A long-overdue Bent Alaska update — October 2013

“I’m still trying to find new members, so beware!” writes Brianne “Your Highness is optional” on the new Mat-Su LGBT Community Center blog. “If you see a Big Transwoman with a Lasso headed your way, run! and run fast lest you find yourself sipping steamy beverages and talking about the LBGTA community in the Valley.”

On Wednesdays at 5 p.m., Her Highness Brianne waits at a table in Palmer’s Vagabond Blues with a sign taped to a coffee can. Brianne and Jaime Rodriguez are resurrecting the Mat-Su LGBT Community Center, and the coffee group for socializing, support and discussion is the first activity.

Their vision for the Center goes far beyond coffee. “A functioning Valley Community Center can help create a real community where none exists, and provide a central clearinghouse for information, contacts and services, not to mention a fun and safe place for meetings and activities of all sorts,” Jaime wrote in the blog’s first post.

Safety is a big issue in the bible belt of Alaska. When journalists searched for LGBT Wasillans to interview during Gov. Sarah Palin’s vice presidential run, few were willing to talk on camera or give their real name in print. Jaime and Brianne were the only queer locals named in this HRC video with ally Rev. Bess and a supportive therapist, although an anonymous lesbian spoke with her back to the camera.

About six or seven times a year, word comes from the Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Anchorage that people are asking about LGBT groups in the Valley, wanting to get involved or attend events. The Mat-Su population has swelled to 83,000, which means at least several thousand LGBT residents. There seems to be an unusually large transgender population in the Valley, and more bisexuals and closeted people than in urban areas of the same size.

“If we could organize, we could help break the conservative hold on the Valley,” said Jaime. “Six thousand queers is a powerful economic and political force, if we can harness it.”

The new Center rents office space in The Church of the Covenant in Palmer, where Rev. Howard Bess was pastor until he retired last year. They have a reception area, coffee nook, conference room, bathroom, and library space for the many boxes of books collected when the Center was active.

In 2001, a small group of LGBT men and women in the Valley met in a cafe in Wasilla to organize a community center. They moved to Palmer when Pastor Howard Bess offered the Church Meeting House. A weekly social support group drew about 20 people, and they added a potluck and movie night one Friday a month. 

“By 2002, the LGBT Center had about 60 members on the email list,” said Jaime, the only remaining board member. “The support group grew, but was overwhelmed by people who needed a therapy group. A conflict arose between two members and attendance dropped. Only those who needed the group for therapy stayed, plus three or four of us committed to building the Center.”

Jaime and Brianne are ready to try again. They have the office, non-profit status, and start-up funds from the Imperial Court. What they need most is new members.

“I am not discouraged,” Brianne wrote last week when only two straight allies joined her for coffee. “There are lonely Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Allied people out there who could really use an avenue to meet and enjoy the company of other friendly people.” 

“I invite you to participate in something that benefits you directly, your friends and loved ones, your acquaintances, and potentially even the straight segment of the Valley we all live in. Please help us, in whatever way you can: a donation, a chair, couch, bookshelf, your time, your service. What can you spare that will make our world that little bit better?”

Creating Change 2009, The 21st National Conference on LGBT Equality, runs Wednesday through Sunday in Denver, and two Alaskan leaders are attending this year.

“I am excited about Creating Change,” wrote Tiffany McClain. “I’m really hoping that I learn something I can put to use in the campaign for Equality Works.”

Tiffany is managing the Equality Works campaign “to protect Anchorage residents from discrimination and harassment, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.” She is the LGBT Coordinator for the ACLU of Alaska, and the Secretary of Alaskans Together for Equality.

“Identity is sending me to Creating Change,” wrote Scott Turner, co-chair of Identity, Inc. “I will do my best to bring back plenty of good info on things we are working on locally.”

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) sponsors and organizes Creating Change, “the nation’s pre-eminent political, leadership and skills-building conference for the LGBT social justice movement.”

This isn’t the first year that Alaskan activists have attended the national conference.

“Creating Change was very educational for me every time I went,” wrote Elias Rojas, also of Alaskans Together. “I think for Alaskans it offers understanding of the bigger GLBT issues that are happening across the country and the trends and issues.”

“Any Alaskan that makes it to the conference will come back with a fresh perspective.”

Today marks the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States.

And today President Barack Obama is expected to reverse at least a few of the anti-choice policies of the last eight years.

The “global gag rule” is the most likely option for reversal. It prohibits U.S. foreign aid assistance to international family planning groups that offer information on abortions.

One such group is Planned Parenthood. Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, says she’s hopeful that early action by President Obama will signal a new direction.

“It’s been eight long years in the wilderness,” said Richards. “I think for women in this country and women around the world, this is a president and administration that takes their health care needs seriously.”

Planned Parenthood of Alaska Advocates (PPAA) will celebrate women’s rights at two Roe v. Wade Birthday Bash and Pro-Choice Presidential Inauguration Parties, in Anchorage tonight and in Fairbanks tomorrow evening. 

