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Alaskans Together on Palin’s LGBT Record
Sarah Palin has a very limited relationship with the Alaska LGBT community, due to her short time in office as Governor and her previous background as mayor of a small city in one of Alaska’s more conservative areas. Governor Palin is a conservative politician in a conservative state, and she did not initiate a relationship with the LGBT community as either mayor or governor.
However, one of Governor Palin’s first duties involved 3 pieces of LGBT legislation.
As he was leaving office, former Gov. Murkowski called a special legislative session to challenge an Alaska Supreme Court decision granting benefits to same-sex partners of public employees and retirees in Alaska. The court decision was the result of a case filed four years earlier by ACLU on behalf of nine same-sex couples. One partner in each couple was a State employee and the other partner was denied benefits as a result of a 1998 constitutional amendment that defined marriage as between a man and a woman. The equal protection clause of the Alaska Constitution prevailed in that Supreme Court decision, but our Republican legislature was determined to prevent the benefits from being provided on the date of implementation, January 1, 2007.
Because of the implementation deadline, Sarah Palin was required to act on the 3 pieces of legislation prior to taking the oath of office as governor:
1) She vetoed HB 4001 on the grounds that it violated the constitution. HB 4001 would have prohibited the Commissioner of Administration from implementing the regulations that would extend same-sex partner benefits.
2) She let a resolution stand that urged the court to delay implementation of same-sex partner benefits. The court did not grant the delay.
3) In the most detrimental move for the LGBT community, she signed into law HB 4002, calling for a statewide advisory vote on the provision of same-sex partner employment benefits.
That advisory vote occurred on April 3, 2007 at the cost of $1.2 million to the State of Alaska. Representative John Coghill, HB 4002’s prime sponsor, said publicly that he was looking for “an overwhelming majority” of Alaskans to vote in favor of only providing benefits to opposite sex couples so he would have public support for legislation to enact another constitutional amendment. He did not get his overwhelming majority. Alaskans voted 52% in favor and 48% against the advisory vote – figures which we in the LGBT community consider a strong success for our side.
“Please know that this veto does not signal any change or modification to my disagreement with the action and order by the Alaskan Supreme Court,” Palin wrote in her signing statement on her veto of HB 4001.
“I feel as though Alaskans spoke on this issue with their overwhelming support for a constitutional amendment in 1998 which defined marriage as between a man and a woman,” she said in interviews with the Anchorage Daily News. She went on to say that she would accept the Alaska Supreme Court order and that the state must provide benefits to same-sex partners. (Anchorage Daily News, Our View, Saturday, December 30, 2006).
Marsha Buck, Co-chair
Alaskans Together for Equality, Inc.
Alaskans Together Foundation, Inc.
Alaskans Together is Alaska’s statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender organization advancing civil equality for all Alaskans through grassroots organizing and advocacy.
The New Spin on Palin and LGBT Rights
The Log Cabin Club (gay republicans, not Alaskan homesteaders) believes that Palin’s anonymous gay friend makes her an “inclusive” Republican despite her record of strong opposition to LGBT rights.
It’s pre-emptive doublespeak. They label Sarah an “inclusive” Republican to hide the real problem – that her religious and political views are openly homophobic and the ticket is hostile to LGBT equality.
Alaskans know Sarah Palin’s record against same-sex partner benefits, against same-sex marriage, and against LGBT civil rights. We’re not fooled by the new spin. Don’t you be fooled either.
This Blade article on the inclusive/divisive issue quotes Marsha Buck, co-chair of Alaskans Together for Equality.
‘Inclusive’ or divisive?
Palin praised by Log Cabin, denounced by gay Democrats
By LOU CHIBBARO JR., Washington Blade | Sep 3, 10:52 AM
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s running mate, strongly opposes domestic partner benefits for Alaska’s state employees, even though she vetoed a bill to block same-sex partners from receiving the benefits.
Officials with Log Cabin Republicans and National Stonewall Democrats, the nation’s largest gay GOP and gay Democratic groups, offered sharply differing views this week on Palin’s gay rights record as the groups jumped into the political fray over a vice presidential pick that surprised leaders of both parties.
“Governor Palin is an inclusive Republican who will help Sen. McCain appeal to gay and lesbian voters,” said Log Cabin President Patrick Sammon. “She’s a mainstream Republican who will unite the party and serve John McCain well as vice president.”
