A long-overdue Bent Alaska update — October 2013

Out North goes to the PAC with Bridgman/Packer’s “Double Expose” and “Under the Skin”

Out North Contemporary Art House has brought New York City-based Bridgman/Packer Dance to Anchorage for two performances at the Discovery Theatre at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts.

A celebration of Celebration 2011

Since the first Celebration of Change on September 19, 1983 at the Red Ram Motor Lodge, Celebration has arguably been the Anchorage women’s community’s premiere annual social & arts event. Here’s a photographic celebration of this year’s show, the 27th Celebration of Change.

Step Up, Step Out for Alaska Pride

The NorthView‘s spring issue is online, full of updates on the activities at Identity, including a review of the Community Center fundraiser, their new visibility campaign “I am Identity,” and this Alaska Pride article by incoming co-chair Felix Rivera (reposted with author’s permission.)

Alaska Pride asks each and every one of us to Step Up, Step Out
By Felix Rivera, Incoming Co-Chair

This year, the steering committee behind Alaska Pride is looking to step up the 9-day celebration in June, the annual Alaska Pride Fest. The dates this year are June 18 – 26.

The theme the group has selected is reminiscent of happenings throughout the country: Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was repealed, the Defense of Marriage Act is being scrutinized by White House administration, and states around the country are passing pro-equality laws.

But still, the work is not done. Anchorage still does not have an equal-rights ordinance protecting GLBT folks from undue discrimination. Even more, our GLBT brothers and sisters in Africa face threats to their lives on a daily basis. Some have even lost their lives fighting for justice.

This summer, we ask each and every Alaskan to Step Up, Step Out. So what does that mean exactly? Haven’t attended Pride Fest in a few years? We ask you to Step Up and support your local community. Want to put on an event for Pride or volunteer, but haven’t found the motivations to do so? We ask you to Step Out of your comfort zone and become involved.

Each and every one of us should follow this motto. This year, Alaska Pride asks that you run with it! After all, that is what Pride is all about: Alaska Pride promotes state-wide gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender equality through education and celebration.

This year, to help us better follow our motto, the steering committee has decided to put the two umbrella events of Alaska Pride Fest and Pride Conference under one label: Alaska Pride. Both of these serve to help educate ourselves on what it means to be GLBT in Alaska, but also to celebrate our Pride.

In essence, Alaska Pride Fest serves as the heart of Alaska Pride. Alaska Pride Conference serves as the
head. Head and heart. One cannot exist without the other.

One heart, one mind, Alaska Pride.

Please check out our website at AlaskaPride.org, and email us at info@identityinc.org if you are interested in being a sponsor, individual donor, vendor, or volunteer.

Thanks to Felix Rivera and Emily Kloc for stepping up as the incoming Alaska Pride co-chairs, and to current co-chairs Johnathan Jones and Gail Palmer for the great work they’ve done and are doing for Alaska Pride.

What are you going to do for Alaska Pride?

Nicole Blizzard Short Story Contest — 2011 winners

Winners of this year’s Nicole Blizzard Short Story Contest were announced last Saturday night during the 2011 Celebration of Change at UAA’s Wendy Williamson Auditorium.

Words do matter….

by Caleb Pritt

I wrote an article yesterday about a Hate Crime committed against Chrissy Lee Polis. In writing the article, because I didn’t know the names of the attackers, I classified and described them as “two African-American women.” That is a fact. I also said it was sad that they had not learned the lessons Dr. King taught us.

Some people read this with racial overtones. That’s not what was meant or what was intended. I apologize to anyone who read race into my comments because there is not any racial bias. Had they been Hispanic, Polynesian, Anglo-Saxon, Jewish, etc., I would have written that as a descriptive comment of who they were.

We are very quick in society to seize upon something. One of the comments made in my grassroots group I started to protest how Chrissy was treated reminded me, we have become an instant society. We expect change to happen immediately. We also are very conscious and aware and often times do not wish to offend. We can sometimes make the leap that if they are described by race and the comments are by people of a particular race, than race is the overriding theme. That is not what was meant in this case.

