5/2, 10 a.m.-noon

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. 

Harmony Choir meets at the Center, Thursdays 6:30 p.m.

Anchorage

Graze to Raise 5/1, meet the Identity Team at 5:45 p.m. in the Dena’ina Center.

Sunday worship with MCC Anchorage, 4/26, 2 p.m.

Transgender Support Group, Sundays 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the GLCCA.

BBQ Potluck 5/2, 4-8 p.m. in Sisterhood Park.

Industrial Gothique Fashion Show 5/2, 9 p.m.-11 p.m. at Mad Myrna’s.

Alaska Rainbows monthly dinner 5/2, 5 p.m. Colleen.

Anchorage Frontrunners, Tuesdays starting 5/5, 6 p.m.

GLSEN Alaska chapter meeting 5/7, 7-8 p.m. at the GLCCA.

The ICP Ball: End of a Reign

In a week, I will step down as the Imperial Crown Princess of All Alaska, and someone else will step up and begin anew. For a while now I have been regretting this event. It will signify an end to what has been evolving for me in this role, and has exploded into an incredible experience I don’t want to end. A lot of what has unfolded had something, but not everything, to do with being Princess. 

For the past several weeks, I’ve been working like a dog Monday morning through about noon on Friday, then slipping into a skirt and lipstick until the new work week begins. In some ways, it’s an escape from my reality as a male, while in other ways it’s just a pure expression of myself as a multifaceted and talented person. As the years have evolved, what was once a rare Friday night outing in a skirt by myself, has become a fully intergrated part of who I am. The days of changing last minute in some out of the way bathroom are over. Now I’ll leave the house mid-day for the whole world to see and I won’t care. Where I was once paranoid that someone would find out where I lived or who I was ‘out of face’, now it seems the whole world knows. Where I was just another confused cross-dresser, now The Diva April Rains is becoming as prominent as her male counterpart.

I’ve walked through stores and people have complimented me, stood in front of several hundred neighbors, associates and friends as they cheered at the end of “April’s Follies”, spoke with folks who say awesome things about performing in the Friday Night Diva’s show, and stood there humbly as Sherry Vine and Joey Arias acknowledged me during their show. These are all circumstances I never knew I’d get to experience. 

For months now, emails have come in from men in circumstances similar to mine years before, where fear, disgust, self-hatred and confusion rule their lives. They want to get out of their bedrooms and experience the real world. How do they do that? How do they talk with their wives, kids, and friends about their “secret”. They are relieved to know they are not alone, but realize that it’s a journey of self discovery to find who they are at the core of their being. This has little to do with being gay, straight, bi or any need to have sexual re-assignment surgery or take hormones. They have simpler questions, like what bathroom to use at a club, how to cover a beard, where to find shoes and hair, and so much more.

If anything, being the ICP presented a unique route for me to be more open and visible about who I am as a person. It took a role I thought was a “fantasy” and interjected it into dead center of reality. A role where I attended meetings for the corporation of the Court recognized as a female, but blended it with my male experiences to help make real world business decisions. A role where my male community recognition as a builder, fire fighter, dog musher, dad, and partner allowed me to meet with other local business owners and associates as a female, to garner support for a first-ever Valley fundraiser.

As the big weekend draws closer, what I felt was an end is in fact a new beginning. The end of the 16th ICP Reign will occur, as the 17th reign steps up and another very unqiuely talented and creative person hopes to make some positive changes during her reign. While my title as Her Most “Not So Sweet, 16th, Valley Trash, Imperial Crown Princess of All Alaska” will be entered into the lineage of the Court, my title as “The Valley Trash Baroness of Big Lake” will remain … and that’s a title I have yet to develop.

This Week in LGBT Alaska 4/24/09