A long-overdue Bent Alaska update — October 2013

Choosing Alaska: A garden, a sauna and a dog

“I suggest a garden fence to protect your crop from moose,” Tallimat recommends to a gay couple thinking about moving to Alaska. “It is best that the fence be so tall that it can be seen from space.” From our series Choosing Alaska on living and working in Alaska as LGBT.

Sara’s News Roundup 8/22/11

Recent LGBT news selected by Sara Boesser in Juneau, Alaska.

1) The Innovators: Great Gay Moments in 20th-Century Dance
Advocate, August 20, 2011

2) Discharged gay troops ready to re-enlist
Washington Blade, Washington D.C., August 11, 2011

3) Homosexual zebra finches form long-term bond
Berkeley, Calif., BBC News, August 15, 2011

4) Tough for gay members to return to US military
San Diego, MSNBC, August 13, 2011

5) Hundreds rally in Nepal for sexual rights
Narayanghat, Nepal, Associated Press, August 14, 2011

6) Bachmann says she isn’t running to judge gays
Yahoo News, August 15, 2011

7) Rev. Mychal Judge, Gay ‘9/11 Saint,’ To Be Honored By N.Y. Catholic Church
Syracuse, N.Y., Huffington Post, August 10, 2011

8) Lesbian-themed K-drama ‘Daughters of Club Bilitis’ causes stir
Korea, OMG, August 11, 2011

9) ‘Faith and Pride’ concert at Seattle cathedral marks singer-songwriter’s return
Seattle, Episcopal News Service, August 18, 2011

10) Krieger: Tips for dating trans guys
365Gay.com, June 6, 2011

11) Areleh Harel: The Orthodox Rabbi Helping Gay Men Marry Lesbians
Jerusalem, Israel, Time, August 16, 2011

12) Gays Are Us ~ Why LGBT Equality Is Not a “White” Issue
National Black Justice Coalition, August 17, 2011

13) My Life as an Intersexual
PBS, Nova, October 30, 2001

14) Some Deportations Halted for Gay Immigrants
Washington, Advocate, August 20, 2011

Pink Party Dance and Drag Show: Saturday night in Fairbanks

Drag queens, door prizes, and a silent auction will be featured at the Pink Party Dance and Drag Show this Saturday evening in Fairbanks.  All proceeds will benefit Dance Theatre Fairbanks (DTF) a local non-profit studio.

As written up by Amy Nordrum for Downtown Association Fairbanks,

Drag queens working for charity on Saturday, August 20^th will happily accept your donations and photo requests at a pink carpet fundraiser in the former firehouse studios of Dance Theatre Fairbanks (DTF).

“You’re going to see over-the-top dresses and lots of heavy makeup,: says Jay Howe, Ensemble Co-Director and charitable queen. He adds, with emphasis, “It IS appropriate to tip a drag queen.”

Why pink? DTF staff often jokes about how students love dressing in “pretty pink recital costumes” for performances, Jay explains, and this show needed a theme to make it fun and engaging. Wearing the color will get you in the doors for $5 less, and helps demonstrate your support.

Thus- The Pink Party.

“When you come in, everyone’s wearing pink,” Jay describes. “It’s an opportunity to support it visually.”

(Read the rest of the story at the Downtown Association Fairbanks website.)

As a bonus, The Safety Dancers — a dance group made up of instructors and students affiliated with DTF — will buy your first drink at the beer and wine bar! The Safety Dancers will also be among performers, as will the Dance Revolution Crew, described as “a few brave parents of DTF students…busting out hiphop moves” and a burlesque troupe called Crazy Shakes.

This event is only for 21 and up, ID is required! DJ and Dancing after. Come support a great cause and have a great time!

• Time/date: Saturday, August 20; doors open at 8:30 PM, performance starts at 10:00 PM going to midnight
• Cost of admission: $15 at the door, $10 if you come in pink! $25 VIP seating (first come first serve)
• Location: Edna Wise Theater (DTF Studios) , 656 Seventh Ave, Fairbanks (see map)
• Further info: See the Facebook event page

Vote Saturday for Coronation!

