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Sunday, 6 October 2013 – 5:19 PM | Comments Off on A long-overdue Bent Alaska update — October 2013

Bent Alaska’s blog will continue in hiatus indefinitely; but the Bent Alaska Facebook Group on Facebook is thriving — join us! A long-overdue update from Bent Alaska’s editor.

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Obama proclaims June as LGBT Pride Month, asks Americans to "promote equal rights"

Tuesday, 2 June 2009 – 3:23 PM | One Comment
Obama proclaims June as LGBT Pride Month, asks Americans to "promote equal rights"
On June 1, President Obama proclaimed June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month and declared his support for “the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans,” including “outlawing discrimination in the workplace,” the subject of the proposed Anchorage equal rights ordinance.
“During LGBT Pride Month, I call upon the LGBT community, the Congress, and the American people to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.”
The Anchorage Assembly can answer President Obama’s call to action by passing the Equal Rights Ordinance this month!
———-
The full statement from the White House:
LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER PRIDE MONTH, 2009
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
Forty years ago, patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn in New York City resisted police harassment that had become all too common for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Out of this resistance, the LGBT rights movement in America was born. During LGBT Pride Month, we commemorate the events of June 1969 and commit to achieving equal justice under law for LGBT Americans.
LGBT Americans have made, and continue to make, great and lasting contributions that continue to strengthen the fabric of American society. There are many well-respected LGBT leaders in all professional fields, including the arts and business communities. LGBT Americans also mobilized the Nation to respond to the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic and have played a vital role in broadening this country’s response to the HIV pandemic.
Due in no small part to the determination and dedication of the LGBT rights movement, more LGBT Americans are living their lives openly today than ever before. I am proud to be the first President to appoint openly LGBT candidates to Senate-confirmed positions in the first 100 days of an Administration. These individuals embody the best qualities we seek in public servants, and across my Administration — in both the White House and the Federal agencies — openly LGBT employees are doing their jobs with distinction and professionalism.
The LGBT rights movement has achieved great progress, but there is more work to be done. LGBT youth should feel safe to learn without the fear of harassment, and LGBT families and seniors should be allowed to live their lives with dignity and respect.
My Administration has partnered with the LGBT community to advance a wide range of initiatives. At the international level, I have joined efforts at the United Nations to decriminalize homosexuality around the world. Here at home, I continue to support measures to bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans. These measures include enhancing hate crimes laws, supporting civil unions and Federal rights for LGBT couples, outlawing discrimination in the workplace, ensuring adoption rights, and ending the existing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in a way that strengthens our Armed Forces and our national security. We must also commit ourselves to fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic by both reducing the number of HIV infections and providing care and support services to people living with HIV/AIDS across the United States.
These issues affect not only the LGBT community, but also our entire Nation. As long as the promise of equality for all remains unfulfilled, all Americans are affected. If we can work together to advance the principles upon which our Nation was founded, every American will benefit. During LGBT Pride Month, I call upon the LGBT community, the Congress, and the American people to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.
BARACK OBAMA

Words for Equality

Tuesday, 2 June 2009 – 2:53 PM | Comments Off on Words for Equality
Words for Equality
[Editor’s note: Mel compiled this great list of links to written fact and opinion pieces in support of the Anchorage equal rights ordinance. I’d like to add that there is television and radio coverage as well, involving speakers from Equality Works and Metropolitan Community Church of Anchorage, plus supportive letters to the editor by LGBT Anchorage-ites and our allies every day in the ADN. The public hearing for the ordinance is June 9 at Loussac Library.]
—————
On Tuesday, May 12, 2009, an ordinance was introduced in the Anchorage Municipal Assembly which would prohibit discrimination in employment, housing, financial practices, public accommodations, and education on the basis of sexual orientation and veteran status — adding these two classes to those already included in Title 5, Anchorage’s equal rights code: race, color, sex, religion, national origin, marital status, age, and physical or mental disability.
One week away from ordinance testimony & possibly an Assembly vote. Time to write those letters to the Anchorage Assembly, if you haven’t already done so.
Meanwhile, here’s a list — as comprehensive as I’ve been able to make it so far — of blog posts & opinon pieces favoring equality.  I’ve compiled a list of pieces that are anti-equality too, but see them on my Equality page — I don’t want to give them another link here.  And please do tell me if I’m missing anything.

