Bent Alaska | Alaska's LGBTQA blog

Alaska DMV refuses to put correct gender on drivers license; ACLU sues

Monday, 18 July 2011 – 7:30 PM | Comments Off

The ACLU and the ACLU of Alaska have brought suit against the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles over DMV’s refusal to put the correct gender marker on a transgender woman’s driver’s license without proof of a surgical sex change. The brief in the case, K.L. v. State of Alaska, can be read at at the ACLU or ACLU of Alaska websites.

Here is the ACLU of Alaska’s press release:

DMV Refusal to Correct Transgender Driver’s Licenses Unconstitutional
ACLU Lawsuit Challenges Requirement that Transgender Persons Undergo Surgery for Proper Gender on License

ANCHORAGE, AK, July 18, 2011 — The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Alaska filed a brief today seeking to allow transgender individuals to correct the gender marker on their driver’s licenses without undergoing major surgery. The state’s surgery requirement places an undue burden on transgender individuals and presents a gross violation of an individual’s right to privacy.

“It is unfair and unnecessary to require that transgender people undergo prohibitively expensive and drastic surgery in order to have accurate identity documents,” said Jeffrey Mittman, executive director of the ACLU of Alaska. “No one should have to disclose sensitive personal information or be forced to make major medical decisions in order to get an accurate driver’s license.”

The lawsuit is being filed on behalf of a transgender woman, K.L., whose United States passport and work documents all identify her as a female. After initially securing a change to the gender on her driver’s license, she was told that her new license would be revoked unless she submitted proof of having surgery. The American Psychiatric Association and medical experts agree that surgery is medically necessary for some with gender identity disorder (GID), but not for everyone. Treatment for GID is individualized, and some can be effectively treated without it, making it unnecessary for the state to confirm whether or not an individual has had surgery before correcting a license. Additionally, such surgery is extremely expensive and potentially dangerous. The State Department no longer requires transgender people to have surgery before it will correct the gender marker on passports and a growing number of states have stopped requiring surgery for changing the gender marker on a driver’s license.

“Having a driver’s license that doesn’t match my appearance and identity would place me at risk of discrimination and physical harm,” said K.L., who has lived as a woman for two years.

The state supreme court has found that the Alaska Constitution’s privacy clause protects individuals’ right to self-expression and to be free from the disclosure of sensitive personal information and government intrusions on their decisions about medical care.

“The surgery requirement not only violates Alaska’s laws, it demonstrates a profound lack of understanding about what it means to be transgender,” said John Knight, staff attorney with the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Project. “The state cannot deny transgender people an accurate driver’s license based on an arbitrary and unconstitutional policy that clashes with accepted medical standards.”

The brief can be found on the ACLU websites at www.aclu.org and www.akclu.org.

Attorneys include Knight of the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Project, Thomas Stenson of the ACLU of Alaska Foundation, and Stephanie Boehl of Perkins Coie.

Sara’s News Roundup 7/17/11

Sunday, 17 July 2011 – 9:31 AM | Comments Off

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

1) Jerry Brown signs LGBT school textbook bill
Sacramento, San Francisco Chronicle, July 14, 2011

2) Grantee fights for LGBTQ equality in the courts
Anchorage, Alaska, Pride Foundation, July 11, 2011

3) Mass. city first to pay wedded gay workers to offset tax
Cambridge, Mass., 365Gay.com, July 11, 2011

4) New Rules, Old Institutions
Atlanta, The Advocate, August 2011

5) Transgender people will be forced to divorce to achieve recognition
Ireland, The Journal, July 15, 2011

6) Daily pill can ward of HIV infection, studies find
Atlanta, New York Times, July 14, 2011

7) About This Issue: Coming Out At Work ~ We’re not going to pretend this was an easy topic for Black Enterprise to consider…
Black Enterprise, July 6, 2011

8) Brad Pitt Calls for National Marriage Equality
Advocate, July 6, 2011

9) Sydney adopts gay-proud Gaga
Sydney, Australia, AFP, July 12, 2011

10) Court: ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ will stay in place
Los Angeles, Associated Press, July 16, 2011

11) Fighting Homophobia at the World Cup
Frankfurt, Germany, Advocate, July 13, 2011

12) Glee’s Gay Not Returning for Season 4
Advocate, July 14, 2011

13) Ontario to mandate ‘LGBT support groups’ in Catholic schools
Ontario, Canada, Xtra, July 2, 2011