Coronation is coming up! — and Bent will soon have the full Coronation schedule of events up on its calendar. But before you can have coronation, you’ve got to have new heads of state to crown! Here are the details on where and when to vote.

On being a greenie gay girl in a man’s mining camp, or, Perspective: Part two

by Taylor

“These people” are educated, they vote, and they are human. They have families, friends, people they don’t get along with, problems. In spite of myself, I find myself allowing them access to my thoughts and feelings. Second of a series.  See Part One.

“Ain’t no rest for the wicked!” A commonly-heard anecdote in this place. If only those that uttered it knew just how apt I once found it, considering the source.

No, these aren’t evil people. Just confused, and with no real curiosity to explore the depths of what our profit-driven social system would have them believe. Ignorance, it would seem, is truly bliss. I’ve had the chance to know this, first-hand.

We of the more left-leaning communities suffer from our own brands of ignorance. We assume that the characters that occupy the space in which I currently exist, are uneducated. We assume that they lack drive to vote, or do anything besides consume PBR. We assume that Geico’s TV ad, which touts, “It’s so easy, a caveman could do it”, applies in a way that is humorously ironic to these individuals. I can state with a fair level of certainty that the educated, aware, progressive factions of our society have assumed wrongly, on so many different levels.

I have met more drillers with bachelor’s degrees out here than I can count, many in Accounting or Business Management, or Sciences. Their reason for doing this work? It lets them work in the great outdoors, it allows them to see different parts of the country — and sometimes, the world — and it pays well. And I can say that these educated walking contradictions, to a man, believe, first and foremost, in their Second Amendment rights, are at least some breed of Social Conservative, and worship the ground Sarah Palin walks on. If there are those that don’t fit this bill, then they have remained silent, or blended in. Those of us that must be malleable in order to camouflage recognize it easily in others.

“These people” are educated, they vote, and they are human. They have families, friends, people they don’t get along with, problems. In spite of myself, I find myself allowing them access to my thoughts and feelings. I find my carefully constructed walls compromised as I find things to like, if not admire, in each of them. The human desire to find camaraderie anywhere will always win out over social cliques…or, in microcosms of human society such as my workplace, we’d all kill each other. Stranger things have happened, especially in three weeks’ worth of work-imposed isolation from society.

My duty rotations run three weeks on, one week off. Just enough time to become acclimated to camp, and for paved roads, vegan food, and safe spaces for queer people to drink and date to become foreign concepts.

For three weeks, I’m not Taylor, I am the Medic. I am not genderqueer or even really gay, but I AM “butch enough to hang out with”. I am not Leftist, I am Middle of the Road…at least, outwardly. I drink with “the boys”, even if it is cheap, bad beer, and even if I don’t actually drink with them, I just hang out and sip my water, or tea (this particular company allots each employee two beers per day…believe it or not, such camps do exist, but usually, only in the explorations phase).

For three weeks, people that would ordinarily have nothing to do with me — in fact, I rather suspect they would literally like to take a shot at me, ordinarily — profess that they “have my back”, and will help out in the event of a serious incident. A few are sincere. A greater number are likely responding to what our inner psyches rail against in an environment such as this: Loneliness.

Though the armor plating of my alternate self does not fall away, there is a strange merging of that armor and my sense of self, such that, I may begin to breathe and feel as a different person. If my super-power is compartmentalization and putting on a good act, my kryptonite is forgetting where the act ends and I begin. I find myself relenting (or even acceding) regarding topics that, in another space, place or time, would leave me running rabid circles around my brain in order to piece together a rational counter-argument…or a back-handed comment, whichever comes first.

I become acclimated to the pejorative terms so casually slung about. My head no longer turns at any racial slur I might hear (and there are many). Jokes about various bits of male anatomy being inspected for health problems become commonplace in my proximity, and I might laugh a bit, before telling the offending party where to stick it. Here, sexual harassment sensitivity training is often defined as “telling you where the line is, and how to stand on it, without quite toeing over that boundary”.

