A long-overdue Bent Alaska update — October 2013

Speak out for the hate crimes bill

Nobody should have to go through what happened to Cody: coming out gay only to be rejected, bullied and even assaulted – which is bad enough – and then the police let the attacker go free after only one night in jail, with no further investigation or charges, free to attack again.

Senator Bettye Davis introduced a state hate crimes law this year that includes LGBT Alaskans. It was considered and approved by the Judiciary Committee, and sent to Finance. But a second hearing was not scheduled, although all of the documents that were requested were delivered.

It’s time for the Finance Committee to hold a hearing on SB 11, the Alaska Hate Crimes bill. How do we get them to schedule a hearing and vote? You know the answer to that: We contact them. All of us.

Fred Traber of Anchorage wrote to the legislators in support of SB 11. He told the Finance Committee:

“With less than three weeks left in the session, thousands of constituents around the state are concerned about the fate of SB 11, the Hate Crimes Bill.

Two weeks ago in Geneva, Switzerland, the United Nations Human Rights Council issued a joint statement co-sponsored by 85 countries – YES – 85 countries – calling for “Ending Acts of Violence and Related Human Rights Violations Based On Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.”

And SB 11, the Alaska Hate Crimes Bill, has been held in the Senate Finance Committee since February 28.

Is there support for SB 11? Are your fellow legislators so much busier than the delegates from those 85 countries that they can’t find time for SB 11? Or don’t they care? Or maybe issues like the personalized pro-life license plates and designating the pre-1964 Winchester Model 70 caliber .30-06 caliber rifle as Alaska’s state gun are just more popular issues. Or is there another agenda here?”

Go, Fred!

Traber also notes that “SB 11 is one of the least complicated, non-financial issues before the legislature this year.”

Senator Ellis is the only committee member who replied:

“I am a cosponsor and have requested movement on the bill, as has the prime sponsor [Senator Davis]. I will continue to push. More Alaskans need to speak out for hate crimes bills to pass.” [emphasis mine]

It’s your turn to speak out.

Please contact the senators today and tell them to approve SB 11, the Alaska Hate Crimes bill.

Don’t let what happened to Cody – or worse – happen to other LGBT Alaskans.

– Thanks to Fred for being an active citizen and sharing his letter with us.

Gay teen from Wasilla was assaulted, tires slashed, rejected by parents but looking ahead

Cody had a horrible coming out. His college buddies at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and his brother and parents in Wasilla all reacted badly, only his sister is supportive. But he won’t let them ruin his life.

The “I’m From Driftwood” team interviewed LGBT Alaskans for their national story project, and the first video from Alaska was uploaded on Monday. The story is from Cody James, raised in Wasilla. Watch:

How sad that their son was assaulted and, instead of helping him, they caused him more harm. Hopefully, they will learn to love and support him as the wonderful young gay man that he is.

And what kind of university would allow a student to be harassed for 4 months?

The main perpetrator got a slap on the wrist, 24 hours in jail and some community service hours, Cody told Bent Alaska. The others got off. The city and campus police wouldn’t do anything to stop the bullying, so he fled Fairbanks and moved to Anchorage. When he explained to his family why he left college, they rejected him for being gay.

The University of Alaska, Fairbanks and the Fairbanks police owe Cody an apology, at the very least, and assurance that they will protect other students from being bullied out of an education. [Hint: Get an LGBT-inclusive anti-bullying policy, and enforce it.]

Cody wants to put this bad time behind him and move forward. But he could have called the FBI to investigate the assault under the federal Hate Crimes law passed in 2009. They have the authority to step in when local officers won’t take an anti-gay attack seriously.

Why the FBI? Because we aren’t protected by Alaska’s hate crimes law, and a bill adding LGBT Alaskans is currently stuck in the Finance committee.

Please contact the legislators today and tell them to approve SB 11, the Alaska Hate Crimes bill. We obviously need it.

Thanks to I’m From Driftwood for including Alaska in their story tour and collecting this important story. And thanks to Cody for being brave, finding support and sharing his story. May his life get much better and stay good.

Alaskans Together brings Why Marriage Matters to AK

State laws, senator support, UA policies and new campaigns: Alaskans Together has been busy! Their spring newsletter updates us on the recent successes they contributed to and their current efforts, including the Why Marriage Matters project. Here’s the message from Board President Elias Rojas:

Your statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization – Alaskans Together for Equality Inc. — has been hard at work the last several months promoting civil equality throughout the state. It has definitely been a whirlwind of LGBT initiatives in Alaska and across the country over the last several months.

The highlights of our successful involvement and support of ATE over the last several months include:

• The repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law with both Sen. Murkowski and Sen. Begich voting in favor of the repeal.
• The University of Alaska Regents passing a non-discrimination policy change that now includes sexual orientation as a protected class.
• The introduction of the Alaska Hate Crimes bill (SB 11 – Davis) and its successful passage through the Senate Judiciary Committee.
• The introduction of a statewide non-discrimination bill (HB 165 – Kerttula) that would add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes in our existing state non-discrimination laws.

The last few months have been great in terms of progress towards civil equality for LGBT Alaskans. In addition, ATE is at the tail end of a very successful membership drive and renewal campaign. Your membership keeps us going. If you have yet to become an ATE member for 2011 you can still do so by clicking here. For those of you who became members…thank you…thank you…thank you.

All these successes and continuing efforts could not have been done without your activism and financial support. Our board thanks you for all your support.

ATE is looking forward to continuing to provide you with the latest news and updates that can help you be informed and active in your community and state. As always, if you have any suggestions or would like to get involved please email us at alaskanstogether@gmail.com.

Recently, the ATE board voted to become a partner of the Freedom to Marry national campaign in support of marriage, called “Why Marriage Matters.” It’s a public education campaign that will talk about our rights and tell the story of why gays and lesbians want to get married – to share love and commitment with the person they love. Stay tuned and visit Alaskans Together as we begin rolling out this campaign in the coming months.

Check out Freedom to Marry, and watch the intro clip on Why Marriage Matters:

“If you want it to get better, make it so.”

A gay-bashing victim takes his story to YouTube. How many more times are people just going to stand by and watch another LGBT person get attacked?

Alaska Hate Crimes Bill stalled: Action needed

SB 11, the Alaska Hate Crimes Act, passed the Alaska Senate Judiciary Committee on February 25, and was referred to Senate Finance. Nearly two weeks later, where’s it at? The answer: it’s nowhere. It’s stalled, and Senate Finance hasn’t even scheduled it for a hearing. But with the legislative session ending on April 17, there’s little time to lose to get action on this bill.

Alaska Hate Crimes Act: My letter in support of SB11

Hate crimes: They can happey anytime, anywhere.Today the Alaska Senate Judiciary Committee is hearing testimony on Senate Bill 11, the the Alaska Hate Crimes Act. In spite of the fact that the bill addresses hate crimes based on a number of personal characteristics, the factually incorrect “action alert” sent by Jim Minnery of Alaska Family Council to his supporters yesterday focused exclusively on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Alaska Hate Crimes Bill: Jim Minnery v. reality…again

Jim Minnery is freaking out again.

I know, it doesn’t take much. In the past year, the head of the Alaska Family Council (which works against both Alaskans and families) has taken on topics ranging from Planned Parenthood to public education to the Girl Scouts of America. But nothing seems to get his soul patch flaring like “the gay.”

His latest manufactured controversy, sent out today through his “Alaska Family Action Alert” email blast, surrounds Alaska Senate Bill 11; a piece of legislation aimed at adding sexual orientation and gender identity to our state’s existing hate crimes policy, sponsored by Democratic Senators Bettye Davis, Hollis French, and Johnny Ellis. Tomorrow afternoon, the Senate Judiciary Committee will take on the topic, so naturally Minnery is encouraging his network to flood the committee members’ inboxes and answering machines, and, as per usual, is supplying them with talking points that must have been grown in a special, air tight lab, where there was no possible exposure to that pesky pollutant we call reality.

Let’s take a look at what our state Senators have no doubt been hearing, ad nauseum, these past few days:

Claim 1: SB11 Is Unnecessary. All violent crimes are hate crimes and it’s already against the law to commit a violent attack against another person or his/her property. However, “hate crimes” take the law one step further, adding a separate penalty for the thoughts that allegedly motivated the action.

All violent crimes are hateful. But that is entirely different from each individual offense qualifying as a “hate crime,” defined – at the federal level – in the Hate Crimes Statistics Act as “crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, including where appropriate the crimes of murder, non-negligent manslaughter; forcible rape; aggravated assault, simple assault, intimidation; arson; and destruction, damage or vandalism of property.”

The plain truth is that most violent crimes are ambivalent, in respect to the victims. The “step further” that Minnery is so offended by only applied, in 2009, to just under .005% of all violent crimes in the United States, being that they were carried out in reaction to specific characteristics of the individual they were inflicted upon. Within that sliver of a percentage point, 18.5% resulted from sexual orientation bias. Meaning that people targeted people for being gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or even straight.

Does Jim Minnery and the Alaska Family Council believe that this is an acceptable number? That we shouldn’t single out individuals that enact violent crimes against people specifically because of their gender identity or sexual  orientation? This is not a free speech issue, as he is attempting to frame it. This is an “acting violently” issue.

Or maybe he’s just feeling all soap-boxy because he already has his protection. The 19.7 percent of hate crimes in 2009 which resulted from religious bias – 1.5% higher than sexual orientation and gender identity offenses – are already protected.

(Someone wants to have their sky cake and eat it too.)

Claim 2: SB11 Would make people unequal under the law. A person who assaults a homosexual will be given a harsher penalty than if that same assault was perpetrated on, for example, an elderly person. This creates a two-tiered justice system with second-class victims. All human life should be valued the same regardless of a person’s race, religion, national origin, etc.

This goes back to the paper thin “special rights” argument that permeated the Assembly Chambers in the Loussac Library during the Summer of Hate surrounding AO-64. Minnery is essentially lobbying for a “fair tax” judicial approach; one uniform prescription for all violent crimes. But, just as stealing a can of soda from a grocery store is different from stealing a delivery truck carrying palettes of soda cans, so is the case with a random violent act versus one motivated by personal prejudice.

As explained by former Supreme Court Justice William Renquist, in the unanimous 1993 decision regarding Wisconsin v. Mitchell, penalty-enhancement hate crime laws exist because hate crimes  are ”thought to inflict greater individual and societal harm…. bias-motivated crimes are more likely to provoke retaliatory crimes, inflict distinct emotional harms on their victims, and incite community unrest.”

What the Alaska Family Council works tirelessly to fail to understand is that random acts of violence are just that: random. And, because of that, they are largely isolated. How does one exact revenge randomly? Mostly, they don’t. There is no explicit direction for the anger to go. Whereas, with hate crimes, we tend to see a really, really bad snowball effect; “the Other.” The manufactured message that wires us with a need to protect ourselves from that other person with those other beliefs with that other skin tone or that other accent, and all these attributes that differ in nature from what we recognize as familiar are inherently nefarious in nature. We should not find common ground, but instead lock the door.

Unfortunately, “the Other” is how the Alaska Family Council frames virtually every debate it puts forth, and it works against a civil society rather than towards one.

Claim 3: SB11 Paves the way for religious persecution. Virtually everywhere “hate crimes” laws have passed, arrests for speech have followed. In Sweden, Canada and Great Britain “hate crimes” laws have been used to prosecute Christians speaking their disapproval of homosexual behavior, posing a serious threat to religious liberty and free speech.

So, what’s behind the bumper sticker allegation that “hate crimes” legislation universally leads to an assault on free speech? Minnery warns that the current legislation on the table will “muzzle” Christians, and cites Sweden, Canada, and Great Britain as evidence of that; invoking the ubiquitous far-right “We’re America, not Europe!” mantra.

Key differences, however, separate the condition of free speech in those countries from the US, actually agreeing with their point, but not in a way that they would necessarily endorse.

Britain is in flux; it’s constitution is based on the precedent of law; there is no backbone document akin to our founding documents. Thus, there are neither initial restrictions or protections regarding free speech and expression. The UK is fairly obviously used, by Minnery, not in substance, but in rhetoric; following the same exhaustive dialog we heard in the health care debate which framed European countries (which Canada found itself interwoven into, because of their relationship to the crown, I guess?) very much as “the Other”.

On one hand, there is America. On the other, there is everyone else. And they have the Muslims.

Canada, in contrast, has “Hate Propaganda” laws, which prohibit the expression of hatred for certain protected groups. That is a far cry from what Minnery is arguing against; the action of anger against certain protected groups, including religious groups.

In fairness, Minnery, and his ilk, have chronic problems with linking words with their consequences.

Sweden, in 2002, approved a constitutional amendment that sought to protect groups from “unfavorable speech,” winning them my personal award-of-the-century for “Ambiguous to a Fault.” In the United States, we’ve kept up a passionate argument for 235 years over what “general welfare of the public” means. And Sweden somehow thought that “unfavorable speech” would suffice, criminalizing not only actual threats of violence, but also “expressed disdain.”

Honestly, “unfavorable speech with expressed disdain” sounds like how NPR would describe the crap that comes out of Dr. Laura’s face. Not exactly a rock solid foundation for the basis of law.

The truth is that Sweden doesn’t have freedom of speech like we are afforded (at least as it pertains to this issue). Their idea of free expression is not even in the same ballpark.

