A long-overdue Bent Alaska update — October 2013

Wear Purple today for Gay Youth

It’s been decided. On October 20th, 2010, we will wear purple in honor of the gay boys who committed suicide in recent weeks/months due to homophobic abuse in their homes and at their schools.

Purple represents Spirit on the LGBTQ flag and that’s exactly what we’d like all of you to have with you: spirit. Please know that times will get better and that you will meet people who will love you and respect you for who you are, no matter your sexuality.

Please wear purple on October 20th. Tell your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors and schools.

RIP Tyler Clementi, Asher Brown, Seth Walsh, Justin Aaberg, Raymond Chase and Billy Lucas. You are loved.

This is not only for these 6 young men, but for all teenagers who have lost their lives due to bullying and abuse.

Transgender health care workshop in Anchorage, Wed. Oct 20

Unions oppose anti-worker (& anti-gay) Rep. Mike Kelly *Vote for Bob*

[O]rganized labor takes issues with Kelly’s work to eliminate Alaska’s defined benefit pension plan for state workers, as well as his votes against outlawing mandatory overtime for nurses, raising the state minimum wage and providing presumptive disability benefits for firefighters.

“In short, Mike Kelly has been no friend to working families,” Beltrami said.

Following a few chants of “Vote him out,” the union members from the Local 1547, Local 942, teamsters, carpenters, Alaska Public Employees Association and other groups went door-to-door to campaign for Kelly’s opponent, Democrat and TV anchorman Bob Miller.

Juneau sales tax discriminates against same sex partners

A tax exemption policy on the City and Borough of Juneau’s books technically violates the Alaska Constitution, and Assemblyman Jonathan Anderson wants it corrected.

He addressed the assembly on Friday and presented the problem and two ways of fixing it.

The city code allows senior citizens to apply for an exemption to the sales tax. Their “spouses” who are under age 65 are allowed the same benefit.

Anderson said that’s where the language is unconstitutional, and cited ACLU vs. State and Municipality of Anchorage, a 2005 Alaska Supreme Court case. Alaska state law prohibits same sex marriages, but on the same token the tax exemption benefit can’t exclude domestic partners or folks who can’t get married, the state’s top court ruled then.

“The law says you can’t exclude people on basis of marriage when one group is excluded from getting married,” Anderson said in an interview. “To make our code constitutional, we need to add ‘and same-sex partners.'”

The other option to fix the issue of violating the state constitution, is for the city to no longer offer a sales tax exemption for all senior citizens.

Anderson noted the city already addressed this issue in other portions of its code, including establishing rules for providing benefits for domestic partners of its employees.

City Attorney John Hartle said he had reviewed the information and found Anderson’s assessment to be correct.

Hartle said if the assembly chooses to go the route of inserting the language “or same-sex partners” it will have to be sure similar documentation standards are implemented as with married couples.

“I will suggest what is probably apparent,” said Assemblyman Bob Doll. “What we really want to do is insert the language, ‘or same-sex partners’ and proceed that way.”

The finance committee will review the code amendment issue at its November meeting.

“The assembly will have to decide do we remove it entirely or do we provide it for same sex partners,” Anderson said in an interview.

Sara’s News Roundup 10/17/10

City Councilman Joel Burns: It Gets Better

UA retired professor on coming out in the sciences

Early Oppression Led to a Happy Life in the Sciences

Becoming a minister was my first career goal but the clash between being gay and the church killed that intention. At the same time—age 16—being gay also got me kicked out of my parent’s house. In high school I had won science fair awards, prompting the military to persistently recruit me, so with the seminary door closed I decided to become an officer. Military college tuition and benefits were a tantalizing opportunity for a teenager on his own with no money … but while actually filling out the induction papers at the recruiting station I discovered I had the option to either lie about being gay and be in, or be honest and be out. I chose to be out—in more ways than one. The remaining career path on my list? Science. I worked my way through university in part by serving food to military-funded students and washing their dirty dishes, yet am still glad I did not lie. A life in the sciences has worked out so much better!

Internships and field studies with the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies, Indonesian Institutes of Ecology and Parasitology, and in industry led to decades of work on a diverse range of fascinating and rewarding projects. Human ecology in Java, mariculture in Ecuador, agricultural research in New Jersey and California, health science education and disease prevention projects in Alaska and Nepal. At some junctures being gay in the sciences has meant hitting a glass ceiling, no doubt about it; for example, the same year I ultimately won a national award I was conspicuously passed over at the state level in Alaska. There has been definite progress over the years, though, thanks in large part to the efforts of NOGLSTP working with AAAS and other professional associations.

