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.
Tuesday, 17 February 2009 – 11:36 PM
| Comments Off on “Gender identity” added to Fairbanks school policies
Fairbanks North Star Borough School District passed a motion to include “gender identity” as a protected group in their non-discrimination and anti-harassment policies — the first school district in Alaska to do so.
Wednesday, 11 February 2009 – 4:20 PM
| Comments Off on Fairbanks NSB school board vs. PTA president on gender identity
In a first for Alaska, the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District is set to add gender identity to its non-discrimination and anti-harassment policies — over the objections of the PTA president of the school that asked for advice on the policy.
Wednesday, 11 February 2009 – 3:21 PM
| 2 Comments
William Saltonstall, a former Massachusetts state senator who died last month at the age of 81, was an outspoken ally of LGBT equality, in part because of his daughter and grandson who live in Palmer.
Saltonstall was a staunch Republican who served in the legislature from 1966 to 1978. He became an advocate for LGBT rights in the last decade of his life.
In 2000, he began speaking out against opponents of gay adoption and same-sex marriage. He wrote letters, donated money and lobbied for marriage equality. In 2006, Saltonstall changed his party affiliation to democrat. “I’ve been active in the gay rights movement, because my daughter is gay – she lives in Alaska – and the party has not been favorable to people like her,” he told the Boston Globe.
Abigail, her partner Chris and their three children live in Palmer and own Half Moon Creek art gallery in Anchorage.
Tuesday, 10 February 2009 – 5:36 PM
| Comments Off on What do you know about LGBT Alaska?
Art, politics, entertainment, sports, religion – share your knowledge of LGBT Alaska on the blog. Interview your friends, review our shows, give good advice or spread outrageous rumors! It’s time to expand the blog and bring in more writers who represent different voices within our community. Send your ideas to Bent Alaska and see your byline on line. Thanks!
Monday, 9 February 2009 – 3:59 PM
| Comments Off on Freedom to Marry Week
The annual Freedom to Marry Week is February 8-14, 2009. We are asked to tell three people what it’s like for us or our loved ones to be LGBT, and what it means to be treated as less than equal for being gay. Why? Because people who know about our lives are more likely to support our civil rights.
Who will you tell?
Meanwhile, check out this touching Fidelity video with the “Don’t Divorce Us” photos. I saw a picture of Alaska in there – is this someone we know?
Sunday, 8 February 2009 – 6:53 PM
| Comments Off on Pick. Click. Give. for Gay Alaska
Alaskans can go online to apply for the PFD and support our favorite Alaska non-profits with just a click. It’s a chance for all of us to come together and give a little extra.
More than 330 organizations have qualified for the 2009 PFD check-off program, including several LGBT non-profits and our allies: Identity, Four A’s, the ACLU of Alaska, and Out North.
To donate all or part of your PFD, apply online then choose the groups you would like to support. The filing period continues through March 31, 2009.
Saturday, 7 February 2009 – 10:09 PM
| One Comment
National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day 2009 on aims to get Black Americans educated about the basics of HIV/AIDS, get tested to know their HIV status, get involved in their community around the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and get treated if they are living with HIV/AIDS.
Because “Black Life Is Worth Saving!”
For AIDS testing and information in Alaska, contact Four A’s in Anchorage and Juneau, and Interior AIDS Assoc. in Fairbanks.
PFLAG Fairbanks meeting to discuss the proposed School Board policy change 2/8, 4 p.m.
Mat-Su Valley
Mat-Su LGBT Community Centersocial support group meetings to discuss LBGT issues in the valley. Mondays at 2 p.m. and Wednesdays at 5 p.m. Vagabond Blues in Palmer.
If you read Alaska GLBT News, you already know that Dan Savage, an openly-gay author of a popular sex-advice column, is coming to Anchorage on Feb. 12 to present Savage Love Live, a talk followed by audience questions on anything and everything sexual.
Feb. 12, the day of the Anchorage show, is also national Freedom to Marry Day. Savage and his partner were married in Canada in 2005, and Dan is a strong advocate of LGBT equality.
