Tuesday, 19 January 2010 – 8:56 AM
| Comments Off on Prop 8 trial: pro-gay marriage republican mayor & live-blogging links
The court took a break in honor of Dr. King, and the trial resumes today with testimony from the Mayor of San Diego, a republican who supports gay marriage because he wants his lesbian daughter to be equal.
We may never see the actual trial, but a Los Angeles company is filming reenactments of the Prop. 8 trial using partial transcripts and first-hand accounts from bloggers. They hope to begin posting segments from the first week on Wednesday.
Live-blogging teams converged on San Francisco when the US Supreme Court blocked broadcast of the trial, and these amazing bloggers are typing hour after hour to keep the world informed of the proceedings.
Here are several good resources for live-blogging and analysis of the Prop 8 trial:
The Courage Campaign’s
Prop 8 Tracker has a live-blogging team, and posts nightly summaries with commentary.
Bilerico‘s Davina Kotulski is live-blogging with occasional commentary.
FireDogLake has been live-blogging the trial since the first morning. This impressive set of transcripts is a great resource for the media and anyone who has time to read the whole thing.
Karen Ocamb is posting about the trial at
LGBT POV, including reports from live-bloggers.
The
San Jose Mercury News was live-blogging from the first day with short summaries in place of word for word transcripts.
The bloggers and non-profits work for donations, so please show your appreciation for their efforts. If you have another favorite site for Prop 8 trial news, please add it in the comments.
Monday, 18 January 2010 – 8:59 PM
| Comments Off on Federal Job Site Ends Gender Identity Bias
If you are a transgender Alaskan looking for work, hundreds of local open positions are now more available to you: the federal government’s official job site added gender identity to the hiring nondiscrimination policy.
And if you’re a red-shirted local who thinks Alaska is not ready to protect transgender workers from job discrimination, it’s time to get ready for workplace diversity.
While the Anchorage effort for gay and trans protections dragged on last summer, the federal government was evaluating it’s employment practices. On Jan 5, gender identity was added to the equal-employment opportunity notices on
www.usajobs.gov, the federal job site.
Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said, “The largest employer in the country is doing what all the other large employers in the country are doing, so that’s really great news.”
The change brought criticism from social conservatives, who trotted out the same nonsense we heard in Anchorage: biology = destiny, trans people are faking it, and if we protect them from discrimination the sky will fall.
But the federal hiring practices are now trans-inclusive, and there are HUNDREDS of open federal positions based in Alaska.
The USAJOBS
search page currently lists 292 federal job openings in Alaska, but the Alaska page lists 881 results (the anywhere-in-the-US positions make up the difference.)
- There are currently 80 federal job openings based in Anchorage, 57 in Fairbanks, 23 in Juneau, 25 in Homer, etc. and others are listed for regions or the whole state.
- Almost all are full-time and many are permanent.
- They cover 21 fields, mostly science, engineering, office work and medical/health, but also business, finance, education, safety, communications, trades, transportation, and more.
- They represent 16 agencies, primarily Agriculture, Interior, the Air Force and the Army, but also Justice, Homeland Security, Defense, Transportation, and the VA…
Wait, what? Openly gay and trans people cannot serve in the military, but we can work for the military in civilian positions, even on base, and they can’t discriminate against us in hiring for those jobs. Well, that’s interesting.
OK, trans people looking for work in Alaska, head over to the
USAJOBS site and check out the options on the Alaska page. You’ll find all kinds of interesting jobs, and a shiny new trans-inclusive hiring policy.
Rachel Maddow covered the policy change following a segment on Amanda Simpson, the first transwoman appointed by Pres. Obama:
Sunday, 17 January 2010 – 7:53 PM
| Comments Off on Sara’s News Roundup 1/17/10
This week’s LGBT news roundup from Sara Boesser in Juneau, Alaska.
