Tuesday, 29 April 2008 – 9:37 PM
| Comments Off on Elton John Plays Alaska
It’s true: Elton John is performing in Alaska!
Elton is to play two SOLO concerts in Alaska, USA. The dates are: Wednesday May 28, 2008 at the Sullivan Arena, Anchorage, Alaska, and Thursday May 29 at the Carlson Center, Fairbanks, Alaska.
This will be the first time Elton has played in the state of Alaska, and comes as a result of huge popular demand for him to play there. These concerts also take him within sight of achieving his aim to have performed in every state of the USA. Alaska will be the 49th state in which he has performed. (
www.eltonjohn.com)
In Anchorage, tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on Monday, May 5. There is a six-ticket purchase limit, and prices range from $56.50 to $116.50. Tickets will be available online at Ticketmaster.com, Charge-by-Phone at 562-4800, Fred Meyer Ticketmaster outlets and Sullivan Arena box office.
In Fairbanks, tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 3 and will be available at Fred Meyer Ticketmaster outlets, the Carlson Center box office, 456-4800, and Ticketmaster.com. Ticket prices are set at $75 and $115, not including fees.
Monday, 28 April 2008 – 11:46 AM
| Comments Off on The Advocate Wants Your Stories of Hometown Pride
by E. Ross
They say that the best thing about Anchorage is that it’s only 15 minutes from Alaska. What do
you like most about living in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, or wherever you live? The
Advocate, a GLBT news site and magazine, wants to know what makes you proud of your hometown:
Tell us what you love and what you wish you could change. Describe where you go to wander and where you wouldn’t be caught after dark. Share your favorite place to get a beer with friends, have a romantic dinner for two, or escape from the world for a little while. We want to hear about the people you meet and the vibe that greets you when you walk down the street. Anything goes.
What’s this all about? We want to bring America’s LGBT people closer together. How many times have we separated ourselves according to where we live? Coasts versus heartland, big city versus small town, gay ghetto versus mainstream suburb — our life experiences reflect the places where we put down roots. So…what makes you proud about your hometown? Tell us — and tell the world.
Let’s put Alaska on their map. Send your submission to
hometownstories@advocate.com with “Hometown Stories” in the subject line. Selected entries will appear in the annual Pride issue or on Advocate.com.
Thursday, 24 April 2008 – 3:39 PM
| Comments Off on Alaskans Participate in National Day of Silence
by E. Ross
What are you going to do to end the silence?
Students in Alaska will join hundreds of thousands of middle and high school students across the nation in a Day of Silence to protest anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender name-calling, bullying and harassment. Gay/Straight Alliance (GSA) members and their allies in Anchorage, Juneau and Fairbanks will be silent on April 25, to echo the silence caused by prejudice and discrimination.
DOS in Alaska
Wayne Gerke, assistant superintendent of secondary schools at the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District, said the event is not an official school activity and is not sponsored by the school district but is a way for students to express their freedom of speech. Gerke said he believes the purpose of Day of Silence is not to promote homosexuality but rather to stand against bullying. (from Controversy escalates over ‘Day of Silence’)
“We are missing out on all of these voices, we don’t get to hear these students’ voices, because they’re too afraid to risk harassment,” said Casady Herding, GSA advisor, on the panel of Anyone & Everyone: An Alaskan Perspective, which aired on KTOO and KAKM last week. “There’s a real need for education in the schools about GLBT issues, because of the invisibility, because of the discrimination that is still very much in place.”
Anchorage GSA’s participate in Day of Silence, and ‘break the silence’ that night with Pride Prom. Alaska Superstation posted a piece on Day of Silence and the opposition in Anchorage,
Day of Silence Creates Outcry. In the article, Superintendent Carol Comeau said that the district is not promoting the “Day” and teachers will continue with their lesson plans, while taking into account that some students choose not to speak.
“What we’ve done is acknowledge the fact that some of our students want to participate in a national Day of Silence. And we’ve said that if you do it respectfully without causing a disruption we will say that’s ok,” said Comeau.
A National Movement
Around the country, support for Day of Silence is growing. CNN’s Larry King made a public service announcement for Day of Silence, in honor of the murdered student who shared his name: Lawrence King, a 15-year-old who was shot and killed in class for being gay. Lance Bass, the former ‘N Sync singer, made a PSA with a group of students. Azariah Southworth, host of the Christian TV show
The Remix, came out as gay and supports DOS. The
Day of Silence blog posted these statements, plus information about DOS and comments from students, advisors and supporters around the country.
Organizations that spread the word about Day of Silence include GLSEN, the GSA Network, Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere (COLAGE) and PFLAG. They are also talking about the film ‘
Tru Love‘, which
shows the straight daughter of lesbian parents starting a GSA group in a conservative suburban high school.
