Articles in University of Alaska
Savage Love Live in Anchorage: A photoessay
Dan Savage’s column today recounts how he “headed north last week to do Savage Love Live — a rapid-fire, slightly tipsy Q&A session — at the University of Alaska Anchorage. It was my third visit to UAA and it was a blast.” It was a blast for his audience, too.
Dan Savage & “Savage Love” return to UAA on February 9
Dan Savage, author of the wildly popular sex advice column “Savage Love” and cofounder with his husband Terry Miller of the It Gets Better Project, returns to University of Alaska Anchorage on February 9, 2012 with his honest and funny question and answer session on everything sexual. Tickets available at UAATix starting January 20.
Call for participants: Influences on LGBT Self-Identity research project
Heather Aronno of Alaska Commons is also a student at UAA, and is conducting a study on influences on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender self-identity. Please consider participating!
Alaskans celebrate the end of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
Alaskan soldiers & Senator Begich reflect on the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, which ended on Tuesday, and the LGBT community celebrates at two local events.
Gay in AK: LGBT in Anchorage and the State — a community panel at UAA Constitution Week 2011
As part of UAA Constitution Week 2011, University of Alaska Anchorage will present a community panel Friday, September 23 which will explore the issue of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender rights as it relates to the Alaska and United States Constitutions. The panel will feature leaders who have advocated for equal rights in front of Alaska’s courts, the Anchorage Assembly, and the University of Alaska Board of Regents.
University students take the lead
University students around the state are kicking into gear — with classes, but also with activities, organizing, and leadership development.
UAA celebrates DADT repeal on September 20
It’s not a post-DADT world yet, but it will be after September 20 — and University of Alaska Anchorage will be celebrating! Wear camo and join the UAA students and veterans as we celebrate the end of this discriminatory legislation. We’ll be at the Student Union with pizza and other resources.
Why September 20? It marks 60 days after the formal certification of DADT repeal by President Obama, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, and Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — and as passed by Congress, the repeal bill required that wait before DADT could finally end.
Other celebrations will be going on around the country: check Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) for details. If you’re in the service, see SLDN’s new guide to the post-DADT military, Freedom to Serve: The Definitive Guide to LGBT Military Service.
- Date/time: Tuesday, September 20, 2011
12:00 noon to 1:00 PM8am-11am - Location: UAA Student Union, 3211 Providence Drive, Anchorage, AK (see map)
- Further info: See SLDN event page
LGBTQA students ready for a new academic year at University of Alaska campuses
New and returning University students around the state are getting ready for a new academic year, and LGBTQA students are no exception. Students at University of Alaska campuses will be enjoying something they didn’t have this time last year: protection from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. University of Alaska Regents passed an amendment to UA’s nondiscrimination policy last February 18 after two periods of testimony at University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA).
Paula Poundstone: America is maturing on gay marriage
NPR is taping “Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me” live in Fairbanks on August 11 with panelists Paula Poundstone, Tom Bodett, and Adam Felber (sorry, it’s sold out.) Poundstone is also touring her own standup comedy show, although she’s not performing it in Alaska (darn!) OUTTAKE VOICES interviewed her after a recent show and asked about her tour, the NPR series and LGBT issues.
When asked what her personal commitment is to LGBT civil rights, Poundstone stated, “I think that I am an advocate of civil rights for all, I don’t know if it’s limited to one particular group. I am thrilled to death to see America maturing in the gay marriage arena. Although frankly, I’m not clear why anyone wants to be married, but OK.
I always thought that people’s argument against gay marriage has always been that it would somehow destroy the sanctity of marriage and I’m kind of a mind that whoever was in charge of the sanctity to begin with had kind of fallen asleep at the helm.
I think it is exciting to live in a time when things are changing. I’m really excited when my daughter who’s in high school tells me ‘you know so and so is gay.’ I just marvel. Not because her friend is gay but that it’s casual information.
It’s just when I was growing up, in high school, I was the class of ’77, of course there were many gays among my class, no one would ever have said so. Ever. So I think it’s thrilling and I try to emphasize that to my kids how lucky they are to be alive in a time when people can more or less be who they are.”
Paula is headed to Alaska to record the NPR hit weekly news quiz show, “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me”. Poundstone states “To have access to the NPR audience is pretty darn fun. They’re smart. They’re well informed. Not that I fall into either of those categories, by the way; less and less so as I grow older, in fact.” She adds that her appearances on NPR actually improve her stand-up act and vice versa.
Listen to the full interview on OUTTAKE VOICES. (There’s much more to it, the gay questions are at the end.)
To the lucky Fairbanks people who got tickets to the live taping – enjoy the show!
Choosing Alaska: Great community, but harassment at work is common
Why do you live in Alaska?
We recently posted a letter from a graduate student who grew up in Alaska, went outside for college, and is considering whether or not to return and start a professional career here. The student asked for advice from openly-LGBT Alaskans who returned after college. What is it like to be an out professional in Alaska?
Our readers responded, sharing their reasons for living in Alaska and their experiences as LGBT people here. Some grew up in Alaska, others moved here as adults. Some live in the cities, others in small towns or the Bush. Some are Native, some are not. We’re posting their stories together in a new series called Choosing Alaska.
The first response was from Alaskan Amber who began college outside but returned to study at UAA and work in Anchorage.
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I did not graduate from a university out of state but rather I went out and came back during college. I went to Salem, Oregon to Willamette University my first year. I found a very liberal community with professors who were more concerned with their own research and success than their students no matter what issues or topics their students raised. I found a community of people who were very accepting as long as you agreed with them. I was not ready to confront my family about being gay and I did not want to make myself “look lesbian” as the Gay student club there wanted their members to look. I was essentially shunned for this. I returned to Alaska to go to UAA and I found the opposite here.
Alaska as a whole is more conservative but the community at UAA and the Anchorage LGBTQA community embraced me to the point that I consider many of its members family. They supported me for who I am and did not push me beyond my comfort zone. They did encourage me to expand my comfort zone which allowed me to talk to my biological family after time. I have been working here in Alaska since the day I returned from Oregon.
Every environment I have been in has contained coworkers that were blatantly against the LGBT community. In some of the environments in larger corporations this was revealed in passing statements regarding something on the news or an upcoming event that was discussed in the break room. In the smaller environments, such as the family run law office I worked in for over two years, the coworkers have been much more harsh and rarely addressed if addressed at all for their hatred and inappropriate comments while on the clock. The comments turned into hateful actions toward me in two offices. One office it was immediately addressed and never occurred again. The other office, the aforementioned law office, the coworker’s behavior was only addressed once even though I complained to management multiple times and I finally ended up quitting. She is still employed at the office.
Some environments are totally accepting and there are no issues even if coworkers are hateful. It depends on the management and whether they are both accepting and willing to step in if necessary.
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Thanks, Amber!
What is your experience of being LGBT in Alaska? Leave a comment below, or email us directly at Bent Alaska @ gmail .com (without the spaces), and we will include your response in a follow up post. And if you have another topic you’d like to see on Bent Alaska, please tell us about it!