Alaska, Alaskans Together, January 2010
Cleveland, Ohio, Fox8.com, January 11, 2010
Anchorage, Alaska, Anchorage Daily News, January 9, 2010
News10Now, January 11, 2010
Texas, Boston Globe, October 9, 2009
South Korea, Advocate, January 3, 2010
U.K., 365Gay.com, December 24, 2009
London, BBC News, January 11, 2010
Calcutta, India, Calcutta News, January 11, 2010
New York, Gay City News, January 6, 2010
Washington, Huffington Post, January 15, 2010
Saturday, 16 January 2010 – 11:32 AM
| Comments Off on Straight Alaskans divorce more, despite gay ban to protect marriage
Divorce rates are dropping in states that allow same sex marriages and rising in states with gay marriage bans, according to a new study – and Alaska ranks dead last on both counts, with the fastest rising divorce rate in the country and the first gay marriage ban.
The study compared divorce rates between 2003 and 2008 to the gay relationship laws in forty-three states and the years the laws were passed. The author
explains the findings: (
my emphasis)
Over the past decade or so, divorce has gradually become more uncommon in the United States. Since 2003, however, the decline in divorce rates has been largely confined to states which have not passed a state constitutional ban on gay marriage. These states saw their divorce rates decrease by an average of 8 percent between 2003 and 2008. States which had passed a same-sex marriage ban as of January 1, 2008, however, saw their divorce rates rise by about 1 percent over the same period.
As is somewhat visually apparent, those states which have tended to take more liberal policies toward gay marriage have tended also to have larger declines in their divorce rates. In Massachusetts, which legalized gay marriage in 2004, the divorce rate has declined by 21 percent and is the lowest in the country by some margin…
On the other hand, the seven states at the bottom of the chart all had constitutional prohibitions on same-sex marriage in place throughout 2008. The state which experienced the highest increase in its divorce rate over the period (Alaska, at 17.2 percent) also happens to be the first one to have altered its constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage, in 1998.
The differences are highly statistically significant. Nevertheless, they do not necessarily imply causation. The decision to ban same-sex marriage does not occur randomly throughout the states, but instead is strongly correlated with other factors, such as religiosity and political ideology, which we have made no attempt to account for. Nor do we know in which way the causal arrow might point. It could be that voters who have more marital problems of their own are more inclined to deny the right of marriage to same-sex couples.
Interesting point. Alaska banned same sex marriage in 1998, claiming the ban would protect “the sanctity of marriage.” But Alaska’s heterosexuals are divorcing more than ever, and the state has high rates of domestic violence, rape and incest.
Maybe it wasn’t about the sanctity of marriage after all.
Saturday, 16 January 2010 – 8:37 AM
| Comments Off on No Name-Calling Week, Prof. Smoke on Matthew Shepard, & the Women’s Summit
Gay AK – notes for and from LGBT Alaska
No Sticks, No Stones, No Dissing
GLSEN’s No Name-Calling Week is January 25-29, 2010, a week of educational and art activities aimed at stopping name-calling and bullying in schools. The Creative Expression Contest is an opportunity for students to submit essays, poetry, music, original artwork, or other pieces that convey their experiences and feelings about name-calling, and their ideas for putting a stop to verbal bullying in their schools and communities. Lesson plans and other resources at
No Name-Calling Week.
Gale Smoke on Matthew Shepard
Professor Gale Smoke will review Judy Shepard’s book “The Meaning of Matthew, and a World Transformed” (Hudson Press, 2009) at this month’s Anchorage PFLAG meeting. Refreshments will be available and all are invited to the meeting at Immanuel Presbyterian Church on Jan. 21 at 7 p.m.
Anchorage PFLAG.
Alaskans Together announces new board and officers
Congratulations to the new board members: Heather Bayless, Kelli Burkinshaw, Shayle Hutchison, Miguel De Marzo, Verner Wilson, and Christopher Narvaez. For 2010, the new executive officers for the organization are as follows: Elias Rojas – Board President, Joseph Lapp II – Vice President, Kevin Kristof – Treasurer, and Miguel De Marzo – Secretary. We are happy to announce that ATE is now a member of the Equality Federation. Come and join in the fun and hard work by volunteering to serve on one of the committees, which meet monthly by conference call. There is room for you! Join
Alaskans Together.
