A long-overdue Bent Alaska update — October 2013

Tell Young, Begich and Murkowski to vote YES on ENDA!

On Wednesday April 21, over 200 LGBT and allied organizations (including our own Alaskans Together for Equality) issued a one-line statement to members of the United States Congress:

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA (H.R. 3017/S. 1584) is a federal bill that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to existing federal employment non-discrimination laws, making it illegal to treat employees unfairly based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

For the first time since 1994, when this legislation was initially introduced to Congress, federal lawmakers appear ready to pass the law, furthering LGBT equality by establishing workplace protections that hundreds before us have sought.

At this point, only 40% of the U.S. by population has clear laws in place that protect LGBT people from this type of discrimination. The 2009 Out & Equal Workplace Survey, released in October, shows that workplace discrimination persists, with 44 percent of respondents indicating they have faced discrimination on the job, and 18 percent indicating they experienced discrimination in the last 18 months.

The situation is even more dire for transgender people: the preliminary findings of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (a project of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality) found that 97 percent of respondents reported mistreatment or harassment, and 47 percent had lost their job, been denied a promotion, or were denied a job as a direct result of being transgender. Transgender people also reported twice the national rate of unemployment.

Right now, in most of the country (including Alaska), this happens without recourse. ENDA will change this, but it won’t happen without your help. A vote on ENDA could happen in the next two weeks. Will you take two minutes right now to call Don Young’s office and tell him that you support ENDA?

Call Rep. Young at 202-225-5765. Give your name and your city and then let him know:

“I am calling in support of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (H. R. 3017/S. 1584), which will protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from job discrimination. No one deserves to be fired from their job because of who they are. Please vote Yes for ENDA.”

If you get voicemail instead of a person, feel free to leave a message – the messages are listened to and count just as much as if you reach a staff member. You can call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you’ve called in the past, no problem … call again or write or schedule a visit.

Then hang up and call Senators Murkowski and Begich. Murkowski’s number is 202-224-6665; Begich’s is 202-224-3004. I promise you that based on the work I’ve done here in DC and the conversations I’ve had with all three of them that your calls are not a waste of time.

Interested in becoming more involved? Visit the ENDA NOW blog for more ways you can help.

Please pick up the phone and call right now, today – our representatives need to hear that Alaskans support equality.

–
Tonei Glavinic is an Alaskan queer activist attending American University in Washington, DC. Zie currently works as a Public Policy and Advocacy intern at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and was recently elected Executive Director of American University Queers and Allies. The opinions expressed here are hir own, and not meant to represent any organization with which zie is affiliated.

Don Young on DADT: Don’t trust the Generals

Asked whether he would support the repeal of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell. Young replied:

Probably not. I think the system has worked. I think we have to recognize that. I am not at ease saying that this would be a plus for the armed services. And I think we ought to stop going to the heads of the so-called military, and the politicians and ask the troops and see how it comes out. That would tell you a lot more. We have a tendency to think that we know more than the common folk. And Obama and Nancy Pelosi is an exaple of that in the health bill.

[Felling] So you think that the Secretary of Defense, and the Generals don’t have the best sense…

I actually don’t think that they… They’re like the President. They don’t have any contact with their troops. The troops in the field, the guy that’s got mud on his boots, and pulling that M-16 trigger, he’s got armor on his chest at 110 degrees, you ought to ask him.

• 73 percent of military personnel are comfortable with lesbians and gays (Zogby International, 2006).
• The younger generations, those who fight America’s 21st century wars, largely don’t care about whether someone is gay or not, and they do not link job performance with sexual orientation.
• One in four U.S. troops who served in Afghanistan or Iraq knows a member of their unit who is gay (Zogby, 2006).

In addition, the public overwhelmingly supports lifting the ban:

• Majorities of weekly churchgoers (60 percent), conservatives (58 percent), and Republicans (58 percent) now favor repeal (Gallup, 2009).
• Seventy-five percent of Americans support gays serving openly, up from 44 percent in 1993 (ABC News/Washington Post, 2008).