14) Mayor Bloomberg rewards GOP senators who backed gay marriage with $10K thank you
Albany, N.Y., New York Daily News, July 14th 2011

15) Church May Be Removed From Association For Supporting Gay Group
Owensboro, Kentucky, WLKY.com, July 13, 2011

16) 100s Turn Out For Boston Church Mass Welcoming Gay Community
Boston, CBS, July 10, 2011

17) Irvin endorses same-sex rights
San Francisco, San Francisco Chronicle July 13, 2011

Fairbanks Pride 2011: Parade, picnic and concert with Summer Osborne

Saturday, 16 July 2011 – 8:02 AM | 2 Comments

Fairbanks Pride is rockin’ this year! In addition to marching in the Golden Days Parade with a ginormous rainbow Pride flag, PFLAG is bringing up Summer Osborne to perform at both the family friendly Pride Picnic right after the parade and at the Blue Loon that evening. Go, Fairbanks!

Earn a Bronze merit badge for reading about Gay Rights!!!

Friday, 15 July 2011 – 3:27 PM | Comments Off

I don’t want a Bronze Badge for reading about Gay Rights. What I want is my rights.

On being a greenie gay girl in a man’s mining camp, or, Don’t judge others for what they must do to survive: Part one

Friday, 15 July 2011 – 7:30 AM | 4 Comments

by Taylor

We know what it is to be willing to do, quite literally, anything to make something work, to make it through another month, week or day. First of a series. See Part Two.

It’s a hop, skip, and a short trip in a puddle-jumper from civilization to the Small South here in The Greatland. I am surrounded by people that I ordinarily would not socialize with, even in the outer constellations in the outer revolutions of the small sky that makes up my circles of friends.

Not that I am “snobby,” or looking down my nose; there is only so far that a mutual love of (or lust for) women will go, and the camp is predominantly male roughnecks. There are a total of nine women in camp, on a good week, and even the younger men have a certain amount of chauvinism about them — one of the young men here recently told me I could be “really beautiful” if I just grew out my hair, and proceeded to proposition me with money to do so. Thankfully, I have a good sense of humor, and laughed…and then told him I stopped doing things to please others a long while ago, and am a better person for it.

The world I occupy for much of my summer is so different from my usual comfort zone, and I find myself spending my days listening to Ani and other revolutionary folk singers to hang onto myself when I find that I am slipping from myself. Compartmentalization comes easily, and I develop an outer shell not unlike the one that got me through high school, my gay growing pains, and coming out to my dad’s side of the family: Tough, hard, weathered titanium, with very few chinks or gaps in the plating.

I become someone else, begin to will myself to not care too much, to remind myself of why I am here — to patch people up when they get injured, and to make money. “Mercenary” is the word one of my volunteer Fire/EMS colleagues used once to describe me, and I’ve decided it fits painfully well. I have sold my ethics, sold my soul — if ever I had one to begin with, sold my sense of self-worth, of feminism, of right, of wrong….sold what makes me, me, and my politics, mine. I have sold all, if only for these last two years, because of one horrible thing: It pays well enough to allow me to survive.

The economy has taken such a dip, that a multi-certified, CDL-papered, degree-carrying, enterprising individual such as myself could apply to thirty different jobs in a two-month period (yes, I counted), and hear back from no one. And then I was offered this position. I am a medic, in a camp of about sixty people, in the middle of nowhere, in Alaska. The catch? It’s a camp for mineral exploration. It represents everything that I’ve resisted in resisting Capitalism’s takeover, and many, if not a vast majority, of my fellow campmates hold worldviews that directly oppose my own.

I hear racial slurs I thought long dead in anything resembling civilized society on a daily basis. I see the few women that are here, pushed to the breaking point. I am told that I am a “masculine female,” and thereby “one of the boys,” and “okay to hang with.” Ironic, how my dykedom, my DIFFERENCE, one of my many facets of divisiveness, is what binds me to these men, in their eyes. I am told I am valuable; I am told that I am a good worker; I am praised for my skills, my drive, my prodigious work ethic.

I do not tell them that I work so hard, impress so much, so that I can earn a raise…and get out. I have continued to apply for work in my time with this company, to no avail. So, I have determined that I will bust my fictitious balls in order to pay off what remains of my student debt, and thereby free myself, if only financially. I actually have difficulty sleeping, some nights, knowing what I do, and who I work for. The latter, of course, is the problem. I love my work…if only this country were willing to pay taxes to insure that the entirety of its Fire/EMS personnel were paid (the statistical average for paid emergency personnel hovers somewhere between twenty-five and thirty-five percent…the rest are volunteer, or part-time, at best).