But John Marble, spokesperson for National Stonewall Democrats, called Palin a “champion of anti-LGBT special interests.” Marble noted her 1998 support of a state constitutional amendment approved by voters that bans gay marriage and her 2006 opposition to domestic partner benefits for state employees.
Palin, 44, is the first woman to be named as a vice presidential candidate by the Republican Party. She is a self-described maverick who shook up the Republican Party in Alaska by unseating a fellow GOP governor, Frank Murkowski, in the 2006 Republican primary and defeated a Democratic former governor, Tony Knowles, in the general election.
During her 2006 gubernatorial campaign, Palin revealed her approach to certain gay issues in a questionnaire for Eagle Forum Alaska, a conservative group.
Among other questions, the group asked, “Will you support an effort to expand hate crime laws?” Palin responded, “No, as I believe all heinous crime is based on hate.”
She also answered a question about extending spousal benefits to domestic partners. That question asked, “Do you support the Alaska Supreme Court’s ruling that spousal benefits for state employees should be given to same-sex couples?” Palin responded, “No, I believe spousal benefits are reserved for married citizens as defined in our constitution.”
Another question asked Palin for her priorities “in relationship to families.” The second priority she listed was “preserving the definition of ‘marriage’ as defined in our constitution.”
The questionnaire also asked whether candidates would support funding for abstinence-until-marriage programs, an issue that hits close to home for Palin, whose 17-year-old daughter is five months pregnant.
Her response: “Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support.”
Prior to being elected governor, Palin served as mayor of the Alaskan town of Wasilla, which has fewer than 10,000 residents. She started her career as a sports reporter for an Anchorage television station after receiving a degree in journalism from the University of Idaho. In 1984 she was named Miss Congeniality and first runner-up in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant.
She is married to Todd Palin, a native Yup’ik Eskimo who works as an oil field production operator in the state’s oil rich North Slope. The couple has five children.
Palin’s position on domestic partner benefits is being closely scrutinized by gay activists, with some gay Republicans praising her decision to veto a bill aimed at blocking the partner benefits from taking effect.
The benefits issue became a political hot potato in Alaska in 2005, when the state’s Supreme Court ordered the state to provide the same health and pension benefits to domestic partners of state employees that were available to the employees’ married spouses. The court’s decision, which stemmed from a 1999 lawsuit filed by nine same-sex couples, found that the equal protection clause of the Alaska Constitution required that same-sex partners of state employees receive benefits equal to those received by married employees.
Palin won election as governor in November 2006. Under Alaska’s election law, she took office in December 2006 — less than a month before a Jan. 1, 2007, deadline imposed by the court for implementing the same-sex partner benefits.
Shortly before Palin took the oath of office as governor, the Alaska Legislature passed a bill that defied the high court ruling by prohibiting the Alaska Commissioner of Administration from providing the health and pension benefits to same-sex couples. The legislature also passed a separate bill that called for a non-binding, advisory ballot measure asking voters whether the state should adopt a constitutional amendment overturning the court’s decision on the partner benefits.
On Dec. 20, 2006, in one of her first legislative acts, Palin signed the bill calling for the advisory ballot measure, saying it would lay the groundwork for a state constitutional ban on the partner benefits.
Eight days later, on Dec. 28, 2006, she vetoed the bill seeking to block the benefits from being offered to same-sex partners of state employees, saying her attorney general advised her that the bill was unconstitutional.
“Signing this bill would be in direct violation of my oath of office,” Palin said in a statement.
At the time of the veto, Palin reiterated her opposition to the court ruling on the benefits issue as well as her opposition to same-sex marriage.
“I believe that honoring the family structure is that important,” Palin told the Anchorage Daily News in explaining why she opposed gay marriage and same-sex partner benefits for state employees.
The newspaper reported that Palin said she’s “not out to judge anyone and has good friends who are gay.”
Her strong religious views, which also include opposition to abortion, were the underlying reason for her opposition to gay marriage and same-sex partner benefits, she told the Anchorage Daily news.
In April 2007, Alaska’s voters approved the advisory measure in support of a constitutional amendment to overturn the court’s decision on same-sex partners by a margin of 53 percent to 47 percent.