Anchorage equal rights ordinance

Proposed ordinance

Facts about the ordinance (as opposed to lies)

Blogs & opinion pieces

Henkimaa.com

Bent Alaska. Your best single blog source for news & events in the Alaska LGBT community.

  • Follow the tag Ordinance for all ordinance-related posts.

Other blogs.  Various other Alaska blogs have also posted news/commentary related to the ordinance, including  Celtic Diva’s Blue Oasis, Progressive Alaska, Shannyn Moore: Just a Girl from Homer, Elise Sereni Patkotak, The Immoral Minority, What Do I Know?, Christ Our Savior Lutheran Grace Notes, The Alaska Commons, The Mudflats, and Mamadance.

The Truth about Trans Employees

Monday, 1 June 2009 – 9:16 AM | Comments Off on The Truth about Trans Employees
The Truth about Trans Employees
Alishia is a firefighter. Enoch is a university professor. Dana is a software engineer. Jesse is an HIV prevention educator. Each makes invaluable contributions in the work place and in the community. And each faces the threat of losing a job, being denied housing or health care, and suffering violence and harassment simply for being transgender.
In Everyone Matters: Dignity and Safety for Transgender People, Alishia, Enoch, Dana, and Jesse talk about their jobs, their family, their hopes, and their worries. Framed by hope and optimism, their stories nevertheless show how vulnerable transgender people still are, and highlight the need for comprehensive laws to ensure that people can obtain and retain employment, remain safe on the streets, and have access to health care and housing.
Everyone Matters allows the viewer to hear from transgender people first-hand about their lives, and makes a powerful case for the passage of transgender-inclusive anti-discrimination and hate crimes laws.
Please watch this important video:

Focus on the Facts: Myths and Facts about the Ordinance

Saturday, 30 May 2009 – 11:27 AM | 3 Comments
Focus on the Facts: Myths and Facts about the Ordinance

 

Fear has long played a significant role in efforts to oppose movements for equal rights in our country. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, those who objected to the suffragist movement stoked fears that if women were granted the right to vote they would lose their “natural” feminine qualities. In the 1950s, Jerry Falwell argued that integration would destroy the white race. And today in Anchorage, there are allegations that by ensuring that our city protects lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Alaskans from discrimination in employment and housing, we will somehow unleash a virtual tsunami of disruptive and illegal behavior that will threaten the safety of women and children. 