Dining and Singing to fight AIDS in Alaska (Thursday)

Gay and raised in Alaska? Bring it Home

“Last November, the city council of Salt Lake City passed an ordinance protecting gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals from discrimination in the workplace and in housing. Other cities in Utah are currently working on getting similar ordinances passed, in hopes of supporting an eventual statewide ordinance that would protect all queer Utahns.

Where is Anchorage’s anti-discrimination ordinance or protections from hate crimes? Mayor Dan Sullivan vetoed it…

Before I moved to Utah last August, I was nervous to be a gay in Mormon country. Luckily for me, I found myself in a strong Utah LGBT community shortly after my arrival. These Utahns have been an inspiration to me, and I hope that Alaskans rise to the challenge of Utah’s example. If Utah can do it, so can Alaska.

And none of the changes that occurred in Utah on queer issues would exist if not for the activism that lives within Utah.

Queers in Alaska should embrace their queerness. The queers in Alaska need to come out of their log cabins (the Republicans don’t like you anyway). They need to come out of the bars. They need to come out at work. They need to come out to their neighbors. The gays must go out and greet the moveable middle within their communities. Be creative in your activism. Do something, not nothing: Stage a kiss-in, create a spectacle, anything, just go all for it in your community.”

Breaking Free from ABT: One Man’s Journey

Does Anchorage Baptist Temple really do exorcisms to cast out the demon from gays? Yes, they do, and they set family members against each other. In an interview with The NorthView (published in its April 2010 issue), RJ described his struggle to break free from ABT and come out as a gay man, a struggle that nearly tore apart his family. He shares his story in the hope that it will help others who are coming out or supporting a gay family member, and even help members of ABT.

“I sincerely hope people from ABT read it. Perhaps it will be a wake up call for them to stop ignoring the things going on around them and perhaps they will open up their hearts and experience a little more love.”

Thanks, RJ, and happy birthday!

* * *

One Man’s Journey

This is an interview with RJ, a gay man raised in Anchorage Baptist Temple. RJ agreed to this interview in the hope that sharing his story and what he has experienced and learned will perhaps help others who may be walking a similar path or, at least, let them know they are not alone.

Editor: Let’s start with the basics of your background.

RJ: My grandparents moved to Alaska in the 1950’s. My mother and I were both born here. My grandfather was a minister. My father was a chaplain who worked in the ministry. In my early years, I lived with my father in Talkeetna and did my schooling through a Christian home school program. Our whole family was very involved in church. In the 1990’s, when I was 11, we moved to Anchorage and became very involved with Anchorage Baptist Temple (ABT).

My father and step-mother both worked at ABT to offset the school bill as it is really expensive to go there. Both taught Sunday school. Sunday they drove busses to pick up kids for Sunday school. We attended Sunday school in the morning followed by church and church again on Sunday night. On Monday night we had bible study, Tuesday night was visitation, Wednesday we had church and Awanas, a Christian program sort of like the Scouts, Thursday night was prayer meeting, and Friday night was open gym or “Destination Unknown,” a youth activity. And, of course, I had school Monday through Friday. Saturdays we would often go to Reverend Prevo’s house for dinner or meet with other church people. For a long time, I looked up to my father and I looked up to Prevo so much.

Editor: How long did this last?

RJ: I went to ABT through 6th, 7th grades and was kicked out in 8th grade.

Editor: What happened in the 8th grade?

RJ: For years I believed everything I was taught. The church was my life. Then, I began to notice and to realize things about the people all around me at ABT and, at the same time, I began to suspect I was gay. I saw so much hypocrisy, too many holes, too much difference between what the church people were teaching me and how there were acting in their own lives. But we were not allowed to talk about it or to question. We had to pretend everything was good. The biggest sin was to question. Instead of providing an answer, they would ask “Why are you being blasphemous?” I began acting out and got kicked out of school several times.

Editor: How was it to realize you were gay, especially since you so looked up to your father, Prevo, and the youth ministers?