Marsha Buck, co-chair of Alaskans Together for Equality, a statewide gay group whose members campaigned against the advisory ballot measure, said the 47 percent vote opposing the measure shocked many of the state’s conservative, anti-gay advocates, who expected the measure to pass by a landslide.
“They expected the margin to be similar to the 1998 marriage amendment, which passed by a vote of 65 percent to 35 percent,” Buck said. “It took the wind out of their sails.”
One month later, in May 2007, the proposed constitutional amendment itself came before the Alaska House of Representatives and fell short of receiving the required two-thirds majority vote. Later that year, the proposed amendment died in committee in the Alaska Senate.
The amendment’s lead supporter, State Rep. John Coghill, a Republican, has vowed to bring the measure up for another vote, although it has not yet resurfaced this year.
“America may not know much about Sarah Palin, but based on what our community has seen of her, we know enough,” said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay advocacy group.
“Sarah Palin not only supported the 1998 Alaska constitutional amendment banning marriage equality but, in her less than two years as governor, even expressed the extreme position of supporting stripping away domestic partner benefits for workers.”
Solmonese noted that the strong backing Palin has received from conservative religious groups like the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family, which oppose gay rights, indicates that she would be hostile to gays if elected vice president.
Marble, in a statement on the National Stonewall Democrats’ web site, joined Democratic critics who have pointed to allegations that Palin attempted to pressure Alaskan state police into firing her ex-brother-in-law, who serves on that force. Marble also seized on criticism suggesting that Palin is unqualified to become vice president due to her limited experience as a former small town mayor and governor of two years.
“Sen. McCain is demonstrating that he does not approach the weighty issues of war, terrorism and the economy with heavy thought — as demonstrated by selecting a corrupt, first-term governor,” Marble said. “The greatest requirement of a vice president is the ability to lead when called upon, yet Sen. McCain has selected a running mate who, only two years ago, had only tackled the responsibilities of a part-time village mayor.”
But Palin’s supporters at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis dismissed such criticism this week, saying she has more executive experience as a former mayor and a governor than Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
Buck said the gay and lesbian Alaskans she knows don’t view Palin as a friend of the gay community and are puzzled over press reports that Palin has gay friends.
“We hear from people in the lower 48 that she is somewhat supportive,” Buck said. “We don’t see that. We don’t know who these gay friends are. We are thinking they must not be Alaskans.”
More on Sarah Palin and Gay Rights
Today was another big news day for Sarah Palin and LGBT issues in Alaska.
(For a good summary of Palin’s record, see Alaskans Together on Palin’s LGBT Record.)
First I found this post with a cabinet member and Alaskan delegate to the RNC commenting on Gov. Palin’s opposition to gay rights, from The Gist, via Good As You:
Well, our pal Michelangelo Signorile is here to help us out. He is actually on site at the Republican convention, where he has obtained even more proof that the “pro-gay Palin” notion is just wishful thinking. This from Mike’s blog:I went to the Alaska delegation and spoke with a woman who is in Palin’s cabinet. She assured me that Palin is not in favor of giving any rights to gays and didn’t want to give domestic partnership rights to government employees but that she had to veto the bill that would have rescinded such rights because of the Alaska Supreme Court ruling. So can we please cut this crap Log Cabin and the McCain campaign have been trying to put out: Palin only vetoed an antigay bill because she had to, by law. This woman, Annette Kreitzer, who serves in Sarah Palin’s cabinet in the Department of Administration, said, oh, well, it was the law — drat! — or something like that.
Then several people sent this post from the Washington Blade on Palin’s answers to three LGBT-related questions:
WASHINGTON – During her 2006 run for Governor, Sarah Palin filled out an Alaska Eagle Forum questionnaire that reveals even more about her stance and view on LGBT equality.One of the questions the conservative group asked her on the questionnaire was her views on expanding hate crimes laws. The question reads, “Will you support an effort to expand hate crimes laws?”Palin answered, “No, as I believe all heinous crime is based on hate.”Another question from the same survey asked, “Do you support the Alaska Supreme Court’s ruling that spousal benefits for state employees should be given to same-sex couples? Why or why not?”Palin answered, “No, I believe spousal benefits are reserved for married citizens as defined in our constitution.”And last, but not least, Palin was asked what her top three priorities, as regards to families, would be while Governor.Palin answered, “#2 – Preserving the definition of ‘marriage’ as defined in our constitution.”