Fear is an understandable human reaction to the prospect of change. However, it important that in considering Anchorage’s future and the kind of city we should strive to be, that we base our decisions on facts—not unfounded & unproven fears. To this end, Equality Works would like to focus on the FACTS of the proposed ordinance to update Anchorage’s equal rights law to include LGBT people. 
On the Nature of the Ordinance
A common misinterpretation of the proposed amendment is that it will grant Anchorage’s LGBT citizens rights that no one else has. The reality is that Anchorage already has a nondiscrimination law. It protects people from discrimination on the basis of age, disability, marital status, nationality, sex, race, color, and religion in the realms of employment, housing, public accommodations, financial services, and municipal business. Anyone who suspects that they have been discriminated against on any of these bases can file a complaint with our Equal Rights Commission, which by law is empowered to investigate, mediate between parties, or pursue legal action depending on the situation. However, because sexual orientation is not included in that list of protected classes, the Equal Rights Commission is not allowed to investigate such cases of suspected discrimination. 
Supporters of this ordinance are only asking that sexual orientation be included in the list of protected classes for a law that is already on the books. So when opponents argue that it will grant LGBT people “special rights,” they are misrepresenting the ordinance itself—which is simply amending a law that already exists—and intentionally or unintentionally misleading the public. 
Nothing “special” is being created or added that will apply to LGBT people alone. Equality Works believes that ALL persons should be treated equal in the public sphere. 
On the Effects on Business, Workplace, & Our Community
While much has been made out of how the proposed ordinance would alter workplace behavior, Anchorage’s nondiscrimination law has never prohibited businesses from establishing standards of conduct and behavior suitable for the marketplace and other professional settings as long as those rules of conduct are equally enforced. We doubt that the majority of Fortune 500 companies, including some with a local presence—such as BP, Alaska Airlines, and Wells Fargo—would have voluntarily adopted internal policies to protect people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation/gender identity if those policies were proven to be bad for business or to result in increased rates of workplace misconduct. On the contrary, these corporations understand that LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination policies help to recruit and retain a more diverse, talented, and productive workforce. 
No clause in the proposed ordinance requires an employer, business owner, or realtor to tolerate anyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, who behaves in an inappropriate, disruptive or unprofessional manner, including in a restroom or other facilities. 
On Individual Religious Rights & Religious Institutions
The Bill of Rights promises every American the freedom to practice their religion and express their opinion without persecution. These promises are two of the building blocks of our democracy. The Municipality of Anchorage recognizes those rights by including “religion” as a protected class in its nondiscrimination laws. This means it is illegal to discriminate against an individual because of their religious beliefs. The current law also includes language that allows churches and other religious organizations to limit access or admission to those who share their beliefs. 
The Equality Works coalition is made up of people from a variety of spiritual backgrounds and we would never propose a law that infringes on our freedom of religion. At the same time, we believe that no one should be denied employment, refused public service, or denied a lease simply because the proprietor doesn’t agree with the partner they’ve chosen to spend their life with. It’s a matter of mutual respect. 
 On Gender Identity/Expression
In the proposed ordinance, sexual orientation is defined as “perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, or gender expression and identity.” As used in this definition, ‘gender expression and identity’ means having or being perceived as having a self-image, appearance, or behavior different from that traditionally associated with sex assigned to that person at birth.
While sexual orientation is the phrase used to describe people’s primary attraction, gender identity refers to a person’s internal sense of being male or female, regardless of their sex assigned at birth. And gender expression refers to how people express that identity. In many cases, when people are perceived to be gay or lesbian, it is not because they have “come out” or have been seen with a partner of the same-sex. They are perceived to be lesbian or gay because they express their gender identity different from what is traditionally expected. A gay man can be harassed for being gay without ever telling his coworkers that he is—and so can a straight man who isn’t deemed sufficiently “masculine.” This is one of the reasons why it is important to protect people from discrimination on the basis of their gender identity/expression–because no one—straight or gay—should be treated unfairly in work or the public sphere because they don’t conform to rigid stereotypes. 
Equality Works believes the small minority of transgender people in our community whose gender identity does not match that of the sex they were assigned at birth deserve protection. They are people who have served in our military, who drive our taxis, who have children and families to provide for and they are no less deserving of employment and housing than anyone else. While some in our community try to paint transgender people as a dangerous threat, transgender men and women are far more likely to be the targets of violent harassment and discrimination than those who would refuse them equal opportunity under the law. 
Every civil rights law creates some discomfort in a workplace.  Title VII discomfited those who did not wish to work with women, racial minorities or people of other faiths.  The Americans with Disabilities Act required employees who felt uncomfortable around people with disabilities to nonetheless come to work and do their jobs. By revising the city’s non-discrimination laws to include sexual orientation and gender identity, the Anchorage Municipal Assembly is making the policy determination that the ability of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people to have equal access to employment and public accommodations will make Anchorage a better place to live and work.
Conclusion
Decisions regarding the fate of our city should be made based on accurate information, not on misinterpretations and exaggerations rooted in fear. The Equality Works coalition is committed to participating in an honest and respectful dialogue in hopes of building a broad base of support for our efforts to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Alaskans from discrimination. We believe that if all interested parties make the same commitment our community can emerge from this vital discussion with a greater respect for our diversity, a better sense of the values we share, and pride in being leaders in Alaska when it comes to protecting all our residents and workers from unfair treatment.

Celebration Art Show, Pride Week Events & "Oh the Things Mommies Do!"

Friday, 29 May 2009 – 8:19 AM | One Comment
Celebration Art Show, Pride Week Events & "Oh the Things Mommies Do!"
Gay AK: Notes from LGBT ALaska