As with being LGBTIQ, being a scientist is as much—if not more—a privileged perspective and invaluable approach to perceiving and understanding the world than how one is defined by professional employment or simply by the nominal fact of for whom one feels affection. Whenever I work with students I have them draw a scientist; they usually draw a man in a lab coat pouring chemicals or peering through a microscope. Especially with LGBTIQ youth, I know I have been successful when at the end of the course I ask them again to draw a scientist and they draw a smiling self-portrait. Out and proud career role models for LGBTIQ youth have too long been restricted to hairdressers, dog groomers, and positions in the arts.

Our youngest recently graduated from high school and flew the nest for university; with her away my partner and I decided to retire. We moved from Alaska to Hawaii, where I am beginning work with some local efforts on rat lungworm, dengue fever, and other emergent and resurgent tropical diseases as well as with FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders). Overall, life as a gay man in the sciences these past decades has been good; thanks to folks like you being out and proud I expect the outlook for our children and students to be even better.

Alaskans speak out on National Coming Out Day

Alaska is 13th state to join anti-marriage appeal

A dozen states joined marriage opponents in their desperate appeal of the federal court decision that declared California’s Prop 8 unconstitutional, even though Gov. Schwarzenegger supports the ruling and the opponents may not have legal standing to appeal. Now Alaska has become the 13th state to join the appeal. From Alaska Dispatch:

According to the Catholic News Agency (via the Anchorage archdiocese’s Catholic Anchor), Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan has submitted a brief, joining Alaska with 12 other states, in support of California’s Proposition 8. The measure, which is currently the subject of litigation in front of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, would formally define marriage in the state [of California] as a union between one man and one woman. Read much more, here. At first, Alaska Beat was surprised we hadn’t seen a press release from the Department of Law about this filing, but then we realized the measure doesn’t seek to define marriage as a union between one beluga whale and one Steller sea lion.

When the states originally joined the appeal, only 9 states were listed and I was relieved that Alaska was not one of them. But that was before the primary election. Now Gov. Sean Parnell is facing Ethan Berkowitz in the general election and he wants the far right behind him. Cue the Attorney General to join the appeal.

Parnell visited the anti-gay Focus on the Family this summer, and billed the state of Alaska for his travel expenses to their Colorado headquarters. Did Focus support Parnell’s campaign in exchange for promises to push an anti-gay agenda, like joining the Prop 8 lawsuit? What other anti-gay actions will he pursue if elected?

Vote for Berkowitz & Benson for Governor & Lt. Governor!

Federal Judge: Stop Enforcing "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell"

TO ALL PARTIES AND THEIR ATTORNEYS OF RECORD:

This action was tried by Judge Virginia A. Phillips without a jury on July
13-16 and 20-23, 2010. The Court filed a Memorandum Opinion on
September 9, 2010 (Doc. 232), and an Amended & Final Memorandum
Opinion, and Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, on October 8, 2010.
For all the reasons set forth therein, the Court:

(1) DECLARES that the act known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” infringes
the fundamental rights of United States servicemembers and prospective
servicemembers and violates (a) the substantive due process rights
guaranteed under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and
(b) the rights to freedom of speech and to petition the Government for redress
of grievances guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States
Constitution.

(2) PERMANENTLY ENJOINS Defendants United States of America
and the Secretary of Defense, their agents, servants, officers, employees,
and attorneys, and all persons acting in participation or concert with them or
under their direction or command, from enforcing or applying the “Don’t Ask,
Don’t Tell” Act and implementing regulations, against any person under their
jurisdiction or command;

(3) ORDERS Defendants United States of America and the Secretary of
Defense immediately to suspend and discontinue any investigation, or
discharge, separation, or other proceeding, that may have been commenced
under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Act, or pursuant to 10 U.S.C. § 654 or its
implementing regulations, on or prior to the date of this Judgment.

(4) GRANTS Plaintiff Log Cabin Republicans’ request to apply for
attorneys’ fees pursuant to the Equal Access to Justice Act, 28 U.S.C. §
2412; and

(5) GRANTS Plaintiff Log Cabin Republicans’ request to file a motion
for costs of suit, to the extent allowed by law.