RJ: At ABT we were taught anti-gay propaganda. We were taught gay rights are special rights. ABT provides families with an anti-gay “educational” video by Focus on the Family to watch at home. There were also exorcisms which ABT called “demon warfare.” The youth ministers and everybody else were taught this same anti-gay philosophy. I started to realize they were talking about me. The first time I kissed a guy I vomited a day straight over the conflict that it felt so right and I must be a horrible person – the worst thing I can be.

Editor: How were things going at home since your father and step-mother were so involved with ABT?

RJ: The whole gay issue tore me away from my family. There are generations of ministers on my father’s side of the family and to this day they do not speak to me because I am gay. Before I came out, I remember my step-mother telling me that I was so like her brother except that he was gay and I would never be.

It was always made clear that it was not okay to be gay. My whole life began falling apart. When I was 13 I told my father I did not want to go to ABT church or their school. I told him I would go to church only if I could go to public school. He responded by locking me in my room with a board and nails. I kicked down the door and came flying through it like a hellhound with fists flying at my father. I got arrested for malicious destruction of property and went to McLaughlin for three days, followed by family court, a shelter, and foster care. My whole teenage time was spent bouncing between the Laurel shelter, foster homes, Convenent House, Maplewood, and my mom’s house. I was on probation. Lori Rodriguez was my P.O. and she was a phenomenal case worker.

Editor: Wow. What happened after you were thirteen?

RJ: When I was 14, I came out to my mother. I said, “Mom, I think I’m bi.” She said, “No, honey, I think you’re gay.” Later, she told me she thought I was going to be transgender. She told me I used to dress up with her make-up. My brother was a gay hate monger until I told him. When I was 15, I came out to my father in the Anchorage Daily News when they published a letter I wrote. He called me and asked, “Are you sure?” My step-mother said, “No, you’re not gay. You’re just confused.” I moved to Palm Springs when I was 17. Palm Springs was my “gay education.” My birthday there was a white party. What a way to turn 18! I made a lot of friends and learned about what that kind of gay life was like.

I returned to Alaska and, since I had no place to stay, I told my father it was just a phase, moved back with him, and back into the closet. I tried to pray my gay away. I begged God. I would have given anything to be straight.

Editor: Is this when the exorcism took place?

RJ: Yes. I went back to ABT. They had been studying Bob Larson‘s “Deliverance” exorcism ministry. They had a class to teach how to cast out demons on Friday nights. There was a questionnaire to determine if I had done something to open a portal which leads to demonic possession. The questions were things like did I try to control the weather, change stop lights, read horoscopes, use tarot cards and, of course, have sex with a man.

Editor: What happened at the exorcism? Who was there?

RJ: The exorcism took place at ABT. There were others there as well. I sat down and started crying. The Board of Directors, deacons, classmates, and family prayed over us. They anointed us each with oil and tried to cast the demon out.

Editor: Wow. I don’t know what to say. What happened next?

RJ: The reason I am telling you this is because I was in foster homes and shelters. I did not have anyone to look up to or with whom to talk. There wasn’t gay TV. Everyone said AIDS was God’s punishment. I want others to know they are not alone. When I was 19 I began developing a good group of friends, ones to last a lifetime. My friend Chris got me out of there. Tasha, who is another friend and a devout Catholic, said “Whether I agree with it or not, I don’t understand how what people do in their bedrooms has anything to do with me.” And, that gave me my first glimmer that maybe I was okay. They did social things with me when they knew I was gay. The father of one of my friends was a minister and he said “It’s not my job to judge you. It is my job to love you. If God is angry at you about anything, it is probably because you used to be friends with him.” I wonder, how can I have a relationship with God when everyone I know who follows him tells me I am the devil? When I do something wrong, I have a heavy conscious. But when I lie in bed with my partner, I feel no guilt. I know that being with him is right and I know God loves me.

Editor: Where are you now in your relationships with your mother, father, and ABT?

