A long-overdue Bent Alaska update — October 2013

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In 1935, the Social Security Act was created to help ensure the economic safety of America’s elderly.

The United States Social Security Administration does not recognize same-sex marriages or domestic partnerships as valid relationships.

Consequently, thousands of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender seniors are denied Social Security benefits every year.

Ineligible for Social Security surivors benefits, and faced with undue economic burdens, many LGBT seniors are forced to give up their homes after losing their partner.

Gay AK: Get ready for late summer and fall events

29 Years Together: Anchorage gay couple interviewed for Vancouver Pride

“When Fred Traber and Larry Snider began dating in 1981, the social and cultural landscape in their small hometown of Anchorage, Alaska, did not allow them to be open with their relationship.”

So begins an interview of a gay Anchorage couple in a Vancouver, Canada newspaper.

Fred and Larry attended Vancouver Pride on August 1 and got an unexpected souvenir – they were interviewed by The Vancouver Sun about their 29 year relationship, and a video clip was posted online with the article and photos.

The newspaper was looking for gay couples who met in various decades, as part of a Gay Pride series, and a local friend recommended them for the couple who met in the ’80s.

“We had fun doing the interview and were flattered that they asked us,” Fred told Bent Alaska. “It was a fun adventure. They brought a film crew to the hotel and got nearly 2 hours of tape.”

“We covered a lot of topics, and sadly, some of the things most important to us didn’t make the cutting. We talked about the onset of AIDS and the impact it had on the gay community in Alaska – the huge number of friends we lost, the stigma, and lifestyle changes. We talked about having to carefully plan vacations to destinations where we would be safe and accepted. Lots of issues that were prevalent 30 years ago that are not so much today.”

We’ve come a long way, but we still travel to big city Pride events in LGBT-accepting locations. Like Vancouver Pride.

“Vancouver Pride is always a very important event for us. The city is so beautiful, the people are so enlightened and there is such a terrific sense of community. The Pride Parade was over 3 hours long – without any gaps. Major corporations, labor unions, government officials, social service agencies, bars, and lots of LGBT groups of people of every stripe. A new attendance record this year with over 600,000 families, friends and visitors watching, applauding and laughing. Very exhilarating and a total validation of our lifestyle.”

And the local newspapers run Gay Pride articles before, during and after Pride weekend, sometimes featuring out of town visitors!

The interview clip focuses on Fred and Larry’s early years together as closeted gay men in Alaska, as well as their California wedding in October 2008 and the Anchorage reception. Here is the video (it starts with a short ad):

[Update: Unfortunately the video is no longer available.]

Team Alaska wins 13 medals at Gay Games

The results are in from the 2010 Gay Games in Cologne, Germany, and Team Alaska kicked butt! Five gay and lesbian athletes and four supporters traveled from Alaska to Germany as Team Alaska, competing in squash, martial arts, road racing and sport shooting. Their medal count is impressive.

David Boies takes down FRC’s Tony Perkins

Ted Olson explains Prop 8 ruling on Fox

Sara’s News Roundup 8/8/10

Maddow: Amtrak’s gay ads upset Family Council

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Daily Show: Sarah, Maggie & friends on Prop 8 ruling

Homer AK Chamber apologizes for gay float snub (photos & video)

“It has been brought to the attention of the Homer Chamber of Commerce that part of the narrative provided by Homer PFLAG for its participation in the Fourth of July Parade was not read during the parade. The Chamber regrets this oversight and apologizes for the omission.”

“I appreciate both your taking the time to meet me in person and the emailed response you sent last week. PFLAG were and remain very concerned about the fact that the emcee chosen by the Homer Chamber of Commerce omitted the words “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered” during our participation in the Homer 4th of July Parade. I would like to take this opportunity to provide you with some background about who we are and what we stand for, respond to a couple of points in your email, and hopefully identify some positive ways to move forward. I have decided to reply publicly in hopes of answering some questions among our constituency that have been raised since the incident, and since the incident occurred in a public venue I think that the discussions that come out of it ought to be public as well, so I will be forwarding this message to our Homer PFLAG list and to other groups and individuals who picked up the story. I hope that you will share it with the board of the chamber as well.

First, I’d like to say that marching in the Fourth of July parade is enormously meaningful for our organization. Last year when we entered the parade it was the first time that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (lgbt) people and their friends and allies publicly marched down a Homer street in the town’s history. For many of our participants it was the first time that they publicly identified themselves either as an lgbt person or a straight ally to our community. I think it’s safe to say that we were all terrified, and with no small of amount of reason, many of us having been victims of harassment, violence, and discrimination at various points in our lives. So to say that we were thrilled by the overwhelming support we had in terms of numbers (our float fielded more participants than any other in the parade) and from the amazingly supportive on-lookers would be a great understatement. For me, and I’m sure for many of our marchers, it was one of the proudest moments of my life.

Hopefully that gives you some idea why our reaction to what happened at the parade this year is so strong. When your emcee failed to read the words “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered” it felt like a slap in our collective faces. The amount of personal courage it takes to stand up as an lgbt person in Alaska, where it is perfectly legal to fire us from our jobs or kick us out of our apartments solely because of our sexuality, is enormous and to be met with such a bold dismissal from the professional announcer chosen by the Chamber of Commerce was awful.

Second, I’d like to respond to a couple of points from your email. You write that the emcee “has the option to reword material for time, readability, etc.” and that this is a normal practice of “adlibbing” which occurs every year. I’m curious because there were a number of much longer and wordier statements announcing other floats in the parade. Our written statement was a bit less than 25 words long. It takes less than 30 seconds to read. So I don’t see how time could have been a factor in the emcee’s “editing” process. As for readability, I can see that a word like transgendered might be a mouthful, although one would think that an emcee who works as a talk radio host could probably tackle it, [but] a word like gay, consisting of three letters and only one syllable, is extremely pronounceable. Next I would ask why it is the policy of the chamber to allow their emcees to personally and without any accountability edit the contributions of parade participants. I’m curious if you would find it acceptable for one of your emcees to edit out references to military service from the VFW folks, or references to boats from the Homer Wooden Boat Society. Either one would render the statement meaningless, just as what your emcee announced was completely devoid of meaning. You also state explicitly in your email that you did not speak with the emcee regarding what happened. Is it the policy of the Homer Chamber of Commerce to ask no accountability from its employees and volunteers when evidence exists of possible willful discrimination against a whole segment of the population? It’s my understanding that people like this represent the organizations they work for; is discrimination a proper representation of the Homer Chamber? If so I think that there are many of your members who would like to be made aware of that fact.

Third, I would like to offer two suggestions for moving forward in a positive way. While I’m outraged by the emcee’s actions during the parade I do not believe that the chamber as an organization is one that favors discriminating against people based on their sexuality or gender identity, but the events of the 4th cast some doubt on that. I think it’s fair to ask that the chamber both make a public apology for what happened and to publicly clarify the organization’s position on this form of discrimination. In addition, I think that it’s fair to ask that the chamber make a commitment to more carefully screen emcees in the future to prevent against selecting one that has such an ideological bias as to prevent them from reading references to the race, gender, religion, political affiliation, sexual orientation, or gender identity from the written statements provided by the parade participants.

In closing, the emails I’ve received from you end with a quote that I rather like, it says “it is curious that physical courage should be so abundant in the world and moral courage so rare.” I agree with Mark Twain here, and I can only assume that you do as well, so while it takes a degree of moral courage to take a stand against hate, fear, and discrimination, I hope that you and the Homer Chamber of Commerce have that courage. I would hate for the young people who courageously marched in the parade with us to have their first experience with public support for lgbt people to be insulted.