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.
They aren’t in Alaska, and I don’t recommend coming out at big family gatherings, but this video of the London Gay Men’s Chorus singing “Coming Out at Christmas” is more entertaining then the current gay (and anti-gay) news. So here it is, around a hundred gay men singing a classic gay Christmas song:
It is certainly the time of holidays, rituals and celebrations. From Thanksgiving, to Yule-Tide, Kwanza to Christmas and winter solstice. For some of us these separate holiday seasons may seem very different to each other and sometimes even at odds with each other.
However, I want to think about what binds us all together through these holiday seasons. I must warn you though – the jist of this message may be upsetting to some, but, hopefully encouraging and activating.
Listening to the radio this year, I have heard the same Christmas song played over and over. “Have yourself a merry little Christmas, make the Yule-time gay, from now on, our troubles will be miles away.” I’m not using these lyrics because they have the word “gay” or because the song was immortalized by Judy Garland, but rather, because the song is very melancholy to me and the lyrics seem untrue.
Especially for us in the queer community, some of us can find ourselves estranged from family and our troubles certainly don’t seem miles away. So what can we do?
We can choose to spend the holidays with our families of choice. We can make an effort to invite those alone to our celebrations. We can give to the needy, poor and homeless. We can be thankful for what and who we have.
“Have a merry little Christmas” may seem a faraway dream for some of us, whilst others of us have that joy every holiday season. Where ever you fit on the “holiday spectrum,” may I encourage you to take some time to help and love others, and help and love yourselves. Whatever your background, may you have a truly blessed holiday season.
Monday, 21 December 2009 – 11:41 AM
| Comments Off on Have a Merry Gay Christmas in Anchorage
Parties, services, potlucks and brunches – come celebrate Christmas with your LGBT friends and community at these events:
The Alaska Center for Spiritual Living Christmas Eve service is on Wed. Dec 23 at 7 p.m. at Grant Hall (APU campus). As always, the music will be rockin’, the message uplifting, the hearts open, and ALL are welcome. The Center is also hosting Christmas Dinner followed by a movie on Friday, Dec 25.
Mad Myrna’s Christmas Eve Party is on Dec 24 from 9 p.m.-2 a.m. Visit with Santa and his helpers, eat, drink and be merry. Come on down and be nice at being naughty.
Church Life Alaska is holding a special holiday “Queer Christmas Brunch” on Christmas Day, Dec 25 from 11am – 1pm. The free brunch will be held at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center. Everyone is invited to attend. Please RSVP and check out the menu on their Facebook page linked above, or contact Church Life AK.
The Anchorage/MatSu LGBT Meetup group is combining the end of the year vegan potluck with a holiday party and Chinese auction. The party and potluck will be held in Palmer on Dec 26 at 6pm, at the Palmer Presbyterian Church, 713 S Denali St. Please bring a small gift for the game.
Join MCC Anchorage on Dec 27, the Sunday following Christmas, the last Sunday of 2009, for an inspiring New Year message called “Overflow.” Sunday worship with MCC Anchorage is at 2 p.m.
“(T)his time she’s “Going Vogue!” Watch out, Grandma Palin. Ru’s got on her red anorak and she’s ready to govern! And I’m guessing Ru knows her way around a lumberjack. Plus, I’m sure Ru also knows all about laying some serious Alaskan pipeline.”
Friday, 18 December 2009 – 2:46 AM
| Comments Off on AK student to Uganda President: anti-gay bill a grave injustice
by Lauren in Juneau
Dear President Museveni,
As you know, the current proposed legislation titled “The Anti-Homosexuality Bill, 2009” has caused outrage in countries outside of your own, especially among the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender (LGBT) community world-wide. As a proud supporter and member of said community, I believe that this legislation will be detrimental to the people of Uganda and inevitably do more harm than good when applied.
I admit to being a student from the United States of America, where we have a wide base of freedoms, and that our cultures, norms, and practices are, in some respects, vastly different, and that my input here may seem arrogant and presumptive, but I would like to voice my opinion on your country’s upcoming decision on the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009. I believe in basic human rights that include things like the rights to food, water, shelter–things that would ensure survival of a person and enable them to thrive. With these I also believe that the right to love is one of God’s greatest gifts to man, and that there should not be a regulation over what that relationship should look like between consenting adults. Whether you are homosexual or heterosexual should make no difference; it is as God designed you to be.
I believe in building community within our peoples, nations and world, and consider my true community to consist of all countries. I don’t limit myself to only the United States of America, because of the arrogance that implies. I tell you this because I feel deeply for my neighbors, and though your country is across an ocean and thousands of miles away, I would like to personally foster this feeling between your people and me. It is in the spirit of community that I write to you. I believe that this bill would destroy what you have striven so hard to build, a progressive country that happens to lie in the heart of Africa. I know that you believe in fighting against social injustice, and this bill would be just that: a grave injustice against the LGBT people. To me and my conscience, I could not allow this to go on without protest.
Mr. President, you have built up a very beautiful country, one I would love to visit and experience. Unfortunately, I would not be able to be as safe as possible if the bill passed because of my sexuality, and neither would the people who already live in Uganda. This bill would destroy the harmony you have fought to bring through your administration. I realize that this bill has its justifications, one of them being a call for HIV/AIDS control, but I do not believe that this legislation is the best way to bring it under control. Killing off the homosexual people would not solve the problem presented by the virus. Indeed, it may only stress the situation to a breaking point. As an AIDS-awareness activist, I fear that it would only negate all the progress you have made in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
I applaud you, Mr President, in the transformations you have enacted on your people and your country. I sincerely applaud the efforts you have taken, the great lengths you have gone to in order to better yourself and the people around you, but I believe that the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009 would only undermine all your great work and turn back the clock on your administration.