RJ: My mom is a great supporter. Mom was a cab driver and she took me to introduce me to Myrna’s and the GLBT community. She comes for all my Imperial Court functions. Last summer she was at the Assembly hearings. She saw a guy carrying a sign that said “I was born Black. You chose to be gay” and asked to meet Prevo. She said to Prevo and the group with him “Do you remember my son? He grew up in your church. I watched your message of hate try to destroy him, to teach him to hate himself. My God is a God of love and healing. This message of hate is something you are going to have to answer to God for one day.” Then my mom walked away. One of the men jumped up and said he did not want her to walk away angry and wouldn’t she please eat with them. She agreed and had a hot dog with them. Then she stood up and said “I sat down and ate with you. Will any of you sit down and eat with my son?” She was met with silence.

My dad is still a struggle but we are starting to build a dialog. My father has made significant steps in my direction. He sent me some e-mails which I ignored. Then one came and the subject line said “I don’t care that you’re gay. I just want to talk to you.” Considering where he started from, my dad has come a long way and I give him a lot of credit for it.

We have all made mistakes and ABT hates us now. I pity that church. You keep everything quiet, don’t talk about the problems the people are actually having. There is no real community.

Editor: I know you are telling your story to hopefully help others. What final things would you like others to know who may be having an experience similar to yours?

RJ: Get out and talk to as many people as you can. Ask questions. Ask other religious leaders. Don’t be afraid to talk about it. I don’t think any one person can impose on us their particular interpretation of things. You have to have your own personal relationship with God. I wish I had spoken up sooner. I discovered a lot of people already knew I was gay and did not care. The people that are going to be there for you are going to be there for you.

Editor: Is it okay if people contact you if they are walking a similar path and want to reach out?

RJ: Yes. I can be reached via e-mail.

Sara’s News Round-up 4/25/10

Annual spring and summer LGBT events in Anchorage

Memorial service for Dan Carter-Incontro at MCCA

Dan Carter-Incontro, long time Alaska GLBT activist and supporter of equal rights for all, died last Sunday at the age of 62. The funeral is on Saturday at 3:30 pm at the Nazarene Church in Lake City, Florida, and a local memorial service will be held on Sunday at MCC Anchorage.

Al Carter-Incontro, Dan’s husband, is planning a trip to Alaska in May, and a community Celebration of Life will be held during his visit.

Dan was a big supporter of the Anchorage Gay and Lesbian Community Center. If you wish to make a donation to the Center in memory of Dan, Identity will send an acknowledgement to Al and to Dan’s sister Sarah. If you would like to send flowers to the Florida funeral, call 386-755-0833 for a local florist.

The MCC Anchorage memorial is during the Sunday service on April 25 at 2 p.m.

It is not often in this life when you are blessed to have crossed paths with an individual such as Dan Carter-Incontro. Dan was a friend to many within the Church and our community.

Dan and Al Carter-Incontro were the second Alaskan couple to marry in British Columbia when it became legal there in 2003. They went to British Columbia just days after it became legal to get married there having spent more than 30 years as a couple.

Dan had many friends at Identity and almost all of its member organizations as well as the Municipality where he worked and retired from the People Mover department, the Alaska Democratic Party where he had the honor of serving as a National Delegate at least once, and of course his involvement with MCC Anchorage. His past involvement with MCC Anchorage ensured that the Life of the Church would continue serving the community of Anchorage.

Dan’s moving to Florida left a large hole in the community and now with his passing an even larger hole resides in our minds and hearts. It is, as some have said, the end of an era.

We will be celebrating the life of Dan Carter-Incontro this Sunday at 2:00pm. All from the community and the Church are welcome to attend.

This Week in LGBT Alaska 4/23/10

Juneau

SEAGLA Social Fridays (6-8 p.m.) for GLBT people and our friends over 21, at The Imperial Bar.

Fairbanks

Green Tea Party and Dance at Jeff’s House 4/24, 9 p.m. A spring dance to raise funds for PFLAG Fairbanks. Open to all LGBT and allies 21 and older.

