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PFLAG Showing "Further Off the Straight and Narrow"
Anchorage PFLAG will be showing “Further Off the Straight and Narrow: New Gay Visibility on T.V. from 1998 thru 2006” on January 15 at 7 p.m., during the monthly meeting at Immanuel Presbyterian Church.
“Further Off the Straight & Narrow” looks at sitcoms, reality shows, and premium cable programming and explores how GLBT characters on television are becoming more complex and varied. View the preview.
MLK Weekend Honors Bayard Rustin
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:
Create a Logo for Alaskans Together
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 life of one gay Alaskan
Slade, a gay young man in Alaska, takes a lot of photos and creates music video slide shows of himself, his friends and their activities.
This Week in LGBT Alaska 1/9/09
Check out this week’s events from Alaska GLBT News.
For full listings, news and up-coming events, subscribe to AGN, the weekly email newsletter.
The deadline for the RAW Short Story Contest is next Thursday, Jan. 15. Open to all women living in Alaska. The pieces must be fiction, between 250 and 5,000 words, and contain some lesbian content. For prizes and guidelines, see Radical Arts for Women.
EVENTS
Juneau
Miniature Golf New Year Social 1/10, 4 p.m. at the JACC. Contact SEAGLA.
Fairbanks
PFLAG’s January Meeting 1/10, 4 p.m.
The Masquerade Ball (show & dance) 1/10, doors at 7 p.m., show at 8 p.m. dancing after. Join ICOAA at the Carlson Center.
Anchorage
Sarah Gavit will bring the message at MCC’s Sunday service 1/11, 2 p.m.
PrideFest planning meeting 1/12, 6 p.m. Join Identity and ICOAA in planning Anchorage PrideFest 2009, set for June 14-21.
Step by Step with Rev. Van Manen 1/15, 6: 30 p.m. Fellowship at 6:30 p.m. and class at 7 p.m. Metropolitan Community Church.
Tee Time: SEAGLA Miniature Golf Social
The GLBT community in Juneau and their friends are invited to play miniature golf for a New Year Social, on Saturday, January 10, at 4 p.m. at the Juneau Arts and Cultural Center.
“The JACC miniature golf course is really incredible, simple to do, and very fun,” said the announcement from SEAGLA, the Southeast Alaska Gay and Lesbian Alliance. “It will be fun for the whole family.”
SEAGLA has paid for the first hour of golfing, so don’t be late! Pay-your-own-way golfing continues until 6 p.m. for $5 per round of golf.
Participants can make donations to SEAGLA or renew their memberships for 2009, and can make donations toward the cost of the golf course rental, which is a fundraiser for JACC.
The Juneau Arts & Humanities Council web site has a slide show of the JACC sculpture garden miniature golf course.
SEAGLA also holds Social Fridays from 6-8 p.m. at the Imperial Bar in downtown Juneau. GLBT people and friends over 21 are invited to have a drink and unwind from the work week, meet new people and catch up with friends.
Visit SEAGLA for more information about GLBT activities in Southeast Alaska.
Step by Step with MCC’s Rev. Van Manen
Rev. Norman Van Manen, the new pastor of MCC Anchorage, is starting a spiritual development and leadership class called Step by Step that will replace the Soul Food program on Thursday evenings.
Step by Step begins on January 8, with fellowship and snacks at 6:30 p.m. and the class at 7 p.m.
Metropolitan Community Church of Anchorage, a GLBT-inclusive church, appointed Rev. Van Manen to the position of Development Pastor immediately following his visit in mid-December.
“We were greatly encouraged by the overwhelmingly positive response to Rev. Van Manen,” wrote Matthew Moak, the Vice-Moderator.
Rev. Van Manen will officially take the helm of MCC Anchorage on February 15th, 2009. The annual congregational meeting, usually held the third week of January, will be postponed until the new pastor is installed.
Fund to Support Lesbian Rape Victim
Two men and two male teenagers were arrested for the December gang rape of a California lesbian. The perpetrators taunted her for being a lesbian during the 45-minute attack and repeated raping, and police are investigating it as a hate crime.
The lesbian community has rallied to help the “Richmond Jane Doe” victim, and blogger Tata created the page We’re Here For You. The community held a candlelight vigil, and volunteers distributed flyers about the “Most Wanted Criminals” that provided leads to the arrest of the four suspects.
“Our hearts were broken when we read what happened to you,” Tata wrote to Jane Doe. “We offer our strength, we offer our tenderness, and we hope that there can be for you at least some small measure of comfort in knowing that we’re here for you.”
A benefit show is planned for January 9 and a fund was set up to raise money for Jane Doe’s medical costs, a safe home for herself, her partner, and their child, and a car that isn’t saturated with her blood and the memories of being repeatedly assaulted in it.
To donate to the “Richmond Jane Doe” fund, send a check made payable to Community Violence Solutions to: Community Violence Solutions, Attn: Jo Ann Douglas, 2101 Van Ness Street, San Pablo, CA 94806. Write “Richmond Jane Doe” in the memo line.
National Drag History Month
January 2009 marks the first-ever celebration of National Drag History Month!
“This month-long event salutes the richness of drag culture and pays tribute to the courageous queens & kings who have fought for equality while inspiring, educating & entertaining us all,” according to Logo, the sponsors of Drag History Month.
Come celebrate Drag History Month in Fairbanks at ICOAA‘s Masquerade Ball, January 10 at the Carlson Center, 8 p.m. The evening includes a drag show, food, and a contest awarding $100 for the best mask.
Please Don’t Divorce Alaska’s Married-in-California Couples
The “Yes on 8” campaign has filed legal papers to nullify all 18,000 gay and lesbian marriages performed in California between May and November of 2008.
In response, dozens of families added wedding and holiday photos to a slideshow of same-sex couples who will be divorced if the anti-gay effort succeeds.
The California Supreme Court is expected to rule on the constitutionality of Prop 8 in the spring.
The “Please Don’t Divorce” Project
In response to the threat to gay and lesbian families, The Courage Campaign created an online slideshow of same-sex married couples, along with friends and relatives who support them.
“It’s time to put a face to the 18,000 couples facing forcible divorce by the state of California. To put a face to marriage equality,” says the web site of the community photo project.
Dozens of families contributed wedding photos with the message “Please Don’t Divorce Us” and holiday pictures of their children, pets and Christmas trees.
Other supporters sent pictures saying, “Please Don’t Divorce Our Friends” or “Please Don’t Divorce Love.”
Gay Alaskans Married in California
There is no residency requirement for marrying in California, and same-sex couples from Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau were married there, along with couples from other states and countries.
Mo and Lin of Juneau were legally married in San Francisco on Sept. 15, eighteen years after their original, non-legal wedding. Juneau residents formed a “human arch of love and acceptance” for the couple to walk through during the October reception, and the party raised money for Equality California.
At the Anchorage rally protesting the passage of Prop 8, a gay couple put their wedding photo on their signs, and a lesbian couple brought copies of their Palm Springs marriage certificate. Both couples were interviewed by local television reporters at the Nov. 15 rally.
The same day at the Fairbanks City Hall protest, two young men posed for a photo with their sign: “Just Married, San Francisco, Sept 8, 2008.”
The state of Alaska does not recognize these marriages, but they are recognized in at least four states, Canada, and several other countries.
Please don’t divorce them!
View the pictures “Please Don’t Divorce Us” and add your wedding photo, or a photo in support of your married friends.
– Photo: Lori & Artemis with their California marriage certificate, at the Anchorage protest against Prop 8. (photo by Koala)