“Today we fall silent, but tomorrow, and each day after tomorrow, we must speak up,” said PFLAG executive director Jody Huckaby at the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Day of Silence Observance. “When our children are in danger, and our schools are havens of hate, we must give our own voice to those who suffer at the hands of bullies.” (from ‘Do Not Be Silent‘)
What are you going to do to end the silence?
Tuesday, 22 April 2008 – 10:56 AM
| Comments Off on A Message from Celebration of Change
by E. Ross
Before the show, I wrote about Celebration of Change 2008 and posted a revised list of performers:
Lesbian Pirates Celebrate Music and Art. After the show, Laura Carpenter sent this message to celebrate the show’s success and to thank everyone who made it happen:
This year’s Celebration of Change, Pirates of the Lesibbean, was a success, thanks to our wonderful volunteers, performers and community. The performance was standing room only and lots of ladies were around to meet and greet each other. Radical Arts for Women would like to thank Teddy and LuAnn from Ever Ready for making the sound come alive, Delores and Gay for managing the stage and those special, unmentionable talents, Kenna for the stickers, designs and printing, Kelly, Kerri and son for managing the RAW table and vendors and cracking the whip when needed, Deb for the program and credit card action, Janet for spot light and other contributions, Maureen for presenting the Radical Woman Award, Drea for the pirate wench poster photographs, Connie for voter registration, Leslie for organizing performers, Myrna’s for the after party, and Everyone who contributed to this fabulous event. Thank you! And congratulations to Barbara Soule for winning the Radical Woman Award. Well deserved. Now, start getting your creative caps on for next year’s Celebration—the 25th anniversary! ~ Cheers, Laura
Wednesday, 16 April 2008 – 10:35 AM
| Comments Off on GLBT Alaskans, Friends and Families Share Experiences and Resources
by E. Ross
Anyone and Everyone: An Alaskan Perspective – Thursday, April 17 on Alaska One and KAKM
Alaska’s GLBT communities and our Allies all over the state have a rare opportunity to participate in a gay event together on the same night – and it doesn’t have to stop there.
On Thursday, the rest of Alaska will see what Juneau gays, lesbians and allies helped to create last month: an Alaskan response to the film Anyone & Everyone, a PBS documentary about the reactions of parents whose son or daughter ‘came out’ as gay or lesbian. Both the documentary and the Alaskan response will air on April 17 on KTOO, KAKM and their affiliates in Fairbanks, Bethel, Kodiak, Anchorage, Juneau and many other locations.
In March, PFLAG and Iron Zeal Films sponsored Juneau screenings of Anyone & Everyone, and KTOO-TV filmed a panel and audience discussion about the film. In the KTOO production, Anyone & Everyone: An Alaskan Perspective, Juneau mayor Bruce Botelho hosts Casady Herding, The Reverend Mark Boesser, Willie Anderson and Karen Donovan as they share reactions, resources and personal stories as gay Alaskans, our family members and allies.
Anyone & Everyone features parents from a wide range of religions, ethnicities, and political leanings discussing their initial reactions to their child’s coming out. Some respond with unconditional support, but others struggle, fearing alienation from their extended family, their church, or their community. For more about the film and the screenings, see
Juneau Responds to Anyone & Everyone.
To draw attention to the show, KTOO Radio’s Community Forum host Dr. Carolyn Brown invited five members of the public for a discussion about Anyone and Everyone. “One is my mother, Mildred Boesser – a grandmother, an active Christian, a mother of a lesbian, and active PFLAG advocate,” writes Sara Boesser from Juneau. “I’m on the panel too, as a 50-something lesbian and activist, along with a lesbian woman in her early 20’s, an older man whose two gay brothers came out to his family in the 1940’s, and a woman counselor who works with Four A’s and has friends who are gay, lesbian and transgendered.”
The Juneau Community Forum radio panel can be heard on
www.ktoo.org. Look under KTOO Audio Files – Anyone & Everyone.
The TV broadcast of Anyone & Everyone and Anyone & Everyone: An Alaskan Perspective is on Thursday, April 17 on KAKM-TV, Anchorage from 8:00 to 9:30 pm, and on AlaskaOne (KTOO-Juneau, KUAC-Fairbanks, KYUK-Bethel) and 360 North from 9:00 to 10:30 pm. The programs will be rebroadcast on Saturday, April 19 on ARCS and 360 North from 7:00 to 8:30 pm.
This is a great opportunity for Alaska’s GLBT and Allied communities to see and hear our friends in Juneau. But why stop with Juneau? Let’s continue the discussion, with Alaskan perspectives from different parts of the state. Watch Anyone & Everyone and An Alaskan Perspective, then share your reactions, your family experiences, and your local resources for GLBT Alaskans and our families.