I just received this quote about her church’s support of the anti-gay conference coming to Anchorage in ten days, from an article on TIME:
Churches proliferate in Wasilla today, and among the largest and most influential is the Wasilla Bible Church, where the Palins worship.At the 11:15 a.m. Sunday service, hundreds sit in folding chairs, listening to a 20-minute sermon about the Book of Malachi and singing along to alt-rock praise songs. The only sign of culture warring in the whole production is an insert in the day’s program advertising an upcoming Focus on the Family conference on homosexuality in Anchorage called Love Won Out. The group promises to teach attendees how to “respond to misinformation in our culture” and help them “overcome” homosexuality.
Does Sarah Palin believe that homosexuality can and should be “overcome?” I’d love to hear her answer to that question.
Palin Supports Gay Rights?
No, she doesn’t. She opposes health benefits for gay and lesbian partners, and supported a $1.2 million non-binding advisory vote for legislation that would have taken away the partner benefits granted by an Alaska Supreme Court ruling. (The vote passed by a narrow margin, and the benefits remain.)
For the full story on the health benefits, see: Alaskans Together on Palin’s LGBT Record. For Palin on other gay issues, see the Sarah Palin Series.
But conflicting reports about Gov. Sarah Palin’s stand on gay rights are showing up all over the web. Outside reporters know little about her record on gay rights (or anything else) and call her everything from ally to enemy.
The mainstream media says she opposes same-sex marriage but has gay friends and is sympathetic to gay issues. (Their evidence of her sympathy shows how little they know about her.)
The national liberal and conservative media found something to agree on: that Palin is anti-gay.
The evangelical writers are excited to vote for her, the progressives are disgusted by her anti-health benefits stand and by the media’s “gay friends” spin.
The national LGBT media recognizes her opposition to equality and civil rights – except the Log Cabin Republicans (gay republicans, believe it or not) who think she is a wonderful choice.
And the fringe elements are joining the fray.
In these reports, I found only two LGBT Alaskans quoted (both in the same article by Gay City News):
Some press reports following the McCain campaign announcement have repeated the right-wing rhetorical flourish that has Palin declaring that she has gay friends. That softer image is not what some Alaskans saw.“That’s just completely wrong,” said Allison E. Mendel, the attorney who brought the 1999 [partner benefits] case. “She spoke on radio programs all throughout the campaign saying, ‘I want a constitutional amendment, I think these things are only for a man and a woman.’ … I don’t think she’s ever said a friendly word about gay people, that they ought to have health benefits like other people do or anything along those lines.”On AIDS issues, Palin simply has no record at all.“There is not a lot to speak of for AIDS policy because she hasn’t done much,” said Trevor Storrs, executive director of the Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association. “She’s never been given the opportunity to address our situation here because it has never been put before her.”“She has done very little to address the major epidemics,” he said.
But the most often quoted sentence about her stand on gay rights was from her old Wiki profile: “She opposes same-sex marriage, but she has stated that she has gay friends and is receptive to gay and lesbian concerns about discrimination.”
Then her Wiki profile was changed and currently reads: “Palin has said she has good friends who are gay, opposes same-sex marriage, but complied with an Alaskan state Supreme Court order and signed an implementation of same-sex benefits into law, stating that legal options to avoid doing so had run out. She supported a non-binding referendum for a constitutional amendment to deny benefits to homosexual couples.”
The Associated Press reported that Palin “opposes gay marriage — constitutionally banned in Alaska before her time — but exercised a veto that essentially granted benefits to gay state employees and their partners.”
That sentence is quoted in numerous articles to imply that she is sympathetic to gay and lesbian rights.
The national LGBT rights group HRC has the real story:
“Sarah Palin not only supported the 1998 Alaska constitutional amendment banning marriage equality but, in her less than two years as Governor, even expressed the extreme position of supporting stripping away domestic partner benefits for state workers. When you can’t even support giving our community the rights to health insurance and pension benefits, it’s a frightening window into where she stands on equality.”