Look the long and short of it was I was attempting to inspire and write that this attack was wrong. In the long run, I ended up flubbing it and sticking my foot in my mouth unintentionally. I did not mean to do that and for that, I apologize.

I hope you the readers can accept my apology and realize what I wrote was not written in a vein of racism but rather a plea to aspire to a higher ideal in how we treat one another.

Gay pride flags thrown in mud outside youth dance

136 queer and allied youth from Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley attended the Glee-themed Pride Prom last weekend at Out North – and at least one vandal, who took down four of the five rainbow flags decorating the outside of the building. A flag was hung upside down, others were thrown on the ground in the mud.

Can you stomach this?

Caleb Pritt writes opinion pieces for Bent Alaska. His opinions are his own.

This post concerns an attack on a transgender woman in a Baltimore McDonalds, the attack video that went viral over the weekend, Caleb’s response to the incident, and suggestions for taking action.

Update: Please see Caleb’s post “Words do matter….” for a follow-up on issues about race brought up in comments to this post.

* * *

I want you to watch this video before continuing with the article. [warning for violence]

Chrissy Lee Polis is just like you and I. She has a brain, a heart, and she is an American who expects the benefits of a nation that promises LIFE, LIBERTY, & THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. But in the words of one of this nation’s modern fathers, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from his famous “I Have a Dream” address at the Lincoln Memorial, we now echo for the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, TRANSGENDER, Ally community, the following:

“When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens are concerned….a bad check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.”

Chrissy Lee Polis was spit upon, attacked, beaten, and dehumanized by sadly two African-American women who forgot Dr. King. Forgot about the sacrifices and the lives that allowed these two women to walk into a McDonalds and order their food. Even more insulting, McDonalds, which is a symbol of America as much as Sunday football or the American flag, had employees that looked on and watched this display of hatred and did nothing to intervene.

The question has to be asked, when do we say enough is enough? I say today is the day we say enough is enough. When the day has come, which is now, that ANYONE cannot enter a McDonalds and be served, but rather savagely treated like a dehumanized choice to be viciously assaulted with no regard, enough is enough.

Shall we as a society continue to fund a corporation that allows this hatred and violence to happen? If it doesn’t stop now….WHEN WILL IT?!

McDonalds needs to institute policies for ALL of its employees teaching them sadly how to be humans. This means no violence, no sacrificing of liberties, and no allowing the idea of some or any violence or disrespect is allowed.

As Dr. King also said, “An injustice somewhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

What happened in Baltimore can tomorrow be in Anchorage, in Honolulu, in Salt Lake City, in Boston, in Fayetteville, N.C., or yes even in Washington, D.C.

We need to remember the words of Dr. King and re-echo them today. We need to stand up and tell McDonalds, THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE.

Here are 3 ways to do it:

Starting Monday at 4:00 p.m. for twenty-four hours, I ask you to make your Facebook profile pic a picture of a simple candlelight. The candle is for Chrissy Lee Polis and to let her know, while we are not at the vigil in Baltimore, a candle of hope burns bright all across this nation and she is loved.

Secondly,  the phone number for McDonald’s Corporate is 1-800-244-6227, open 7 days a week from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. CST. Let them know you are horrified and that you demand nationwide training in transgender issues for ALL McDonald’s franchise owners and employees.

Thirdly, and finally, if you want to sound off, join Aunty Anita and I in two places. Join on Facebook, the group named BOYCOTT McCRUELTY. And also join us on the radio at Aunty Anita on Tuesday, April 26 at 7p.m. Alaska Time/ 8pm Pacific. The studio hotline is toll free (619) 393-6513. Please call in or listen on demand.

In the words of Reverend Jesse Jackson, who I hope will join us in this fight for civil rights, “Red, Yellow, Black, and White….WE ALL are precious in His light.”

Kaboom by Gregg Araki, Monday at Bear Tooth

Gregg Araki’s newest film, Kaboom, is screening at the Bear Tooth tonight as the 8pm Art House Movie.

Kaboom is “a wild, witty and sex-drenched horror-comedy thriller featuring a gorgeous young cast.” Araki, a pioneer of new queer cinema, describes it as “a bisexual Twin Peaks in college… a mash up of at least five or six different genres… It’s really fun and sexy and kind of crazy.”