Women’s Summit: Anchorage lunch 3/17 and Juneau conference 3/18 – 3/19
It’s time to sign up for the 2010 Women’s Summit on March 17-19. The theme for this year is “Interpersonal Violence in Alaska: Why Alaska Ranks at the Top, and Strategies for Success.” The keynote speaker is Rebecca Levenson, Senior Policy Analyst with the Family Violence Prevention Fund. Come listen, learn and network with other women from around the state. Rebecca will also speak at a luncheon in Anchorage on Wednesday, March 17, 12 pm at the Sheraton Hotel downtown, $35/person. A limited number of scholarships are available for the Juneau conference (for travel, lodging and registration) and are due by March 1. For those arranging your own travel and lodging, applications are due by March 10. The Women’s Summit is organized by the
Alliance for Reproductive Justice.
Tantric Wisdom for the Activities of Daily Living
Bird Trungma, Rinpoche, has moved her short essays on Tantric Wisdom to HubPages. She hopes you will keep reading them, and continue to enjoy and benefit from them. Her first essay tells her story of moving to Anchorage, almost leaving, then deciding to stay. Check out
Bird’s Tantric Wisdom.
Friday, 15 January 2010 – 6:47 AM
| Comments Off on Alaska Remembers Dan Cook (Cherresse)
Dan Cook, aka Cherreese, was an active member of the Imperial Court of All Alaska for many years before retiring to Oregon. He passed away from cancer at approximately 10 p.m. Alaska time on January 7, 2010. The funeral is tomorrow in Eugene, Oregon, and on February 20 the Anchorage gay community will host a local Celebration of Life.
Mikey LaChoy, Emperor 25, wrote:
“We are going to have a memorial of sorts for Wawa… the “All About Cherreesse – Wawa Party.” We’ll meet for WaWas [Cherreesse’s favorite drink] at the Raven for an hour from 6-7pm, then parade over to Myrna’s (Crowns and Gowns) and put on a fundraiser show as she would have wanted. Dress code: everyone wear white wigs!”
Princess Felicia in Eugene is creating a memory album (leave your remembrances as comments, and I will send them to her.) LaChoy began by sharing his photos and memories:
Alaska Greives for Mama WaWa
To our brothers and sisters in Eugene,
I would like to take a few minutes to share with you some of Dan Cook’s (Empress Cherresse) accomplishments in Alaska and some of our fond memories of him. Please bear in mind that we in Alaska may not be thinking clearly as we are grieving along with all those in so many places who have been touched by Dan during his great life.
As Cherresse said in a bio written for the Imperial Court of All Alaska’s 25th Anniversary, he felt a part of Alaska and its Court from the very beginning. Cherresse was at Alaska’s first Coronation representing Eugene as their first Empress. It was in that first visit that he fell in love with the state.
We are unsure of exactly what year Dan arrived in Alaska but we are sure he began making an impact right away. As manager of the Jade Room Bar, Cherresse started Alaska’s first weekly drag show and soon knew everyone.
Years later, Cherresse was elected Empress 18 of All Alaska and served with distinction through some very rough times in Alaska. He was always a trooper who showed up for any fundraiser to tread the boards in those distinctive boas… everyone knew Cherresse was in the house from all the feathers left wherever he went!
Dan was part of and helped many other organizations in Alaska raising charity funds for many causes. Of these, Dan’s pet organization was the Mount McKinley Non-Ascent Club which was a gay organization dedicated to enjoying Alaska’s great outdoors camping, fishing, hiking, etc. Eventually, when Dan’s roommates Bob and Gene DeLoach began building the “Triangle Ranch” on a lake north of Anchorage, Dan became the defacto Den Mother for the McKinley Club, Men’s Club, and many others.
Over the years Dan welcomed, fed, looked after, cleaned up after, and nurtured hundreds of young Alaskan gay (and straight) young men and women. Many of us have Dan to thank for being that mentor who showed us all how to get along with each other and love each other even when we want to kill each other.
This, I think, is Dan’s greatest legacy: of all the people I’ve talked to and all the time I knew Dan, the worst he was ever heard him speak of others (even when he was treated very badly) was “that little shit”, shake his head, and change the subject… and he would still smile that sweet smile when he said it. I hope we can all remember that about Dan Cherresse Cook and perhaps his legacy will be a happier community of loving, caring friends.
Ever in Peace, Love, and Unity
Emperor 25 of All Alaska
Mikey Wa LaChoy
Thursday, 14 January 2010 – 11:48 PM
| Comments Off on Prayer Vigil for Haiti at the Gay/Lesbian Community Center
Relief agencies are working around the clock to help the people of Haiti and are collecting donations to cover the costs of the massive rescue. Rainbow World Fund, an international relief agency based in the GLBTA community, has supported projects in Haiti since 2004 and accepts donations online or by mail.
In Anchorage, Church Life Alaska organized a prayer vigil, and responded to the un-Christian comments of Pat Robertson:
As the people of Haiti and the world struggle to comprehend the magnitude of the earthquake in Haiti, it is important for us to gather together and pray. Church Life Alaska is hosting a prayer vigil on Sunday at 11 a.m. in the Gay and Lesbian Community Center.
You may have heard the rubbish coming from Pat Robertson’s mouth about how he believes this is God’s punishment. We know that this is false, and we will pray for the people with love and understanding in our hearts, not ugly judgment. So please come and join us as we pray for a successful rescue and rebuilding effort.
The vigil will be followed by a community potluck, and donations will be collected for the relief efforts.
Contact Church Life AK for more information.
Today, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to forbid the public broadcast of this landmark civil rights trial, while in the courtroom, witnesses detailed the history of anti-gay discrimination in America and showed evidence of homophobia by the Prop 8 sponsors.
Days 2 and 3 of the trial focused on expert witnesses giving testimony and being cross-examined:
* Dr. Nancy Cott spoke on the history of marriage in America, including several changes in the definition of legal marriage.
* Dr. George Chauncey detailed the last 100 years of anti-gay discrimination in America.
* Dr. Letishia Peplak covered the similarities between gay and straight relationships, and why gay marriage will not harm heterosexual marriage.
* Prop 8 television ads, and letters from Prop 8 sponsors, were shown (or blocked) as evidence of the anti-gay motives of the sponsors.
The proponents of Prop. 8 seek to hide and obfuscate. They did not want their own ad played in court. They did not want documents from their own strategists to become public because the documents show clearly that their entire campaign was built on the decades of prejudice and fear that we heard about in detail yesterday from Prof. Chauncey. As Ted Olson keeps saying, their arguments do not hold up in public or in court. They only win when they can manipulate the media and the public, using scare tactics.
And they do not want the public to see the truth on television. They appealed to the Supreme Court, and the majority opinion said that no live broadcast will be allowed because it will cause ‘irreparable harm’ to the homophobes. The American Foundation for Equal Rights released a
statement in response to the ruling.
So it’s fine to hate on gays in television ads for months before a public vote to take away our rights, but they’re worried that the people who took away our rights will be harmed if the world sees them testifying on why they hate and fear us.
And they do fear us. At the trial, they keep arguing that they oppose our marriages because they need to ‘protect’ their children. But you don’t need protection against good or neutral things – you only feel the need to protect yourself from things you FEAR, whether or not the danger is real. Homophobia is an irrational fear or hatred of homosexuals, and their need to ‘protect’ themselves from gay people who are not harming them proves that they are afraid of us, irrationally afraid, and thus homophobic.
In one cross-examination, the marriage ban lawyers argued that anti-gay discrimination is gone because we have Barney Frank in Congress, plus the show ‘Will & Grace’ and the movie ‘Brokeback Mountain.’ (How can Brokeback be evidence that discrimination has faded? It shows anti-gay murders with no legal consequences and a gay man so afraid for his life that he never lives with the man he loves.)
The Prop 8 lawyers are pushing the same circular argument we saw in Anchorage against the equal rights ordinance: there is no anti-gay discrimination, so we should be allowed to continue discriminating against gays.
Let’s hope that Judge Walker recognizes the absurdity of the argument and comes to a conclusion based on the testimony and evidence, unlike Mayor Sullivan’s ‘popularity contest’ approach to civil rights.
Good live-blogs and daily reviews of the trial are HERE, HERE and HERE, along with updates on all your favorite queer sites and articles on mainstream news sites around the world.
Tuesday, 12 January 2010 – 2:01 AM
| Comments Off on Prop 8 opening arguments and testimony (Day 1)
The first marriage equality case in federal court began Monday morning with opening arguments, testimony from the couples, and a legal twist – the Supreme Court blocked broadcast of the trial until Wed. So instead of video clips, here’s a short review based on the written reports.
Ted Olson gave a strong
opening statement, saying that the Supreme Court has repeatedly described the right to marriage as “the most important relation in life” and “of fundamental importance for all individuals.” But Prop 8 took away that right for same sex couples.
Proposition 8 ended the dream of marriage, the most important relation in life, for the plaintiffs and hundreds of thousands of Californians.
Olson set out his argument against Prop 8:
First – Marriage is vitally important in American society.
Second – By denying gay men and lesbians the right to marry, Proposition 8 works a grievous harm on the plaintiffs and other gay men and lesbians throughout California, and adds yet another chapter to the long history of discrimination they have suffered.
Third – Proposition 8 perpetrates this irreparable, immeasurable, discriminatory harm for no good reason.
He explained each of the three points and concluded, “Proposition 8, and the irrational pattern of California’s regulation of marriage which it promulgates, advances no legitimate state interest. All it does is label gay and lesbian persons as different, inferior, unequal, and disfavored… It is unconstitutional.”
The opposition also made their opening statement, arguing that marriage is for procreation and, if gay marriage is legal, it will harm marriage for straight people. Nothing new here.
Each of the four plaintiffs testified: Paul Katami and Jeffrey Zarillo, a gay male couple from southern California, and Kristin Perry and Sandra Steir, a lesbian couple from northern California. They talked about the struggle to come out, their relationships, the Prop 8 campaign, why they want to marry and the second-class status of domestic partnerships. Only Katami was cross-examined.
Near the end of the day, Professor Nancy Cott began her testimony as an expert witness on the history of marriage in America. She discussed the public and private aspects of marriage, and showed how marriage has already changed more than once. She will return to the stand Tuesday morning when the trial resumes.
UPDATE: This morning, the US Supreme Court *blocked the public viewing of the trial* in other courthouses and on YouTube until they discuss it on Wed. The whole trial is being taped, but we may never get to see it.
——-
The trial challenging Prop 8 begins today in San Francisco. The case, Perry vs. Schwarzenegger, will decide whether or not California’s ban on same-sex marriage violates the U.S. Constitution.
Live broadcast of the trial will be shown only in federal courthouses in San Francisco, Pasadena, Portland, Ore., Seattle, and Brooklyn, N.Y. The rest of us can follow the updates from bloggers in those locations and wait until the end of each day for the video clips posted on
the court’s YouTube channel (which will become available when the first video is posted.) In addition to the video, the court created a
web site for legal updates on this case.
Legal foes Ted Olsen and David Boies have teamed up to represent the people challenging the ban. The lawyers will question two same sex couples – known collectively as Perry – experts, and other witnesses during the 2-3 weeks of the nonjury trial.
Although the case says it’s versus Schwarzenegger, the governor isn’t defending Prop 8. He said he’s neutral, and the state attorney general opposes the ban. So a religious coalition of Prop 8 sponsors is defending it. The main lawyer for their side is Charles Cooper.
The suit was assigned to Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, a 1989 appointee of President George Bush, Sr. Judge Walker has a reputation as a libertarian and a maverick on the bench, and expects his ruling to be appealed to the US Supreme Court either way. But for now, all eyes are on Walker’s San Francisco courtroom.
