Articles in Commentary
An unfundamentalist Christian’s view of the Anchorage equal rights election
Bent Alaska is glad to share the following post about the April 3 Anchorage election by John Shore, a nationally recognized author, Christian humorist, and LGBT ally.
In aftermath of April 3 election, Anchorage LGBTQA community remains strong
Shannon Sanderson reports on how the LGBTQA community is responding to the apparent failure of Proposition 5: “We’ve built a stronger and more tolerant Anchorage, and we know we have farther to go.”
Nature v. nurture
Okay….we’re going to play the game of choice vs. not a choice…or if you will, nurture vs. nature. Because I’ve seen a lot of nonsense circulating the web of how “those people” “choose” to be gay. Or transgender. Or whatever.
A child of Anchorage Baptist Temple says: Vote for the children — Yes on 5
RJ Haywood was raised in the Anchorage Baptist Temple, where he once underwent their attempt to exorcise “the demon of homosexuality” from him. He survived and now lives happily as a gay man in Anchorage, with a message for Anchorage voters: Yes on 5.
The time to do the right thing is now: Yes on 5
“I dream of a day when I can show my future children how far we’ve come in the simple arena of basic human rights. I strive to make this day a reality before I’m old and bitter about the way my government has ignored my cries for equality.”— Bent Alaska is glad to have Colleen Crinklaw as a voice in our community.
Occupy Language: On the meaning of “occupy”
Annie Muse comments on use of the word occupy, jumping off from a December blog post (“What if We Occupied Language?” 21 Dec 2011, nytimes.com), in which H. Samy Alim wrote, “Occupy Wall Street has occupied language, has made ‘occupy’ its own…. What if we transformed the meaning of occupy yet again?”
Community Building for Alaska: The possibilities of every person
Several members of the Alaska LGBT community recently attended Community Building for Alaska sponsored by the Alaska Community Foundation & Alaska Pacific University, joining other Alaskans from throughout the state in a two-day program in experiential education on how to build community. We welcome one attendee, Shannon Sanderson, as a new contributor to Bent Alaska.
Equality in Anchorage: What’s it mean? Who gets to decide?
What does “equality” for LGBTQ people in Anchorage mean? Who are the “stakeholders” and “allies” in the process of trying to gain it? These are some of the questions guest blogger Maxine Doogan is asking about the Anchorage LGBTQA Town Hall meeting to be held Wednesday evening in Anchorage.
Trans driver license lawsuit: Privacy & equal protection
Jillian T. Weiss, J.D., Ph.D., analyzes the legal issues of privacy and equal protection in the ACLU’s brief in K.L. v. State of Alaska, which involves Alaska DMV’s denial of a transgender woman’s driver’s license with a correct gender marker without proof of a surgical sex change.
Who writes Alaska’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)?
Alaska DMV based its refusal to put the correct gender marker on a transgender woman’s driver’s license on Alaska’s Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) D-24. Just who wrote SOP D-24, and what kind of review did it get before being used to make decisions affecting people’s lives?