Meanwhile, someone has created a web site called Sarah Palin Gay Rights . com. This is the full text:
Sarah Palin (GOV-Alaska-Republican), supports gay rights, says Anchorage Daily News.Quote “Gov. Sarah Palin vetoed a bill Thursday that sought to block the state from giving public employee benefits such as health insurance to same-sex couples.”Quote “”It is the Governor’s intention to work with the legislature and to give the people of Alaska an opportunity to express their wishes and intentions whether these benefits should continue,” the statement from Palin’s administration said.”Coghill said he’s interested in a new plan that would allow state employees to designate one person — maybe a same-sex partner, but also possibly a family member or roommate — who would be eligible for state-paid benefits. But the employee would have to pay to add that person to his or her benefits.”Sarah Palin’s veto gave gays the same rights as married couples in Alaska.A vote for McCain/Palin is a vote for gay marriage.
The quotes don’t support the conclusion, but the overall message is clear: evangelicals should not be fooled into voting for McCain because they think Palin supports their agenda. The site is anonymous, maybe by a disgruntled Huckabee supporter?
Many readers of Bent Alaska are LGBT Alaskans and our allies. You know more about Sarah and gay rights in Alaska than the Outsiders. What do you think about Palin and gay rights?
Sarah Palin and Gay Rights in Alaska
UPDATE: For Gov. Palin’s response to all three pieces of LGBT legislation, see: Alaskan’s Together on Palin’s LGBT Record.
From Gay City News:
Republican Senator John McCain has selected Sarah Palin, Alaska’s governor and a little-known conservative with a slim record on gay and AIDS issues, to be his running mate in the 2008 presidential race.
“She’s fairly socially conservative, she’s fairly anti-choice,” said Jeffrey A. Mittman, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska (ACLU).
Palin became governor in 2006 after serving as a councilwoman and then mayor of a small Alaskan town. She made an unsuccessful run at becoming Alaska’s lieutenant governor in 2002. Palin has confronted a single piece of gay rights legislation in that time.
In 2005, Alaska’s highest court ruled, in a case brought in 1999 on behalf of nine couples, that the state could not deny benefits to the domestic partners of state government employees. The court ordered the state to implement that ruling in late 2006.
The ruling was seen by right wingers as conflicting with a 1998 amendment to the Alaska Constitution, passed by voters in a ballot referendum, that defined marriage as solely between one man and one woman. The Republican-dominated State Legislature passed a bill that barred the state’s administrative agency from implementing the ruling. Palin vetoed it.
“The Department of Law advised me that this bill… is unconstitutional given the recent court order… mandating same-sex benefits,” Palin said in a statement. “With that in mind, signing this bill would be in direct violation of my oath of office.”
The statement added, “The governor’s veto does not signal any change or modification to her disagreement with the action and order by the Alaska Supreme Court. It is the governor’s intention to work with the Legislature and to give the people of Alaska an opportunity to express their wishes and intentions whether these benefits should continue.”
Eight days before signing the veto, Palin signed another bill that called for a “statewide advisory vote” regarding the ruling from Alaska’s high court, saying in a statement, “We may disagree with the rationale behind the ruling, but our responsibility is to proceed forward with the law and follow the Constitution… I disagree with the recent court decision because I feel as though Alaskans spoke on this issue with its overwhelming support for a Constitutional Amendment in 1998 which defined marriage as between a man and woman. But the Supreme Court has spoken and the state will abide.”
The ACLU’s Mittman framed the way the bill calling for the statewide advisory played out in the ongoing controversy about the high court’s order.
“Then what happened was the anti-gay forces came up with what they called an advisory vote,” he said. “It was essentially a way for anti-LGBT people to try and rally public opinion to try and move their agenda forward.”
In 2007, the state spent an estimated $1 million to hold that vote and Alaskans expressed their opposition to the court ruling by a narrow margin. The vote did not have the effect of making law.
The McCain campaign has very effectively spun the veto to show Palin, 44, as sympathetic toward the gay and lesbian community.
Palin opposes same sex marriage.
A 2006 Anchorage Daily News story, said of Palin: “She’s not out to judge anyone and has good friends who are gay,” but that “she supported the 1998 constitutional amendment.”
Some press reports following the McCain campaign announcement have repeated that right-wing rhetorical flourish that has Palin declaring that she has gay friends. That softer image is not what some Alaskans saw.
