Articles in z
Transgender Day of Remembrance, Nov 20
Action: Support ENDA
A Message from Alaskans Together for Equality
In Alaska, firing a person because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity is still legal. This is also true in 60% of the United States where gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) citizens are not protected against employment discrimination. Congress is getting ready to vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) which would offer protection from discrimination for LGBT citizens, and action on our part is required. If we want the discriminatory status quo to change, it is our responsibility to speak up and ask our Congressman Don Young and our Senators Mark Begich and Lisa Murkowski to vote in support of fairness and basic protections from job discrimination for LGBT Americans.
Neither Representative Young nor Senator Murkowski have made public their support for ENDA. We can help by writing letters to the editors of our local newspapers on the importance of passing this legislation. We can also spread the word among our friends and family to take action in support of this legislation. Most importantly and easy to do – we can email and call all three members of our Congressional delegation. This will only take about 5-10 minutes – isn’t ending discrimination worth that?
Call and email Congressman Young, Senator Murkowski, and Senator Begich today.
Contact Congressman Don Young
at 202-225-5765 and via e-mail.
Contact Senator Murkowski
at 202-224-6665 and via e-mail.
Contact Senator Begich
at 202-224-3004 and via e-mail.
Here is a suggested phone message:
“My name is____________ and I am a proud resident of (your city, Alaska). I am calling in support of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 3017 and S. 1584), to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from job discrimination. Please take swift action to pass ENDA. I can be reached at ________ (provide your phone number). Thank you.”
Sample email message to our Congressional delegation (please personalize):
“Subject: Support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 3017/S. 1584)
Honorable Congressman/Senator______________:
Today, employers in many states including Alaska can still legally fire people because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. These hardworking Americans deserve the same protection as their coworkers, and Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) would go a long way to making this a reality.
Please support an inclusive ENDA – the bill that protects lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans from losing their jobs simply because of their sexual orientation or their gender identity.
LGBT Americans deserve and need the ability to work — just like every American. Please help by supporting ENDA (H.R. 3017 and S. 1584) and bringing the bill to a vote in the House and Senate soon.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
[Insert Name,
address and phone number]”
We must speak up loudly and clearly! The opponents are flooding Congressional offices with calls and emails – we all need to call in and speak up against discrimination. Our elected officials need to hear that this bill (ENDA) is a top priority of fair-minded Alaskans.
The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act passed because the LGBT community and our many allies spoke up so loudly and clearly – that they even heard us in Washington DC.
We have a real opportunity for positive change!
Change will come, if enough of us act. The more of us who call, the faster full equality for LGBT citizens will arrive!
After you call and write your email, please forward this message or tell your friends and family what is at stake and ask them to contact their Congressional delegation too.
Are you a member of Alaskans Together for Equality yet? You can help by joining our organization and supporting our important advocacy work for LGBT equality across Alaska by becoming a member today.
Free copies of "Silent Lives" for GLBT-welcoming ministries
Sara’s News round-up 11/16/09
TDOR, Thanksgiving, World AIDS Day, FBX Bear Club, ICOAA Cares, & the Trevor Project
This Week in LGBT Alaska 11/13/09
Juneau
SEAGLA Social Fridays (6-8 p.m.) for GLBT people and our friends over 21, at The Imperial Bar, downtown.
Fairbanks
UAF Gay-Straight Alliance meets Mondays at 5 p.m. in the Women’s Center (Eilson 112). Jessi.
Wednesday LGBTA Social at 9 p.m. Email Joshua for the current location.
Mat-Su Valley
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
Lesbian Film Group Night 11/13, 6 p.m. potluck and 7 p.m. movie, location info on the LGBT Meetup group.
The Rocky Horror Show, 11/13-11/21, Fri & Sat 7 p.m., and Sat at 10 p.m. $20 at Mad Myrna’s.
The Out Club’s Broadway Drag Show, with performers from Mad Myrna’s and UAA 11/14, 7 p.m. in the UAA Commons, Room 107, only $5.
How To use Facebook 11/19, 7 p.m. at the GLCCA.
Sunday worship with MCC Anchorage at 2 p.m.
Transgendered Veterans Support Group, Thursdays 4-5 p.m. at the VA Mental Health Clinic.
Sullivan’s Say ‘No’ To Bullies Month (or something like that)
Bullying Awareness MonthWHEREAS, we must safeguard schools for our children, and, through our recognition of the serious issues that face them each day, offer our children an environment that holds promise and security; andWHEREAS, many organizations, school districts, educators and parents have publicly expressed concern about the bullying of children; andWHEREAS, it is important that we acknowledge and heighten awareness about the serious issues and the negative effects of bullying, including the long-term damage it can cause in our youth, which may include the risks of teenage suicide; andWHEREAS, providing a safe physical and emotional environment is a significant goal and a personal responsibility of each individual; andWHEREAS, it is appropriate to speak out AGAINST bullying and FOR our children; andNOW, THEREFORE, I, Mayor Dan Sullivan, on behalf of the citizens of Anchorage do hereby proclaim the month of November 2009 asBULLYING AWARENESS MONTHin the city of Anchorage and encourage the community to acknowledge and address the important issue of bullying and work to prevent it from affecting our children.