Dining Out For Life – Fairbanks 4/29, all day. Eat breakfast, lunch and/or dinner at participating restaurants in Fairbanks and raise funds for Interior AIDS Association.

Imperial Court’s Pretty ‘n Pink Prom drag show 4/30, doors at 7 p.m. show at 8 p.m. at Pioneer Park Civic Center, ages 18+.

Wednesday Social Group, contact Joshua for the location.

Kenai Peninsula

Celebration, an LGBT art show in Soldotna, through the end of April at Art Works gallery.

Mat-Su Valley

LuLu Small and the Small Band 4/24, 7 p.m. at Del Roi’s.

Mat-Su LGBT Community Center in Palmer is open M-F 5-8 p.m. (except 6-8 on Wed.) The social group meets Wednesdays, 5-6 p.m. at Vagabond Blues.

Anchorage

Friday Night Diva Show 4/23, 9 p.m. at Mad Myrna’s.

Identity Friend-Raiser at the Kodiak 4/23, 4:30-7 p.m. Snacks, music and cash bar.

Remembering Dan Carter-Incontro 4/25, 2 p.m. Memorial service at MCC Anchorage.

Tansgender Support Group 4/25, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Social support group, 2nd and 4th Sundays at the GLCCA.

Fetish Ball raised money and questions

Fetish Ball was a wild success Saturday night, with impressive costumes, sexy games, a packed house, and about $8000 raised for the Four A’s food bank to provide meals for people with AIDS. It also attracted a negative comment on the blog and a snarky poetic response. Sarha, Ms. Alaska Leather, wrote,

Fetish Ball 2010 will go down in history as the biggest fetish fund raiser ever! Thank you to those that attended the planning meetings, participated in setup and tear down, ran game booths, walked the runway and worked so hard to make this happen.

Fetish Ball is an annual theme party hosted by the Anchorage fetish, leather and s/m community. It’s not a specifically gay event, and many heterosexual people attend. Ms. Alaska Leather, one of the event organizers, is married to a man. But gay people have always been involved, it’s a benefit for Four A’s held at Myrna’s, and the event and poster were listed with other GLBTA weekend events last Friday on the blog.

Soon after the post went live, an anonymous comment appeared:

Fetish Ball 2010??? with a medical theme??? And those in the LGBT community wonder why they aren’t openly accepted… lol!

During the ordinance hearings last summer, Bent gained several anonymous trolls. They are attracted like moths to certain topics, such as the UA policy change and transgender issues. Posts that describe discrimination against LGBT people will often get a comment saying that we deserve whatever bad treatment we get. Some of the comments are openly hateful, like this one, for example, and these below the post.

The Fetish Ball comment isn’t as hateful as those, but the string of false assumptions between gays and fetishes and the lack of acceptance or rights was more than I had time to deal with on the weekend. So I posted the comment on Bent’s Facebook wall under the Fetish Ball link and waited to see how the friends would respond.

The first person easily summed up the situation:

Everyone has fetishes. The LGBT community and allies are just more willing to embrace it instead of acting like hypocrites.

Well said. The next person responded with a poem! She’s a transwoman who attended the ordinance hearings and noticed that some of the haters have a trans fetish:

The fundies sneering at me in halls,
for going to the fetish balls,
Are the ones behind restroom doors,
who hit on me to drop my drawers.

Only Baptists have asked me to,
do the things that Baptists rue,
to spread my legs for them to see,
When all I want to do is pee.

Spitting on me when I pass,
Then stand behind to watch my ass,
Brimstone public testimony,
Then privately ask to see my pony.

Sunday mornings go a-churching,
Friday nights ask me for birching,
For churchman insults heaped a-plenty,
Hun, you’re never going to get any.

She added, “I am not particularly appreciative of the behavior expressed towards me by certain orthodox individuals. Perhaps they believe that God doesn’t exist if no one is looking.”

SNAP! I’m glad I’m on her side.

Thanks to the FB friends for answering an ignorant blog comment with insight and creativity. And thanks to all for a great event that raised funds for a good cause.