For all our collective differences, though, the members of this camp work with each other as well-tuned pistons and crankshafts in a much larger engine that occasionally backfires with no apparent reason. Indeed, the dynamic of this camp was once described to me by a co-worker thusly: The world’s largest, most passive-aggressive, dysfunctional family imaginable. Avoidance of interaction, entirely, is not an option here, so one opts, instead, to either soften the rough edges of individuality, or to become a chameleon.

Equality in Anchorage: What’s it mean? Who gets to decide?

What does “equality” for LGBTQ people in Anchorage mean? Who are the “stakeholders” and “allies” in the process of trying to gain it? These are some of the questions guest blogger Maxine Doogan is asking about the Anchorage LGBTQA Town Hall meeting to be held Wednesday evening in Anchorage.

Anchorage LGBTQA Town Hall meeting to be held Wednesday evening

What are the best means and methods for advancing LGBTQ equality in Anchorage? A ballot initiative or ordinance effort? Boots on the ground organizing? Working with the faith community, businesses, etc.? A combination of strategies?  These are some of the topics to be discussed at an LGBTQA town hall meeting Wednesday evening in Anchorage.

The meeting has been publicized widely within the LGBTQA community on Facebook and in email, including in Bent Alaska’s Facebook profile.  One of the meeting’s organizers is Bent Alaska coadministrator Mel Green — which account for her relative silence on our blog recently.

This meeting is ONLY for people — LGBTQ and allies — who have a commitment to advancing equality for lesbian/gay/bisexual/trans/queer/questioning people in the Municipality of Anchorage.

If you are a stakeholder in this process, whether you are an LGBTQ individual, a representative of an organization, an elected official, a non-LGBTQ ally with friends, family, coworkers you care about — we invite you to attend and participate in collaborative decisionmaking about how to advance our common cause.

This is a private event.  We ask that people who are members of the media — bloggers as well as as regular press — attend only if you can attend as an individual stakeholder, not in your job capacity.

The meeting will be facilitated by Deacon Sara Gavit of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church.

• Time/date: Wednesday, August 17. Doors open 6:00 PM; meeting begins 6:30 PM.
• Location: A Street Event Hall, 637 A Street (see map)
• Further info: Anchorage LGBTQA Town Hall group on Facebook, or contact Mel or Carolyn at lgbtqapartnership @ gmail.com. (Remove spaces in email address.)

Drag and variety show nets $3,170 toward an Alaska vet’s home

Editor’s note, 9/20/11: This fundraiser was organized by Andrew Caleb Pritt (aka A. Caleb Pritt, Andrew Pritt, Caleb Pritt, Drew Pritt, Diedra, Diedra Windsor Walker, Diedra Richards, Diedra Richards Ho Jenkins), a former contributor to Bent Alaska, who is also author of this press release. Neither Homes for Our Troops nor the Latseen Benson family received the monies raised at this fundraiser. For further info, see the story Homes for Our Troops: “Money from the fundraiser was lost” (Caleb Pritt) by Mel Green (Bent Alaska, 9/19/11).

Sara’s News Roundup 8/15/11

Recent LGBT news selected by Sara Boesser in Juneau, Alaska.

1) Bringing Pride to Alaska’s largest parade
Alaska, Pride Foundation, August 2, 2011

2) Supporting LGBTQ youth in foster care
Washington Blade, July 28, 2011

3) Inmate Right to Hormone Treatment, Surgery Upheld
Wisconsin, Gay City, August 10, 2011

4) Conservatives and the LGBT community
Anchorage, Alaska, Anchorage Press, July 27, 2011

5) First Marriage, Now Taxes
New York, Gay City News, August 3, 2011

6) Cuba transgender wedding shows shifting attitudes
Havana, Cuba, Associated Press, August 13, 2011

7) Ghana church to set up centers for gay “cures”
Ghana, 365Gay.com, August 10, 2011

8) Suquamish Tribe approves same-sex marriage
Suquamish, Wash., Kitsap Sun, August 1, 2011

Choosing Alaska: Outdoors and friends make 90% of a good life

We recently posted a letter from a grad student and a letter from a gay couple asking for similar advice: What is it like to live and work in Alaska as an openly-LGBT person?