Here is the plot summary:

Kaboom is a thriller/comedy telling the story of Smith (Thomas Dekker from Heros) an ambisexual 18 year old college freshman who stumbles upon a monstrous conspiracy in a seemingly idyllic seaside Southern California town.

Smith’s everyday life in the dorms – hanging out with his arty, sarcastic best friend Stella, hooking up with a beautiful free spirit named London, lusting for his gorgeous but dim surfer roommate Thor – all gets turned upside-down after one fateful, terrifying night.

Tripping on some hallucinogenic cookies he ate at a party, Smith is convinced he’s witnessed the gruesome murder of an enigmatic Red Haired Girl who has been haunting his dreams. What he discovers as he tries to find out the truth leads him deeper and deeper into a mystery that will forever change not only the course of his young life but the destiny of the entire world.

What does Araki mean by ambisexual?

There are various forms of it: the omnisexual, polysexual, etc., and all of it means that sexuality is a fluid thing. It’s ambiguous. Bisexual sounds to me like an old school scientific kind of category. I have always believed that sexuality is not really black and white, that it is a gray area. As time goes on, people become more open and fluid in terms of their views of sexuality. The younger generation, their view is not really about labels and categories and declaring themselves. It is more about the experience and attraction and not so black and white. I find that that is becoming more and more common, even more so than the mid 90s.

Watch the trailer:

Kaboom
Directed by Gregg Araki
Cast: Thomas Dekker, Chris Zylka, Roxane Mesquida, Juno Temple, Haley Bennett

Monday, April 25th, 8:00 PM, $3.50 GA

Bear Tooth Theatrepub
Art House Monday premiere

US/France sci-fi comedy, “new queer cinema” 86 minutes.
Not rated, graphic sexual situations, nudity, violence and strong language. Persons under 18 not admitted.

Sara’s News Roundup 4/24/11

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

1) Some Republicans joining NY gay marriage push
New York, 365Gay.com, April 22, 2011

2) What leads gay, straight teens to attempt suicide?
Chicago, Associated Press, April 18, 2011

3) A New Tool for Treating Transgender People
Huffington Post, April 17, 2011

4) Malaysia sends 66 boys to anti-gay camp
Kuala Lumpurk, Malaysia, April 19, 2011

5) Italian book exposes Rome gay priest scene
Rome, AFP, April 19, 2011

6) Lesbian Activist To Assume State House Seat
Chicago, CBS Chicago, April 18, 2011

7) Footballer in Saudi fined over ‘gay’ remark
Saudi Arabia, Emirates247, March 14, 2011

8) Donald Trump’s views on gay issues might hurt hotels, resorts
Chicago, GoPride, April 23, 2011

9) Corvino: What the Bible doesn’t say
365Gay.com, April 22, 2011

10) Rapper says ‘I’m Gay’ album title provoking death threats
365Gay.com, April 22, 2011

11) Gay rights groups target prominent Atlanta law firm
Georgia, AJC, April 24, 2011

12) Picoult surprised by lesbian novel reaction: Jodi Picoult’s complicated new novel
BBC News, April 21, 2011

Injustice at Every Turn

“Every day, transgender and gender non-conforming people are marginalized because of their gender identity and expression.”

This In The Life video features the personal stories of Ja’briel and Michelle, two trans women. Their experiences highlight the findings of the first comprehensive transgender discrimination study, recently completed by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force.

Watch the video:

The study Injustice at Every Turn “brings to light what is both patently obvious and far too often dismissed from the human rights agenda. Transgender and gender non-conforming people face injustice at every turn: in childhood homes, in school systems that promise to shelter and educate, in harsh and exclusionary workplaces, at the grocery store, the hotel front desk, in doctors’ offices and emergency rooms, before judges and at the hands of landlords, police officers, health care workers and other service providers.”

There are no laws in Alaska protecting transgender people from discrimination or harassment.

When we allow injustice against a group of people, unstable individuals may feel they have permission to act on that prejudice and cause physical harm, like in the violent attack on a transgender woman in a Baltimore McDonald’s last week.