Homer PFLAG decided to make a float for the local July 4th parade this year, so Alaska will celebrate LGBT Pride in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau AND Homer this summer.
Write to your Assembly members, RSVP for the June 9th Hearing
Have you written to your Assembly members yet? If not, please write or call today. If you don’t live in Anchorage, please contact friends who do and ask them to call or write for you. Will you be at the hearing on June 9th? Please RSVP with Equality Works. Have Questions or Concerns? Email Tiffany McClain or visit Equality Works.
Alaska-raised illustrator co-authors “Oh the Things Mommies Do!”
Crystal Tompkins and her partner Lindsey Evans, who grew up in Anchorage, are self-publishing a new LGBT children’s book, “Oh The Things Mommies Do! What Could Be Better Than Having Two?” a celebration of Lesbian Mothers and their children. “Oh The Things Mommies Do!” is a “bouncy and playful look at the joys of a two Mom family. With its catchy rhymes and vibrant illustrations, it is a pleasure for children and parents alike.” Lindsey was raised in Anchorage, attended Bartlett High School and was a student at UAA. “Oh the Things Mommies Do!” will be available in June.
Radical Woman Award nominations due 5/30, CoC Art Show entries on 6/3
The Radical Woman Award honors women who have made significant contributions to the GLBT community in Alaska. Please nominate a wonderful woman and send a short paragraph highlighting her contributions to Radical Arts for Women by 5/30. The winner will be announced at Celebration of Change. Female visual artists are invited to submit their work for the Celebration of Change First Friday Art Show, 6/5-29 at the Kodiak Bar and Grill. Drop off entries on 6/3 after 3 p.m. The 25th Anniversary show of Celebration of Change is at the Wilda Marston Theatre at 7 p.m. on June 13. Tickets for CoC are available now at Metro, or the GLCCA on Tuesdays & Thursdays.
Anchorage PrideFest seeks Volunteers
More volunteers are needed to be Parade Route Marshals for the parade, and for setup and tear down for the Festival on Saturday, June 20. If you can volunteer your time and energy please email the GLCCA. Congratulations to M.E. Rider and Jill Ramsey, editors of the Grrlzlist, who are the Anchorage PrideFest Parade Grand Marshals for 2009. Check out the many Pride Week events, download the vendor, performer and contingent applications, and read about M.E. and Jill at Anchorage PrideFest 2009.
Drag Queen Bingo and Pride Week with Four A’s
Four A’s is hosting several events for Pride Week 2009. Adam and Steve’s Annual Drag Queen Bingo Fundraiser is on Thursday, June 18, 7 p.m. at Snow City Café. All proceeds go to the Adam and Steve HIV Prevention program for young gay and bisexual men. The Bingo includes a silent auction and a drawing for everyone who dresses in drag. Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 at the door. Join Four A’s annual marching unit at the PrideFest Parade on Saturday, June 20th. This year’s theme will be Mission Possible: Know Your Status and we will be dressing in camo and promoting HIV testing. National HIV Testing Week is June 20-27th. Free HIV testing will be offered all week, including during PrideFest. For more info, visit Four A’s.

Couple Loses All in Anchorage Fire

Thursday, 28 May 2009 – 7:07 PM | Comments Off on Couple Loses All in Anchorage Fire
Couple Loses All in Anchorage Fire

Garfield and Alvin lost everything in the Spenard apartment building fire on Memorial Day, and Mad Myrna’s is hosting a benefit show for them on Friday, May 29 at 9 p.m., and setting up a barrel to collect donations.

“They literally got out of this with the clothes on their back. Sadly, both of their cats died in the fire,”reports their friend Bear. “One of the guys was at work when it happened. The other was asleep and neighbors woke him up and got him out of the apartment.” 
“They need everything. There is a barrel at the bar so people can drop things off there any time.”
A list of suggested donations includes money, canned food, clothing (large & XXXL), pots and pans, linens, furniture and other household items. If there are donated items that they can’t use, Bear will pass them on to other needy people in the community. 
The Friday night benefit will donate money from the Divas show, the door charge, and a special halibut dinner by Lola’s.
People were in seven of the 10 apartments when the fire broke out, said Kelly Hurd, spokeswoman for the American Red Cross of Alaska. One unit wasn’t rented and residents of two other units weren’t home.
The fire started outside a stairwell on the first floor and raced up to the second floor in the 10-unit building. An investigator is looking into the cause. 
Two of the apartments were destroyed and residents lost everything, Hurd said.
Please help Garfield and Alvin get back on their feet after this terrible loss. Donate items at Mad Myrna’s, or email Bear at this address to make donations.