Our readers responded, sharing their reasons for living in Alaska and their experiences as LGBT. We’re posting their stories in a series called Choosing Alaska.

This reply is from Mike.

# # #

I grew up in rural northern Arizona. Growing up I always knew that I was gay but never knew it was an option. I lived life the way everyone else did and expected me to. It wasn’t until I went to college that I realized it might be possible to be gay. It was through support groups, friends and a process that lasted several years that I finally was confident enough to come out.

After graduation from college, I came to Alaska and worked in the tourism industry. This helped with my internal struggle as the industry has many gay and lesbians who work in the industry. I was in Alaska for five years and loved it. I never ran into any issues with who I was. I also wasn’t broadcasting the fact that I was gay either. But if someone asked I told them.

I moved to Seattle and what an experience that was! I explored the gay life and got to see what the city had to offer. It was fun to experience but it really wasn’t me. I was in a relationship for eight years and when it ended, I realized just how unhappy I was living in the city. Despite it being full of openly gay men, I was getting no interest from anyone. I was miserable in my job and painting myself into a corner where I was soon to be stuck. All my friends were up here in Alaska.

I came for a long weekend to visit. I surprised my friends and just showed up one day. The second thing out of my mouth was “I’m moving back up here!” I hadn’t even given it a thought yet it came out so easily. After the visit I went back to Seattle and within three months I was living in Alaska. I went from a condo on Queen Anne with a view of the city skyline and the Space Needle to living in a dry cabin out in Goldstream and I had never been happier!

I became very comfortable with being a gay man in Seattle. I had photos of my partner on my desk at work. I talked openly about what me and my partner had planned for the weekend or trips we had planned, just like everyone else. Living here in Alaska, that is very different. I have “reeled it in” so to speak at work. I’m not as open about being gay. But again, if asked, I’ll tell.

That said the people I have surrounded myself with are open and accepting people. I am 100% out with them. I have no doubt my boss knows I’m gay and doesn’t care. She’s pretty freaking cool. We just haven’t ever talked about it.

I think one can easily live the gay life up here in the Last Frontier. But I think it’s what you want out of life that determines if you do or not. If have found that people up here don’t really care what you do behind your bedroom door, they just don’t want to know about it or hear about it. But people here seem to be like that about anything. “Believe whatever you want, just don’t push your beliefs on me.”

I was living the typical gay life in Seattle and I was miserable. I’d say I was 90% miserable and 10% happy. Since I moved back almost four years ago, I’m 90% happy, 10% a little unhappy. That could be resolved by meeting the one and living happily ever after. But if that doesn’t happen, I’m good with 90%. Much better than the 10% in Seattle.

For me, I decided what was most important to me. Living with my friends, living in a place where I could camp, hike, kayak, explore….that was all very important to me. I love living in a place where just existing was a challenge. Easy access to gay bars and gay men…not so important. If it were, I would have stayed in Seattle. Every once in a while I get the urge and I just head to Anchorage for a long weekend and have a night out there and that satisfies me.

Ultimately, it comes down to what you want and what you want to experience. If you want the open and out there life, if that’s what’s going to get you to the 90%, maybe think of somewhere Outside. If living in a place that offers you’re the activities you want, the friends that you have, oh and by the way you happen to be gay, then a happy life up here is possible.

I am by no means speaking for anyone other than myself. This is just my approach to life and how I came to the decision to be living here.

# # #

Thanks, Mike!

What is your experience of being LGBT in Alaska? Leave a comment below, or email us directly at Bent Alaska @ gmail .com (without the spaces), and we will include your response in a follow up post. And if you have another topic you’d like to see on Bent Alaska, please tell us about it!