“That’s just completely wrong,” said Allison E. Mendel, the attorney who brought the 1999 case. “She spoke on radio programs all throughout the campaign saying, ‘I want a constitutional amendment, I think these things are only for a man and a woman.’ … I don’t think she’s ever said a friendly word about gay people, that they ought to have health benefits like other people do or anything along those lines.”
On AIDS issues, Palin simply has no record at all.
“There is not a lot to speak of for AIDS policy because she hasn’t done much,” said Trevor Storrs, executive director of the Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association. “She’s never been given the opportunity to address our situation here because it has never been put before her.”
With roughly 1,200 AIDS cases, Alaska is a “low incidence state,” Storrs said, and most of its HIV funds come from the federal government.
Then Palin’s 20 months in the governor’s office have been taken up with the state’s oil and gas industry. Health issues generally, such as substance abuse or mental health, have not received much attention, Storrs said.
“She has done very little to address the major epidemics,” he said.
Kimberly Pace: Obama’s Acceptance Speech and My View on the Issues
Guest blogger Kimberly Pace is Alaska’s openly-LGBT delegate to the Democratic Convention in Denver. (Read her previous posts live from the Convention and an interview of her by DemConWatch.)
We arrived back in Anchorage safe and sound and in time to watch nearly 6 hours on CSPAN on the last day of the convention. I was thrilled to see some of our Alaskan delegation and was envious of their experience on this historic day. Obama’s acceptance speech was positive, informative, inspiring, and electrifying. It has been a long time since I have been so moved by a presidential candidate.
He spoke about issues that are near and dear to my heart and to those around me. These issues include, but are by no means limited to:
1) Health – I believe that in this country, everyone regardless of income or position should be entitled to affordable health care of the highest quality.2) Education – Better schools means better preparation for our people in this globalized economy. Also I love the idea of the exchange of college education for public service – let’s make college available for everyone!3) Civil rights for all citizens regardless of sexual orientation – people are people and deserve to be treated fairly and with dignity and respect.4) Increased funding to support our troops with adequate health care, equipment, and improved services – while we may disagree with the war, it is deplorable that many of our troops are falling between the cracks when it comes to providing their basic needs. That is tragic, and I feel that Obama will make an excellent Commander-in-Chief and will make sure that our troops are getting not only what they need but also what they deserve.5) Energy – I think Obama is right on the mark when he talks about the need for a shift in our energy reliance on foreign countries for our energy needs. We need to develop alternative energy sources such as geothermal, wind, solar, biofuels etc., not spend Gazillions (technical term there) drilling for oil (especially off-shore) when we could spend a fraction of that amount and build new industries that will create millions of Green Collar jobs.
There were many other issues but those were the ones that leapt out to me.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself at the Convention. It was the chance of a lifetime and I am so honored that I was chosen. It was AWESOME!
This Week in GLBT Alaska 8/28/08
Check out this week’s events from Alaska GLBT News, the email newsletter.
For full listings, news briefs, and up-coming events, subscribe to AGN.
Anchorage
Thursday Night Soul Food at MCC, 6:30 p.m. $6 donation for dinner. 8/28: Fish Don’t Fly – a documentary about the ex-gay movement. 9/4: But I’m a Cheerleader — a comedy about the ex-gay movement.
Coronation XXXVI – A Tribute to Heroes, 8/28-9/1. Full weekend schedule of events, plus tickets and contact info, at ICOAA.
Last Sunday Brunch with TLFMC 8/31, 10:30 a.m. at the Country Kitchen.
Transgender Support Group 8/31, 4-6 p.m. at the GLCCA.
September’s Poetry Parley at Out North features works by lesbian feminist poet Adrienne Rich. 9/3, 7 p.m. Free
Homer
Bac’untry Bruthers at the Down East Saloon on 8/28 at 10 p.m.
Kimberly Pace at the DNC: Obama, Biden and Clinton at the Nomination
Guest blogger Kimberly Pace is Alaska’s openly-LGBT delegate to the Democratic Convention in Denver. (Read her previous posts and an interview of her by DemConWatch, and watch for her updates on Bent Alaska.)
What can I say about Wednesday night that you haven’t already seen on the news? The energy in the room was electrifying. With each speaker the crowd grew more and more enthusiastic. From the roll call vote though the surprise visit by Barack, there wasn’t a dull moment.