Send an email to
BentAlaska@gmail.com or add a comment to this article. I’ll put the responses together in a new post. Can we hear from each of the regions where the programs are broadcast: Interior, Western, Southcentral and Southeast? Anonymous replies are fine.
Let’s start with Juneau and make it a statewide Alaskan Perspective. How about it?
by E. Ross
Welcome, subscribers of
Alaska GLBT News – the statewide newsletter for GLBT events – and readers of the women’s newsletter, the
Grrlzlist!
One lucky subscriber from each of these newsletters will win a free ticket to Celebration of Change –
Pirates of the Lesibbean.
Here’s how you can win:
- Give one reason why you want to attend Celebration of Change this year.
- Put the reason in an email to Bent Alaska: bentalaska@gmail.com
- Include the name of the newsletter you are subscribed to, either the Grrlzlist or Alaska GLBT News. You must be currently subscribed to one of these two newsletters to enter the contest. (Subscribe to AGN now.) If you are subscribed to both, you may send two separate messages, one for each subscription.
- Send from the email address where you receive your newsletter, to verify the subscription and to contact you if you win. (If sending from a different address, write the subscribed address in the message.)
- Be the 5th (fifth) subscriber from that newsletter to send an email.
- Check Bent Alaska on Saturday to see who won.
The tickets have been purchased and will be held at the door for the winners.
Good luck!
Tuesday, 8 April 2008 – 11:30 AM
| Comments Off on Alaska Still ‘Taking Diversity to the Sky’
by E. Ross
Going to Gay Days at Disney World in Orlando this June? Or the US Gay Tennis Open in San Francisco in May? Maybe you’d like to spend a week in Miami in June? How about Santa Rosa, CA before April 30?
Then take advantage of the Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air discount codes and fly for 10% off the base fare when you buy the tickets on their Gay Travel site.
These are the infamous ‘gay discounts’ that caused an outpouring of hate speech on the Internet last year. Confused homophobes claimed that the airlines were charging higher prices to straight travelers by offering a discount to gays. Anti-diversity conservatives posted angry rants because Alaska Airlines recognized the power of the pink dollar and marketed to us on the web.
In reality, anyone can use the discount codes, gay or straight, and no one is required to attend the LGBT events to receive the discount. You just have to fly to a qualifying airport during the discounted dates.
The Gay Travel site is an effort to reach LGBT consumers and to promote online ticketing. In response to the feedback condemning the new site, the airlines removed “Gay Travel” from the title of the featured destination page, but kept the main site and the list of LGBT events in locations they serve.
Every year, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation rates large U.S. employers on a scale from 0 to 100 based on whether or not they have policies that support LGBT employees, consumers and investors. Alaska Airlines, headquartered in Seattle, Washington, earned 95 out of 100 on the
Corporate Equality Index 2008, rating a ‘green light’ in the
Buying For Equality Guide. Only two airlines rated higher, American Airlines and US Airways, with 100 points each. No Alaska-based companies were included in the Index, but many of the rated companies do business in Alaska.
Here are the Alaska Airlines discounted dates and locations for 2008:
- 5/20-5/29 to San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose (GLTF’s US Gay Open)
- 6/3-6/9 to Orlando, FL (Gay Days at Disney World Resort)
- 7/12-7/19 to Miami, FL (GALA Choruses Festival)
- complete travel by 4/30 to Santa Rosa/Sonoma County, CA (Featured Destination)
To receive the discount, just enter the correct code for your date and location of travel in the Discount Code box when you purchase the tickets at
alaskaair.com/gaytravel. The discount will show in the final total of your ticket and is for the base fare only. Be sure to read the
limitations of the discount codes before buying the ticket.
In these days of rising air fares, a 10% discount is a welcome sight. When Alaska Airlines recognizes and rewards their LGBT customers, employees and investors, we can support their efforts and encourage them to continue ‘Taking Diversity to the Sky.’
California and Florida, here we come!
Monday, 31 March 2008 – 4:49 AM
| Comments Off on Big Prizes in IAA Raffle
by E. Ross
What would you do with $11,000?
That’s the grand prize for the
Interior AIDS Association‘s annual raffle, the biggest fundraiser of the year for IAA. They only sell 250 tickets, so the odds are good. A $100 ticket gives you the chance to win one of five $500 prizes and the one big prize of $11,000.
“The raffle is open to anyone who wishes to buy a ticket,” writes Barbara Hogue, Office Manager of IAA. “People as far away as Ohio have purchased tickets in the past.”