“‘[H]homophobia, like racism, is a pastime of the ignorant and elderly. And the elderly are leaving us. They want to take a snapshot of this moment in time and lock in these prejudices, and make them hard to undo. But they’re losing ground. We’re moving the ball down the field and we’re winning. It’s just… Canada got the French; Australia got the convicts; we got the fuckin’ Puritans.'”
See Savage Love Live at UAA’s Wendy Williamson Auditorium, 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 12. Students with a UAA ID get in free. General Public tickets are $10 and are available at UAATix.
Wednesday, 4 February 2009 – 5:46 PM
| Comments Off on Knocked Down, Get Up: Inspiration from Creating Change
Tiffany McClain attended the Creating Change conference last week in Denver. In this guest post, she describes the diversity of activists, the inspiring setting, and the lessons she brought home for Alaska’s LGBT civil rights movement.
——-
A Broad Definition of What It Means To Be an Activist
Sponsored by the National Lesbian & Gay Task Force, the annual Creating Change conference is 5 days of inspiration, nuts-and-bolts training, and a little entertainment for campaigners, grassroots organizers, service-providers, faith leaders, community center workers, teachers, and artists who are dedicated to advancing the rights and quality of life for LGBT people in our country.
I attended a workshop with someone who serves LGBT youth with wilderness-based therapy, people who directed the LGBT center at their local universities, a young woman who is training the children of lesbian and gay parents to be advocates for LGBT families, another who honed her organizing skills by moving from state-to-state working on campaigns to fight anti-gay marriage initiatives, and queer youth of color who are fighting gentrification in New York City. During our closing brunch, we were entertained by The Kinsey Sicks, a drag a capella group that blends comedy and political commentary in their performances.
The diversity of individuals at the conference was a reminder that the future of the LGBT movement will be the collective success of people with different skills, talents, and passions. Not just the lobbyists and vote-counters but the teachers, not just the grassroots organizers but the artists, not just the people who see marriage as the ultimate goal of the LGBT movement, but those fighting the displacement of poor and working-class families from their neighborhoods. Creating Change is an opportunity for us to learn with and from each other, and to take these lessons back to our communities and places of work.
Living the Change We’re Working For
What was inspiring about attending Creating Change was not only the opportunity to train and brainstorm with other activists, but also the world that the Taskforce created for almost a week: a world where gender neutral bathrooms were located on every public floor of the hotel, where every downtown restaurant and even the Denver airport greeted LGBT people with welcome signs, where queer people of different races, ages, classes, abilities, gender identities and religions found common purpose and were comfortable enough to challenge each others’ prejudices. The organizers of Creating Change inspired conference-goers to continue advocating for change in our communities by showing us what change feels like.
“Get Knocked Down 7 Times, Get Up 8”*
If I were to sum up the theme of this year’s Creating Change conference in one word, I would say “resilience.” There were a lot of activists from California still grappling with what could have gone wrong with the Prop 8 initiative and trying to heal from the weeks of unfair back-biting and blaming that followed the election. But the disappointments of these last few months have not discouraged them from continuing the fight and working on the next strategy to advance the rights of LGBT people in California and across the country.
I sometimes hear LGBT Alaskans cite past defeats and the power of conservatism as a reason not to push for civil rights in our state. At Creating Change, I was reminded that very few LGBT communities and activists tasted victory before they tasted defeat. (And some defeats can be victories: 52% to 48% in CA is not a landslide. That’s a lot of people who believe that gays and lesbians should be able to get legally married!) My point is, if we want to live in a community as welcoming as Denver or Seattle, we have to be willing to build it ourselves—even if it means risking defeat along the way.
* Quote from Rea Carey, Executive Director of the National Lesbian & Gay Task Force
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.
National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day 2009 on aims to get Black Americans educated about the basics of HIV/AIDS, get tested to know their HIV status, get involved in their community around the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and get treated if they are living with HIV/AIDS.