2 Easy Steps to Gay Employment Protections that Sullivan can’t veto, Prevo can’t repeal
- ENDA will add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protections for paid workers in businesses with over 15 employees, and for local, state, and federal government employees. (Religious organizations are exempt, and so are the Armed Forces.)
- ENDA is likely to pass in the House, and is only a few votes short in the Senate. President Obama supports ENDA and has agreed to sign it.
- Earlier this year, Alaskans Together and Bent Alaska asked you to call Senators Begich and Murkowski in support of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Many Alaskans called, both of our senators voted in favor, and it was signed by Pres. Obama on October 28. Now, for the first time, LGBT Alaskans can turn to the federal government for help investigating and prosecuting violent hate crimes when our city and state authorities refuse to protect us. For the first time, harmful acts that target LGBT Alaskans are recognized as illegal.
- It’s time to do that again with ENDA to protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender workers from discrimination in Anchorage, in Alaska, and all over America.
- It’s time to pass employment protections for thousands of LGBT Alaskans, protections that cannot be blocked by an assembly chair, vetoed by a new mayor or repealed by a mob.
2.) Send this message to your friends and ask all Alaskans to call our senators in support of ENDA.
LDS Church supports Gay Anti-Discrimination ordinance passed by Salt Lake City
Queer, Christian, and raised in a Yupik Village
Julia McCarthy grew up Catholic in a Yupik village. She graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, worked in Anchorage for a few years, and now lives in Maine with her partner. She wrote this essay about her journey as a queer person of faith on October 30, a few days before the religious conservatives of Maine voted to repeal the state’s new same-sex marriage law.
* * *
How does that slogan go? I’m queer and I go to church – get used to it
I am a person who tries to practice my faith daily. I am a queer person who believes that we can experience mysteries that defy explanation in our daily life. I am a person who regularly attends church and believes that there are many, many paths to understanding ourselves and our relationship with the unknown. I am a person who loves math and science and logic and believes that we gain wisdom from knowledge.
My relationship with religion may seem complex to some. It is not a relationship which I choose to be very vocal about, for a variety of reasons. I’ve been inspired to try to share something of my path by the aggression I have seen directed toward a number of young people in our community and by the powerful words of our housemate, who chose to share his perspective. Thank you for reminding me that it’s important to come out in lots and lots of ways.
Spirituality and religion have played transformative roles in my life since I was born. The village culture I grew up in practiced both Catholicism (in Yupik) and a variety of ways of celebrating the worldview of Yupik peoples – dance, singing, mask making, storytelling, honoring the cycles of life. Fellowship with your community and with God was a part of my daily life in the village and imbued almost every task in some way or another. It’s how I learned to respect life, the natural world, responsibility to others, and more. These traditions are not without their challenges – most GLBTQ Yupik people I know have had both cultural and religious barriers to coming out. It was through the lessons I learned in the village that I developed a relationship with god, though, and it’s important to note that the lens through which that relationship developed was guided by the elders I loved and respected.
Throughout the rest of my childhood and into my teens I was a devout Catholic. I attended St. Nicholas Church in my hometown and, as I got older, found as many reasons to be at church as I could. My devotion to my faith set me apart from many of my peers and it was sometimes difficult for me to find community that was accepting of who I aspired to be. For a long time, I thought about becoming a nun – I felt my path to being a helping person was to be found next to God. I was confirmed as an adult in the tradition of that faith, and shortly thereafter chose to leave the Church. When I left Catholicism, I lost many of my friends. More importantly for me at the time, I lost my faith. There were a number of reasons that my relationship with God was damaged and the one reason that created a huge barrier for me in finding another community of faith was my queerness.
I was taught through declamations of supposedly loving people that the god that I had developed a relationship with throughout my life HATED me because I was queer. I learned through the behavior of my community and my peers that to be queer was to be without faith, without support, without dignity. I learned through conversations with other queer people that to adhere to a path of faith was scary and wrong, especially after understanding the damage inflicted upon queer people by communities of faith. I learned to create an armor to deflect the painful phrase “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” I learned to avoid conversations with people that had to do with any kind of spiritual belief system. I learned to hide my questions and to reject my beliefs and to keep my mouth shut so as not to offend anyone. I have watched people be shunned by their communities or live closeted in fear that they will be rejected and ridiculed if they come out. I have lost so many friends to suicide that I cannot keep track any longer. I decided that if there was any kind of higher purpose to life, it completely escaped me.
Then I met Jamez and with him I remembered what a joy it is to explore my faith. To lift up my voice in praise. To listen to a sermon and feel inspired to disagree with my faith leader and thereby learn more about who I am in the process. In this community of faith, I don’t need to make up my mind about anything to know that I have value.
When I think about the people who have been with me to explore my faith, I feel lucky to count among them people from all walks of life and all belief systems. It is not my intention to change your mind about your particular system of belief or non-belief.
I’ll tell you what I do think needs to change though:
I think more queer people need to feel safe coming out as people of faith.
I think people who are queer allies and practice any kind of religion need to feel like they can express dissent without becoming isolated.
I think people of faith who are NOT allies to GLBTQ people need to stop choosing to abuse their fellow humans with words and looks and actions.
We are complex beings, with beautiful multi-faceted identities. I want to see more love in the world, and if I can’t see that, I want to see more respect for one another.