In addition to those prizes, $250 will be awarded to the person who sells the most tickets, and another $250 awarded to the person who sold the winning ticket, if the seller signed the back of the ticket stub before turning it in to IAA.
All tickets will be drawn on Friday, June 27, 2008 at the International “Big I” Bar, beginning at 8 p.m.
The five $500 prizes will be given to the buyers of the 1st, 50th, 100th, 150th and 200th tickets drawn out of the barrel. The buyer of the last ticket left in the barrel will win the grand prize – unless both of the last two ticket buyers agreed to split the grand prize evenly. This unusual twist means that ticket buyers must mark on each ticket either “Yes” they will split the grand prize in half if they are one of the last two tickets, or “No” they won’t split it, they want ‘all or nothing’. Both of the last two tickets must have “Yes” marked on them to split the pot. If one or both have “No” on them, the drawing will continue until only one ticket wins the full prize.
To qualify for a prize, the name, address and contact phone number of the buyer must be recorded at the time of the ticket sale, and “Yes” or “No” to the split must be marked on the stub.
So, what would you do with $11,000?
Founded in 1988 by a group of concerned Fairbanksans, the Interior AIDS Association is a community-based, nonprofit education and social service organization. IAA’s mission is to reduce the spread of HIV and to improve the quality of life for people living with HIV/AIDS.
Friday, 28 March 2008 – 11:26 AM
| Comments Off on Update to ‘Juneau Responds’
by E. Ross
Yesterday, I posted an article on the
Juneau screenings of Anyone & Everyone, and the KTOO-TV filming of a panel and discussion on an Alaskan response to this moving documentary of families with gay and lesbian kids. Sara Boesser previously commented on the
turnout at the screenings. Here are Sara’s comments on the filming of the panel:
Last night, at the KTOO studio with the panel and the Mayor, audience turnout was more than hoped for. We’d hoped for at least 20, but more than 30 turned out. It was a very moving experience. Our panel did a great job, and about a half dozen in the audience participated too. We were well represented by our city government: in addition to the Mayor, our Deputy City Manager was there, as was Jonathan Anderson – our elected Assembly member and current chair of PFLAG Juneau. Friends, family, parents, and allies all were there with us who are of the GLBT community. It was the first production KTOO has ever done with their new digital equipment – so we were part of history in that 21st century shift. KTOO’s staff, in particular Terry Tavel the producer – who also wrote the grant for this Anyone and Everyone – made us all feel very comfortable and welcomed. The studio was full of energy, rapt attention, and a lot of love.
I believe the final product from last night’s taping will make us all proud.
I’m just so grateful to everyone who is being involved and making this all possible!
Sara
Good work, Juneau! I look forward to watching you on TV.
The film Anyone & Everyone and the panel with audience participation will air statewide on Alaska One and KAKM on April 17, 2008.
Wednesday, 26 March 2008 – 11:50 AM
| Comments Off on Alaskan Bear Wins Mr. International Bear 2008
by E. Ross
The Bears of Alaska began the year with a great big Woof! For the first time, a local Bear won the title of Mr. International Bear at the IBR competition in San Francisco. Scott Turner of Anchorage competed in IBR Patrol – Bears in Uniform and is now Mr. International Bear 2008.
“We were all standing back there holding hands, trying to figure out which one of them was going to get it,” Turner said at a post-competition party, “and then they called my name and I was in complete shock.”
The other new title holders are Mr. International Daddy Ringo Nannings of Amsterdam, International Cub Bud Grundy of Southern California, And Mr. International Grizzly Dean Bruno of Boston.
“Great bunch of guys this year. I had a lot of fun drinking with all of them,” said Turner, “and the most fun was watching the other guys get their awards.”
Each year, The Last Frontier Men’s Club (TLFMC) sponsors Mr. Bear Alaska at the International Bear Rendezvous in San Francisco and Mr. Alaska Leather at the International Mr. Leather contest in Chicago. They also award titles for Alaska Bear Cub, Mr. Alaska Levi, Alaska Leather Boy & Ms. Alaska Leather. Title holders are chosen during Arctic Heat Weekend.
The International Bear Rendezvous is an annual gathering of bears and bear-lovers held in San Francisco. IBR is hosted by the Bears of San Francisco, who conceived of Rendezvous as a weekend of fun and fundraising.
Established in 1993, The Last Frontier Men’s Club is a non-profit social club. TLFMC provides bears, leathermen, cowboys, their respective admirers and other masculine Alaskan gay and bisexual men with the opportunity to meet and socialize. Although The Last Frontier Men’s Club is a members-only club, people from all aspects of the community are encouraged and welcome to attend any function that the club presents.
TLFMC posts photos and videos of local Bears. Here is the video announcing the new Mr. International Bear:
