A long-overdue Bent Alaska update — October 2013

Sara’s News Round-up 5/9/10

Rachel Maddow on George "Rentboy" Rekers

George Rekers is the co-founder of the Family Research Council and is paid to convince school districts and state courts that gays can be cured. He is also secretly gay, as we learned in this week’s “Rentboy” scandal. Rachel Maddow explains:

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

Hmm. “When people have built their careers, their professions, on professions of their own sexual moral rectitude – David Vitter, John Ensign – when people have built their careers on trying to make life miserable and dangerous for gay people while they themselves are secretly gay – Larry Craig, George Rekers – then congratulations, you’ve made the news!”

Makes me wonder which Alaskans who have built their careers on making life miserable for gay people might be secretly gay…

Alice and LuLu in Fairbanks, Frontrunners in Anchorage

Truman’s grandson on Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell & desegregation

President Harry Truman desegregated the U.S. military in 1948. The anniversary of his birthday is tomorrow. In today’s “Frontlines” letter, Truman’s grandson Clifton Truman Daniel remembers his grandfather’s decision and asks President Obama to follow that example to end Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell, the military’s ban on open gay and lesbian service members.

This Week in LGBT Alaska 5/7/10

Juneau

Annual Highway Clean-Up with PFLAG and SEAGLA on 5/8. Meet at the Auke Lake parking lot promptly at 10 a.m. wearing bright colored clothing. Bags and gloves are provided.

SEAGLA Social Fridays (6-8 p.m.) for GLBT people and our friends over 21, at The Imperial Bar.

Fairbanks

SOAP Presents “Alice in the Underground” at the Empress Theater 5/7 thru 5/15, at 7:30. Tickets $20 general/ $15 students, seniors, and military. Free for youth under 18. On May 7, they’re hosting a First Friday event featuring youth artwork and a silent auction before the show.

Wednesday Social Group, contact Joshua for the location.

Mat-Su Valley

Mat-Su LGBT Community Center in Palmer is open M-F 5-8 p.m. (except 6-8 on Wed.) The social group meets Wednesdays, 5-6 p.m. at Vagabond Blues.

Anchorage

Identity Team in the Graze to Raise fundraiser 5/7, 5:30 p.m. Start at the Dena’ina Center and walk through downtown, raise funds for the Community Center.

TLFMC Dehibernation Brown Bear Bus Run 5/8, 12-5p.m. Ages 21+ only. Tickets $20. Bus leaves The Raven (708 East 4th Ave) at noon.

LGBT Democrat Caucus: Get Our LGTB Voices Heard, meeting on 5/11 at 7p.m. at the GLCCA.

Brandi Carlile brings ‘Ghost’ to Alaska

Alaskan audiences will enjoy openly lesbian singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile in two local concerts during her Give Up the Ghost tour: July 15 at The Blue Loon in Fairbanks, and July 16 at the Discovery Theater in Anchorage.

Memorial Tonight for FKen Freedman

A Celebration of Life for FKen Freedman will be held tonight, May 6, at 7 p.m. at the Anchorage Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 3201 Turnagain Street. Freedman’s obituary appeared in the Anchorage Daily News today (posted below), along with a new legacy book with the correct spelling of his last name. Personal memories of Freedman can also be read in and below Bent’s first announcement of his passing.

FKen Freedman died of natural causes at his home in Anchorage on April 30, 2010. He was 68.

He was born July 12, 1941, in Newport News, Va., and grew up in California.

He was deeply spiritual and connected with his Jewish culture through the richness of ritual and the way he lived his life — as a man of action. He connected with his Gay culture through action as one of the pillars of the GLBTA movement.

FKen was an activist in every community he was a part of. His passions were GLBTA equality, photography, theater and psychotherapy. He was a grassroots community organizer, starting and implementing the first Gay and Lesbian Helpline and The NorthView out of his home.

He loved the simplicity of life, to be in nature, and to create positive changes in his circle of influence and spend time with his friends and family. He loved plain doughnuts and he never passed up the chance to eat rainbow sprinkles on his ice cream.

FKen was in private practice, specializing in individual and couples counseling. He had a Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale University, School of Drama (1967) and a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology, from Prescott College, Arizona (1998). He was a member of the Alaska Psychological Association and the American Psychological Association. Clients may call 229-9205 for referral information.

He was preceded in death by his husband, John Paul; his loving sister, Joan Carol; and his father, Donald Kenneth.

He is survived by his family of origin and family of choice. It would soothe his soul to know his friends shared their stories with his brother, adopted sons and extended family who were never able to experience the richness of his life in Anchorage while he was alive.

A celebration of life will be held at 7 p.m. today [Thursday, May 6] at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 3201 Turnagain St. A community potluck will follow.

Donations in his honor can be made to Identity Inc. at www.identityinc.org or P.O. Box 200070, Anchorage, 99520.

Repeal DADT: Veterans Lobby Day & Stories from the Frontlines

Veterans from across the nation will meet with members of Congress to demand repeal of the military gay ban on “Veterans Lobby Day on Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell” May 10-11. Alaskans Together for Equality has joined the coalition and is looking for LGBT service members and veterans in Alaska.

Nearly 14,000 Americans have been abruptly fired from the U.S. military because of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell – including more than 800 mission critical specialists, and Jene Newsome, an Alaskan stationed in South Dakota.

Alaskans Together is looking for other LGBT service members and veterans in Alaska willing to talk to the media. If you are able to join this effort, please Email Tim Stallard.

The national Veterans Lobby Day on DADT will bring hundreds of gay and lesbian veterans and their straight veteran allies to Washington with the support of a pro-repeal and pro-military coalition. They will demand to have the DADT repeal attached to the Defense Authorization bill. Supporters back home are encouraged to call their members of Congress on Veterans Lobby Day.

The video for Veterans Lobby Day on DADT:

Both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees are expected to markup the Defense Authorization bill in May. The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) writes:

“We are urging the President to include repeal in the Administration’s defense budget recommendations, but also to voice his support as we work to muster the 15 critical votes needed on the Senate Armed Services Committee to include repeal. The Defense Authorization bill represents the best legislative vehicle to bring repeal to the president’s desk. It also was the same vehicle used to pass DADT in 1993. By working together, we can help build momentum to get the votes!”

Meanwhile, SLDN is continuing to post a letter each weekday from people directly effected by this discriminatory law in “Stories from the Frontlines: Letters to President Barack Obama.” The military personnel include men and women from the Navy, Air Force, Army, Marines, and a Military Chaplain. This touching letter is from the Chaplain:

Dear Mr. President,

As an active-duty military chaplain who just returned from a 15-month deployment in Iraq, this is my appeal for justice:

Over the years some of us have buried our closest friends — officers and enlisted, African American, Latinos, Native Americans, Asians, Whites, rich, poor, Protestants, Catholics, Muslims and Jews. They had the courage to make the supreme sacrifice in order for us to reap the bounties of freedom. We owe them a debt of gratitude which can never be repaid.

What is remarkable about these Marines, Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Coastguardsmen is they understood the personal risk when they answered the highest calling of our nation. What could be a nobler act then to give one’s life to one’s country, knowing that in their lives many freedoms would be denied them?

And when their story is told a significant piece of their life would be missing.

As they sleep under the crosses, the stars of David and the crescents there is no bigotry. There is no prejudice. There is no hatred. And within the sacred confines of their resting place there is no law of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” There is only purest democracy.

When the final cross has been placed in the last cemetery, will it only be then that we as a nation acknowledge our gay brothers and sisters who took the risks of life and truth to answer their nation’s highest calling? How many of these brave men and women lie in military graves and still hide in death?

They are among the unknown soldiers.

There are only a few who know the truth of those who lie in these graves. There are only a few who know the suffering and sorrow of those who mourn them in silence and fear. The nation remains silent and owes no allegiance to who they truly were nor does it honor their loved ones. What does that say of our sacred values?

If one gay person was killed in defense of America, issues such as the destruction of unit morale or the fear of people not wanting to join the military devalue their sacrifice. This is not about appeasing the uncomfortable feelings of a minority; this is a universal and transcendent matter of justice. America was built on the common Jewish and Christian heritage of justice when the Bible commands: “Justice, justice you shall pursue” (Deuteronomy 16:20).

It is easy for those who do not live in fear of being ‘outed’ to say: ‘We must wait and examine this law further.’ But when you have to watch what you say, where you go, and who you talk to, this erodes the human person. When you live in fear that the wrong pronoun slips through your lips, or a co-worker see you in public with your life long partner and you respond ‘this is just a friend’, this degrades your human self worth.

Gays and lesbians wait not for justice, for them justice is denied, but they wait for the ‘knock on the door.’ They are haunted daily waiting ‘to be found out.’

We went to foreign lands to wage war to liberate people so they would not have to live in the fear of waiting. But citizens of our own land who served nobly, who died to secure freedoms which they would never profit from, must live in fear waiting for justice.

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is an unjust law. It degrades the human soul because it forces those who willingly serve to live in shameful humiliation because of deceit and fear. It undermines the very principles and values of what it means to be an American. Living the façade of a life goes against the Core Values of every Armed Service. How much longer is justice going to be denied? There comes a time when despair and fear must end.

Mr. President, we depend on your sense of justice and fairness to help end this gross injustice so we, as a nation, do not have to wait for the final marker to be placed in the last cemetery.

We ask you to lead the way in repealing this unjust law and replace it with a policy of non-discrimination that advances open and honest service. A law that is consistent with true American values and honors the sacrifices of so many who have served – and died — in silence.

With deepest respect,

A military chaplain

(The writer is currently serving and unable to identify himself publicly.)

Read all of the letters HERE, and contact Alaskans Together to support the local effort.

Immigration reform for all families: UAFA in 2010

Dear Bent Alaska,

My name is Tom and I’m a member of Out4Immigration, an all-volunteer grassroots organization fighting to end discrimination against LGBT Americans in our nation’s immigration laws. We need help in Alaska with this important issue…

As you may be aware, if an American citizen (or legal permanent resident) falls in love with someone from another country, they may petition for an immigration benefit to bring that person to the US (green card).

If you happen to be LGBT, you are denied this basic right.

Even if you get married, or enter into a civil union or domestic partnership in any of the states or other nations that allow this, you still cannot bring your spouse or partner to the US.

21 other nations (most of our closest allies, Western Europe, Canada, Australia, Israel and South Africa) allow their LGBT citizens to sponsor their foreign-born partners, and most of these nations do not have marriage equality.

There is a bill pending before Congress called the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA, S. 424/H.R. 1024) that would end this discrimination. It would allow gay and lesbian Americans to sponsor their partner (or spouse), in the same manner that straight couples can, along with the same penalties for fraud.

Over 36,000 bi-national, same-sex couples are affected by this, and almost half of them are raising children.

Families are being torn apart every day – Americans are being forced to chose between heart and home – because they are not allowed to prove the validity of their relationships simply because they are LGBT.

We are fighting to make sure 2010 is the year that UAFA passes, and are pushing for it to be included in the larger comprehensive immigration reform bills that are expected this year.

[Please ask your readers] to call Senator Begich and Senator Murkowski about this issue, and urge the Senators to co-sponsor this bill and support LGBT inclusion in comprehensive immigration reform!

I am reaching out because I know there are folks in the area affected by this, but many are too fearful to speak out.

Contact Senator Murkowski at 202.224.6665 or via e-mail.

Contact Senator Begich at 202.224.3004 or via e-mail.

F. Ken Freedman (1942-2010)

UPDATE: A Celebration of Life will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday May 6 at the Anchorage UU Church, 3201 Turnagain St. Read and sign the ADN legacy book HERE.

* * *

F. Ken Freedman, a long-time member of the Anchorage LGBT community, passed away on Saturday, May 1, 2010.

“It is with great sadness that I let the community know about the passing yesterday of my good friend, F. Ken Freedman,” wrote Alaska Mike on Bent’s Facebook wall.

“F. Ken worked for a number of years in the psychotherapy field, specializing in folks dealing with coming out and other LGBT related issues.”

“We just had lunch on campus in late February, it’s hard to believe he is gone! He will be greatly missed by me, as well as many others who were lucky enough to know him and consider him a friend.”

Several friends left comments about Freedman’s kind and gentle manner, that he was an inspiration and a mentor, and that he was one of the first gay men they met when moving to Anchorage years ago.

“fKen started the GLBT Helpline,” wrote Phyllis of Identity, Inc. “It was answered by volunteers from his home. His legacy will live on in so many, many ways and lives.”

Others remembered Freedman’s stories of being present at the 1969 Stonewall Riots in NYC, which mark the beginning of the modern LGBT rights movement.

His full name was Fredrick Kenneth Freedman, but he never used his first name, preferring F. Ken or fKen.

A service is being planned for this Thursday afternoon/evening. More details to come as they are available. Anyone with photos of Freedman are asked to share them for his Celebration of Life. Please email the photos to Victoria.

Condolences to his family and friends.