The free events include wine, food and games, with fundraising to support PPAA. RSVP required. 

Update: I posted about Joseph on Thursday night, and Monday’s Anchorage Daily News online has a long story on him and his webisodes. You go, girl!

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Want to know the truth about hairdressing? Have questions about sex – or about Alaska – that you were afraid to ask? Looking for beauty tips from an expert? 

Here’s your chance to get advice from “the real Queen of Alaska!”

“Who the hell is Joseph? What the hell is this?” reads the description on the video’s YouTube page. “Watch, dear viewers, and all mysteries will be answered.” 

Watch his queenly two minute introduction below. Then go to JtheH.com and watch his ten minute video tour of outdoor day trips near Anchorage.

Ask Joseph more questions at http://www.JosephTheHairdresser.com or http://www.JtheH.com 

The Juneau Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (JUUF) is asking the LGBT community for help. 

The JUUF is working to purchase the historic church building on the corner of 5th and Main Street in downtown Juneau, the second oldest church in the city. The financing plan includes raising at least $125,000 from members and friends.

“JUUF openly welcomes lesbian, gay, and transgender people and honors our contributions to the community and to society,” reads the message from SEAGLA, the Southeast Alaska Gay and Lesbian Alliance.

How can you help? New donations received before February 1 will be matched more than double their value. 

Please send a check to JUUF – Capital Campaign, PO Box 20064, Juneau, AK 99802. Even the smallest contributions at this time will help. Thank you.

Learn more about JUUF.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Organizing Weekend in Honor of Bayard Rustin, on January 16-19, is a national student-led action focusing on the coalition-building strategies that Bayard Rustin used to help activists, including Martin Luther King Jr., to create social change. 

A master strategist and tireless activist, Bayard Rustin is best remembered as the organizer of the famous 1963 March on Washington, one of the largest nonviolent protests ever held in the United States.  

The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) hopes that students, Gay-Straight Alliances and other student clubs, and community groups involved in the safe schools movement will use this Day of Action to build bridges and work together with other social justice movements. 

They also encourage GSA’s to host a screening of “Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin,” to support another student club’s MLK event, or to write a letter to President-elect Obama telling him what you would like to see in the next 4 years in regards to safer schools and social justice.

Learn more about Rustin’s legacy as a gay man active in the civil rights movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s by viewing this video, excerpted from the film Out of the Past: 

Do you know how to make a graphic logo?

Help Alaskans Together find a logo to represent the organization and our mission: to advance civil equality for all Alaskans, through grassroots organizing and advocacy, and through public education.

Email a digital logo idea to Alaskans Together by February 15 and your design may be chosen as the official logo!

The Metropolitan Community Church hosts their annual Christmas Eve Service and Recital on Wednesday, from 7-8:30 p.m. All from the community and church are welcome to attend the special evening of Christmas music and fellowship.

MCC Anchorage is also celebrating the appointment of Reverend Norman Van Manen as their Development Pastor. Rev. Norman will officially take the helm on February 15th, 2009.

After the service, join the staff at Mad Myrna’s for their annual Christmas Eve pajama party. 

On Christmas Day, the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Anchorage (GLCCA) will be open from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. serving cookies, muffins and sodas to the gay community and our friends. The Center will be closed on Christmas Eve.

Visit the GLCCA page on Identity’s site for the address, a photo tour of the Center and pictures from the Thanksgiving Day open house.

Wrap up the season with the New Year’s Eve Party at Mad Myrna’s, or rock with Ever Ready on New Year’s Eve in Palmer. Then begin 2009 with the GLBT community at the New Year’s Day Cookie Exchange at the GLCCA. 

Ms. Alaska Leather 2008 is hosting a fundraiser for Toys for “Nots” on Dec. 19, with a Christmas food sale and gift auction at Mad Myrna’s. Her goal is to raise at least $500 dollars worth of donations to buy items for families in need, as the Toys for Nots committee did last year.

Tami won the title of Ms. Alaska Leather last January at Arctic Heat, the titleholder event for The Last Frontier Men’s Club. 

Toys for Tots collects donated Christmas toys for needy families and is sponsored by the United States Marine Corps. But what is Toys for Nots? 

Keith, President of the Men’s Club, explained the story behind the name: 

A few years ago, the Duke and Duchess of the Imperial Court held a Toys for Tots fundraiser and recieved hundreds of toys for donation. When the Marines were called to pick up the toys, the ducals were told to put the toys outside on the icy sidewalk, because the Marines wouldn’t enter Mad Myrna’s. They will accept toys from the gay community, but they are afraid to walk into a gay bar to pick up our donations. 

So the ducals renamed the event Toys for Nots and give first choice to the children of gay families in need. Remaining gifts are offered to the Toys for Tots program. 

“We did receive an apology phone call from a Ft. Richardson general promising that it would never happen again,” wrote Keith. “However, they have not picked up our donations for the past 3 years.”

The Toys for Nots Fundraiser is Dec. 19, 2008, from 6:30-9 p.m. at Mad Myrna’s.