Churches have ‘special’ rights, gays don’t

Thursday, 28 May 2009 – 7:52 AM | 4 Comments
Churches have ‘special’ rights, gays don’t
Elise Patkotak wrote another great ADN column in support of the Anchorage non-discrimination ordinance, Unlike gays, church has its ‘special’ rights:
According to Jerry Prevo’s letter to the editor in Sunday’s paper, his main problem with the city’s proposed ordinance protecting homosexuals’ civil rights is that it would allow men to dress as women for work. Hmm … isn’t that what Milton Berle did on his TV show in the ’50s? And didn’t Tom Hanks get his start as a cross-dresser in a sitcom? Then, of course, we have J. Edgar Hoover — there was a man who knew how to make a dress pop.
I erupted in laughter upon realizing his main objection to this ordinance is his belief that if passed, gay men would blanket the workplace with skirts, heels and makeup. He also apparently believes it authorizes gays to be sexually promiscuous with pornography during work hours. Tough luck for all those straight guys out there who found their company blocked access to porn on their work computers. If this ordinance passes, they’ll apparently have to find a gay friend who is willing to share his screen.
In all seriousness, am I the only one who read that relatively bizarre letter and thought, as the Bard so eloquently once wrote, “Methinks the lady doth protest too much.”
Fear mongering under any guise is a hateful and nasty way to try to hurt someone who is different from you. The Nazis did it with the Jews. America did it after 9/11 with Muslims. The confederate states did it with blacks — it wasn’t all that long ago that a black man looking at a white woman was given a death sentence in many parts of the American south. And now some people are trying to use it on gays in Anchorage under the guise of Christianity.
Most mail I received in response to last week’s column supported my position, though some did so with clear limits and reservations. Many stated that Jerry Prevo simply did not really represent Christianity. A lot of people said that while they didn’t understand how someone could be gay, and maybe could never support the concept of gay marriage, they didn’t hate gays and felt their civil rights should be protected. All in all, most letters were thoughtful ruminations on what is clearly a difficult issue for many people.
But as always, there were the haters. They were the ones who substituted “ph” for “f” in the spelling of some words in order to get it by any obscenity filter I may have on my e-mail account. Many were little more than rants that made it clear I’d be going to hell to spend eternity with all the gays I was protecting. They quoted the Bible to ensure I understood they were speaking with authority. After reading those letters, I think hell would be a much safer option for me.
Jerry Prevo is entitled to his opinion because this is America. And Jerry Prevo and his following have the right to keep gays out of their church, again because this is America.
For his followers who wrote me in a rage because I support “special” rights for gays and they want to know where their special rights are, I suggest they look at the tax exemptions their church has — not only for the church building itself, but for just about any property it owns. They should check into how this ordinance specifically allows them to follow their beliefs and discriminate against gays if they wish. That’s a special privilege. In fact, probably the greatest specially protected entity in this whole country is its churches. They don’t pay taxes and they won’t have to follow this ordinance.
Contrary to Prevo’s fears, most gay men are not standing in their doorways dressed in drag waiting for the moment they can go to court and try a case in a lovely skirt and blouse ensemble. Most have families, bills and pets and live a stable life. And the more flamboyant part of the gay population no more represents the majority than the drunks, druggies and prostitutes you read about every day in the paper represent typical Alaskans.
This world is already filled with groups who hate each other. Why would anyone claiming to be Christian want to add to that?

Prop 8 again

Wednesday, 27 May 2009 – 10:26 AM | Comments Off on Prop 8 again
Prop 8 again
A few months ago, a slim majority of California passed Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California after five or six months of it being legal.  Since then, we’ve been waiting for the California Supreme Court to decide upon the measure’s legality under the California constitution.
Today, by a vote of 6 to 1, the justices upheld it.
I can’t say I’m surprised.  Nor, however, am I particularly demoralized: I think we’ve already begun seeing a sea change. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, Maine… New Hampshire is close, New York not far behind. Things are starting to go the other way. And younger voters overall favor equal rights, while older voters who don’t are gradually dying away.  As one person commented in one of my online communities,

This will be a pyrrhic victory [for opponents of marriage equality]. The 20-somethings are for gay marriage by a 3-1 or more margin. You’ll see a reversal on Prop 8 within 5 years with a 55-45 vote at least. It is a lot better when it happens through the political process than from the courts (e.g. abortion). I realize this is no solace for those who have to wait.

I couldn’t have said it better myself. And note that the later states in which same-sex marriage is being established are all establishing it through the political process.
Meantime, it was of some comfort that the 18,000 same-sex marriages that took place in California during the brief period of marriage equality were ruled, in the same decision by the California Supreme Court, to be valid.  It delighted me to know that Artemis & Lori, whom I met last November during an Anchorage protest of Prop 8, just a few days after their wedding in Palm Springs, California, are still recognized as having a valid marriage — at least, in California.
After work today, I bussed downtown to join the small protest of the California Supreme Court’s decision.  Like the one last November, this one was held at the Atwood Building in downtown Anchorage.  It was organized more or less at the last minute, so there were only a few people present — a total of seven during the time I was there, before I had to get home to take care of the dog.  But it was good to be there anyway, & to get at least a few honks from supportive passers-by.

Related:

18,000 Marriages are Upheld, but Not One More

Tuesday, 26 May 2009 – 11:46 AM | 2 Comments
18,000 Marriages are Upheld, but Not One More
Mo and Lin of Juneau were legally married in San Francisco City Hall on Sept. 15, 2008, exactly eighteen years after their original (non-legal) wedding. Today’s California Court decision means they are allowed to remain married, although other same-sex couples will not be able to legally wed in California.
The California Supreme Court today upheld Proposition 8’s ban on same-sex marriage, and also ruled that gay couples who wed before the election will continue to be “married” under state law. A statement from Alaskans Together for Equality and the link to the Anchorage protest information was posted earlier.
Many Alaskan same-sex couples were married in California last year when the marriages were legal, and were waiting to hear if the court would divorce them. Other couples were hoping they would be able to get married in California this year.
Conservative groups that support the ban are angry that the 18,000 couples married before the election can stay married.
On Oct. 5, Mo and Lin held a Jump the Broom wedding reception in Juneau, and their friends created a Human Arch of Love and Acceptance for them to walk through. Then Mo and Lin joined hands and raised their arms as part of the Arch, and other couples walked through.

 

“We may need to do that Arch of Love and Acceptance again and again, letting it grow until all are included and equal in our nation,” wrote Mo after the reception. “Perhaps we can have arches of love and support all over our state in 2009, or all over our nation.”
Here are photos of the Arch of Love, the Newly-wed/Oldy-wed Game, the 3-tiered cupcake tower, and Mo & Lin dancing at the Juneau reception after their California (still-legal-today) wedding:

Lin responded to today’s CA court decision: “It’s a sad day for fairness and equality but I take heart from many things. Fair-minded people are planning for the next step toward full equality. I take heart from Meghan McCain’s recent words (paraphrased), “Republicans believe in fairness and equality and I believe that supporting gay marriage is part of our platform.”
Mo is in California today and plans to attend the Day of Decision action in Santa Barbara tonight. She sent this response:
I will use Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words here among mine, my hero of civil rights introduced to me by my Father in the 60’s.
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
Now is the time for us all to work together, harder than before to change this injustice.
“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”
Let us stand together, let me hear YOU!
“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”
Good people please join us, and let us be the change we wish to see in this world.

CA’s Prop 8 Upheld (for now)

Tuesday, 26 May 2009 – 9:25 AM | Comments Off on CA’s Prop 8 Upheld (for now)
CA’s Prop 8 Upheld (for now)
The California Supreme Court today upheld Proposition 8’s ban on same-sex marriage, but also ruled that gay couples who wed before the election will continue to be legally married under state law.
The decision ensures another fight at the ballot box over marriage rights. Equality supporters in California said they may ask voters to repeal the ban as early as next year, and opponents have pledged to fight that effort. Proposition 8 passed with only 52% of the vote.
Gay rights supporters will protest the decision in over 100 US cities tonight, including Anchorage.
“No civil rights movement has EVER lost. It is not a matter of IF our community will win full equal rights, including marriage. It is only a matter of WHEN. But as in all civil rights movements, we will have to fight like hell for it,” stated Robin Tyler, the lead petitioner in the case to overturn Prop 8.
In response to the decision, Alaskans Together for Equality wrote: “We believe that the option to get married is a basic human right. Gay and Lesbian Americans should have the same access to marriage and associated rights as other citizens. We are disappointed that the California Supreme Court has let a narrow majority of citizens vote to take away rights from a minority group. The State Constitution and Court System are supposed to prevent such a tyranny of the majority injustice.”
Same-sex marriage was legal in California for almost 6 months before Prop 8 passed. Gay marriages are currently legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Iowa and Maine, and may become legal in New Hampshire and New York later this year.