There are far worse ways to do this, but my point in this tidbit of opinion, on my admission of being one of those hardened realists that will do what they have to, if it means feeding their households, is that we should recognize it in others. As a community, we know what it is to be willing to do, quite literally, anything to make something work, to make it through another month, week or day. Not everyone can find a job — that will actually feed them — in activism or at the local co-op. Not all of us have politically correct positions, or even co-workers. Some of us have been reduced to existing in some hellish hybrid of the 1940s and the current era in order to make it through another year.

Brandi Carlile in Fairbanks and Anchorage this weekend

Thursday, 14 July 2011 – 2:30 PM | One Comment

Brandi Carlile has two concerts in Alaska this weekend — at the Blue Loon in Fairbanks on Friday, and Saturday in Anchorage at the UAA Wendy Williamson Auditorium.

Judith Barrington, Valerie Miner, & other great writers in UAA annual reading series

Thursday, 14 July 2011 – 1:49 PM | Comments Off

Judith Barrington and Valerie Miner are among the writers participating in the Summer 2011 Northern Renaissance Arts & Sciences Reading Series from July 10–19 at UAA. This is the fourth year for the event, which is held annually in conjunction with the Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing of the UAA Department of Creative Writing & Literary Arts (CWLA).

Vote July 22 to help Four A’s win a new Toyota!

Wednesday, 13 July 2011 – 10:04 PM | Comments Off

Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association is One of 500 Finalists for Toyota’s 100 Cars for Good Program!

Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association (Four A’s) is proud to announce we’ve been selected as a finalist in Toyota’s 100 Cars for Good program. Now we need your support! Vote for Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association at www.facebook.com/toyota on July 22, 2011.

A new Toyota would enable Four A’s to expand HIV/AIDS outreach and education beyond the urban center of Anchorage to rural communities. HIV stigma has a strong hold on rural Alaska, preventing most from knowing their HIV status or seeking services to reduce their risk. Most communities do not have free services, further limiting access. A mobile outreach vehicle would allow us to offer: 1) HIV education to schools, youth groups and anyone who wants it, 2) free HIV tests with results in 20 minutes, 3) risk reduction counseling, and 4) safer sex and harm reduction kit distribution. A new Toyota would be a critical asset in working towards reducing new HIV infections and eliminating stigma.

Toyota’s 100 Cars for Good program will award 100 vehicles over the course of 100 days to 100 deserving nonprofit organizations based on votes from the public. A total of 500 finalists were selected based on their application as reviewed by an independent panel of judges who are experts in the fields of philanthropy and social responsibility. They are vying for the opportunity to win a new Toyota vehicle. Winning organizations will use the vehicles to help expand their reach and mission within the community.

Please support Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association (Four A’s) on July 22, 2011. Voting will take place at www.facebook.com/toyota.

Update: “Well, the bad news is we didn’t win a new Toyota, but the good news is SafeHouse of Shelby County (Alabama) will have a new vehicle to transport women and children survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Congratulations to SafeHouse! Thank YOU for voting and showing your support for the Four A’s!

Watch the Four A’s video:

Here are some ways you can help Four A’s spread the word:
1. Encourage your friends to “like” Four A’s on Facebook.

2. Become a Four A’s Ambassador! Ambassadors will help us promote the contest within their circle of friends, recruit other ambassadors, get folks to sign up for vote reminders, etc… Contact Four A’s and we’ll let you know what to do.

3. Sign up for a vote reminder. Here’s how:
Go to http://apps.facebook.com/carsforgood/
Go to “view contestants”,
Select “Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association”
Then, click “remind me to vote this day”.
THEN VOTE on JULY 22!

4. When we post an update about 100 Cars for Good, please “like” or “share” to spread the word.

Thanks for supporting Four A’s!!

Anthony Romero of ACLU to speak Thursday at UAA

Tuesday, 12 July 2011 – 1:57 PM | Comments Off

Anthony Romero speaking at Tulane Law School in March 2010

Anthony Romero, national executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Romero will be the featured speaker for Disparate Opportunity in America: The Ongoing Struggle for Equal Rights sponsored by the UAA Justice Center and ACLU of Alaska. The program will focus on recent developments in the continuing challenges faced by minority and underprivileged communities and the work of the ACLU in fighting for equal rights.