Thursday, 17 December 2009 – 2:32 AM
| Comments Off on Sissies not welcome at Fairbanks University
The University of Alaska, Fairbanks has a new ad campaign: a site called WeedsOutWimps.UAF features recruitment videos with this tip on how to deal with the frigid winters in central Alaska:
“If you’re gonna call yourself an Alaskan, you gotta just dive right in, you can’t be a sissy and wimp out because it’s a little cold outside.”
The first video that comes up on the site was titled “No Sissies.” The title was changed to “Awesomely Cold” yesterday, but the sissy quote remains the focus of the video. The quote is also repeated in a second recruitment video called “Yeah, It’s Cold.”
A message on the UAF Facebook page from Scott McCrea, Director of Marketing and Communications, reads: “The definition of the phrase “No Sissies” in our recruitment campaign meant to imply a person who would not be able to handle the extreme conditions presented by Mother Nature in Interior Alaska. This word is used to explain the attitude and independence that so many people who attend UAF find in Fairbanks.”
The dictionary definition of “sissy” is “an effeminate man or boy; also, a timid or cowardly person.”
It’s like using the word gay to mean stupid. Sissy means both a wimp or coward, and a man who is not as masculine as men are expected to be. The double meaning is the insult.
UAF is still recovering from a controversy over an ex-gay speaker brought up by the Bible club earlier this semester. In his Convocation speech, Chancellor Brian Rogers responded to the protests: “I’m committed to an open and welcoming and inclusive university… I know there are times where this campus does not feel welcoming, inclusive or safe to some of our members. I’d like to change that.”
A “no sissies” ad campaign calling effeminate male students wimps and not real Alaskans is a poor choice for a university that is trying to be safe and inclusive.
So UAF, you think “sissies” aren’t brave enough to handle the harsh winter climate in Fairbanks? Well, that’s nothing compared to the harsh social climate of homophobia. Sissies can also be fierce, and this young man danced half naked in the snow right there at your school. Can you do this:
Wednesday, 16 December 2009 – 3:27 AM
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Surprise: the Anchorage Assembly played a political game of musical chairs Tuesday night, voting out the conservative Debbie Ossainder and choosing Patrick Flynn as the new leader, with Mike Gutierrez as the new vice chair.
In Ossiander’s brief time as chair, she rubber-stamped Mayor Sullivan’s agenda against the majority and was unable to provide a balance to his veto-heavy style. Flynn better reflects the Assembly’s positions.
Debbie Ossiander is infamous in the gay community for being the roadblock to the passage of the equal rights ordinance that would have added LGBT protections to the city’s nondiscrimination law.
As chair, she overruled a motion to limit repetitive testimony and instead allowed hundreds of religious opponents to preach anti-gay hate at the hearings.
She allowed Wasilla residents to testify on the Anchorage measure, dragging out the hearings for months.
In her comments before the vote, she admitted that LGBT people face prejudice and discrimination in Anchorage and need protection, then voted against the measure anyway.
She could have been the deciding vote against the mayor’s veto, but instead she chose a legacy of caving in to pressure and supporting an agenda of hate.
Patrick Flynn and Mike Gutierrez both voted in favor of the non-discrimination ordinance. Flynn introduced the version of the ordinance that was passed by the Assembly 7-4 and vetoed by the mayor. Gutierrez, the Assembly’s only Hispanic member, supported the ordinance as a civil rights issue.
Congratulations to the Assembly and the new leaders!
If you’ve been in a grocery story or mall recently (and who hasn’t?), you have seen and heard the Salvation Army’s Christmas bell-ringers collecting donations for charity. Straight bell-ringers, because the Salvation Army does not hire gays.
And many gays do not give to the Salvation Army, choosing to give money to charities that do not discriminate against us instead of those that do.
In addition to not hiring gays, the Salvation Army actively lobbies for anti-gay laws, calls gay couples with children ‘pretend’ families, and promotes celibacy as the only option for gay Christians.
But the Salvation Army is not the only option for giving. Queer Alaskans who want to donate to nondiscriminatory charities have many choices. Three local charities with good records are Beans Cafe and homeless shelter for adults and Covenant House for homeless youth, both in Anchorage, and the Street Outreach and Advocacy Program for homeless kids in Fairbanks.
The Salvation Army works on a much larger scale, and some gays and allies say that justifies their donations.
The very real consequences of DADT repeal; seeking survivor benefits for same-sex partner of Alaska shooting victim; waiting on SCOTUS decision about whether it will hear Prop 8 case; and other recent LGBTQ news selected by Sara Boesser in Juneau, Alaska.
In this month’s “Ask Lambda Legal” column, Lambda Legal answers a question about the federal government’s longstanding ban against donations of blood from men who have sex with men (MSM).
Alaska Pride Conference 2012 kicks off on October 5 with a First Friday showing at Tref.Punkt Studio of Love is Love, a photographic exhibit of LGBT couples from across the state.
United for marriage: Light the way to justice. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments this Tuesday and Wednesday, March 26–27, in two cases about freedom to marry. Please join us on Tuesday, March 26, at the federal courthouse in Anchorage (7th & C) in a circle united for equality.
Pariah, a critically acclaimed film about a 17-year-old African-American woman embracing her lesbian identity, will screen at UAA on Friday, November 2, and will be followed by a discussion on acceptance in honor of Mya Dale. The event is free and open to the public.