Who wasn’t touched by the former Republican Rear Admiral who spoke about his change of party as he grew dissatisfied with the direction of the Bush administration? And what about the appearance of all those female Democratic Senators? Senator Clinton was inspirational in her decision to call for the end of the roll call vote and proceed with the direct nomination of Barack Obama. The crowd went wild! She did just what she needed to do… unify the party. From my vantage point on the floor of the DNC, she did just that.
And Joe Biden and his son Beau? I can tell you there was not a dry eye in the house. I’m looking forward to learning more about him and his family in the next 4 years. His acceptance speech was just what the delegates wanted to hear. He was strong, caring and engaged all at the same time. I am very pleased with this historic presidential ticket.
Today is our last day at the Convention. We’ve decided not to go to Invesco Field tonight. Estimates are that there will be over 70,000 people there to witness Obama’s acceptance speech. Much as I would love to be there personally, the thought of being outside in 90 degree+ weather for close to 8 hours does not sound like the best place for me. Accordingly, we will be heading back to cloudy and rainy Anchorage. Home sweet home.
It is now 2:38 am and clearly past my bed time. We’ve had the best time and can’t wait to get the word out about what we have experienced.
I hope this finds you well. More descriptions and photos to come in the next few days…
Kimberly Pace at the DNC: Checking in After a Very Long Day
Today was such a monumental day that I don’t even know where to begin. The day started at 6 am and we are not done yet and it is 3 am. Yikes! More to come tomorrow, with photos! In brief we saw (very close up as in 5-30 feet away) the following: Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Cyndi Lauper, and Melissa Ethridge. It was a fabulous day to say the least!
What a speech from Hillary, way to unite the party!
Side note… Congrats to Ethan :-)
More to come ….. stay tuned…
Kimberly Pace at the DNC: LGBT Caucus, Kuspuks, and Michelle Obama
Guest blogger Kimberly Pace is Alaska’s openly-LGBT delegate to the Democratic Convention in Denver. Here is her description of Monday at the DNC. (Read her Sunday post and an interview of her by DemConWatch, and catch her daily updates here on Bent Alaska.)
Today the Democratic Convention officially kicked off. Wow! It was amazing! The day started bright and early with our state delegation meeting at 7 am. There we had an introduction to what our day was going to be like, had some great guest speakers to get us into the mood, and received our credentials.
From there it was off to the Convention Center to attend the LGBT caucus. There were some amazing speakers there, including the man who successfully won the case in front of the California Supreme Court that gave gay and lesbian couples the right to marry. He was very inspirational. We also learned that there are 277 “out” LGBT delegates in attendance at this year’s DNC. That is an increase of 41% from 2004. How incredible! I was very impressed, to say the least.
Next we boarded a bus to the Pepsi Center where the actual convention takes place. We arrived around 4:30 and everything got underway pretty much on schedule by 5 pm. Our Alaskan delegation looked great in our kuspuks (see the photo.) Other delegations kept stopping by to admire them, they were jealous in their goofy hats.
It was interesting how many people stopped us to ask about Mark Begich, Ted Stevens, Don Young, Ethan Berkowitz, and Diane Benson. Alaska is definitely on the political map! This is a good time for me to remind you all to vote in the primary elections today (Tuesday the 26th.) This is a critical time in Alaska’s political future. Please get out and express your political voice.
The convention speakers were great. The highlights were when Nancy Pelosi spoke, the Young Democrats got up to speak (Ryan Buckholdt, a former student of mine, was on the stage in his kuspuk!) Jessie Jackson Jr., Tom Harkin, Jimmy Carter, and of course Craig and Michelle Obama. For me, Michelle Obama is a breath of fresh air. Listening to the stories of growing up on the south side of Chicago really touched me. Her father sounded like a truly great man and her mother looked so proud. I am honored to be witnessing this piece of history.
I genuinely appreciated the speakers who spoke about the significance of Senator Hillary Clinton’s run for the nomination. When Michelle mentioned the 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, the entire Pepsi Center erupted with applause. Well done!
Tomorrow’s tentative schedule includes a meeting with the Women’s Caucus, the Disability Caucus, an event with Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama. Then more convention activities followed by a Melissa Etheridge/Cyndi Lauper concert. What a day! I say tentative because you never know what might happen, or come up, so stayed tuned . . .