Specifically, in the case of Sweden, Minnery warns readers about Pastor Ake Green, who was arrested for delivering a clearly anti-gay sermon in 2003. And if you live in Alaska and occasionally go outdoors or turn on a television, you’ve heard it before: Genesis, Deuteronomy, cancer on society, abnormal, perverse, will lead to disaster and the spread of aids, blah blah blah. It’s been carbon copied and put on display across America one hundred times over, including in Jim Minnery’s emails, Jerry Prevo’s weekly tangents, and Dan Fagan’s radio show (now only available in scarred memories). Last I checked, we haven’t made any arrests. Nor should we. The Westboro Baptist Church (I linked their Wiki page, because I’m not throwing any traffic their way if I can help it) gets to bounce around the map like deranged gummy bears with inarticulate chips on their shoulders. By the same token, our own reality deficient, eccentric characters should be afforded the same rights.

That doesn’t mean we should accept the message as credible; it’s laughable. But they should get to scream down the same vacant hallway that houses Sarah Palin’s presidential aspirations.

Back in the real world where Jim Minnery’s emails can’t hurt you, Green was acquitted by the Swedish Supreme Court, which cited Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, stressing the international right to freedom of expression (anyone want to guess what nation Europe got that idea from?).

More smoke and mirrors to justify an irrational adversity to equal protection under the law from the Alaska Family Council, which again I will point out has nothing to do with working towards the betterment of Alaska or her families.

The good news is that Jim Minnery and the openly closed-minded organization that pays him a lot of money to concoct controversies “in His name!” is not ultimately responsible for making sure SB11 passes. He is only in charge of orchestrating an online and telephonic misrepresentation of Alaska.

About an hour ago, I was talking to a friend of mine – himself a full catalog of standing up against adversity – who reminded me that, at the end of the day, we are all confronted with a simple, albeit blunt, choice: Be a friend or be a dick. Either we make tough choices to stand up and fight for community, or we allow ourselves and those we care about to get screwed, bullied, and ignored; left to fend for themselves. Or we can stand up and say a lot more than “It gets better.”

We can demand that it does.

Friday, at 1:30pm, the Senate Judiciary Committee will address SB11. They’re going to hear from the Alaska Family Council. I implore you to do your part in ensuring that they also hear from the Rational Alaska Community, and I ask you to speak up in defense of our community; our Alaska.

The committee includes Senators Hollis French, Bill Wielechowski, Joe Paskvan, Lesil McGuire, and John Coghill.

Clicky clicky. And kindly pass the word.

Alaska Hate Crimes Bill: Testify this Wednesday

An action alert from Alaskans Together for Equality —

Dear Members and Supporters of Alaskans Together For Equality Inc.,

Senate Bill (SB) 11, the Alaska Hate Crimes Bill, has been scheduled for its first hearing, before the Alaska Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, February 16th. The full text of the bill can be found at:
http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_bill.asp?bill=SB%20%2011&session=27

The Judiciary Committee meets at 1:30 p.m. and has several bills scheduled to be heard so testimony could be taken on SB 11 anytime between 1:30 and 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday. We invite you to provide short testimony in support of SB 11 as written which includes sexual orientation and gender identity. Testimony can be given in person in Room 105 of the new Thomas Stewart Building adjacent to the Capitol, by teleconference from your local Legislative Information Office (see http://w3.legis.state.ak.us/misc/lios.php for the location of your LIO) or by calling toll free 877.763.5073.

If you are not able to testify on Wednesday, February 16th, please send a message to your own state senator and ask them to co-sponsor the bill and the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee plus the bill’s sponsor, Senator Davis.

The legislators are:

Senator Hollis French – Co-Sponsor
Senator_Hollis_French@legis.state.ak.us

Senator Bill Wielechowski
Senator_Bill_Wielechowski@legis.state.ak.us

Senator Joe Paskvan
Senator_Joe_Paskvan@legis.state.ak.us

Senator Lesil McGuire
Senator_Lesil_McGuire@legis.state.ak.us

Senator John Coghill
Senator_John_Coghill@legis.state.ak.us

Senator Bettye Davis – Sponsor
Senator_Bettye_Davis@legis.state.ak.us

If you are not able to send an email message, then your third option is a Public Opinion Message or POM, a short and easy-to-send 50 word message that should be addressed specifically to the Senators listed in the previous paragraph. Your POM could say something like: “I strongly support SB 11. Please pass this bill as written out of the Senate Judiciary Committee.” To send a POM go to: http://www.legis.state.ak.us/poms/

The following talking points are provided for your use in writing testimony or sending a message to legislators regarding SB 11.

We look forward to hearing your testimony on Wednesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at alaskanstogether@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

Board of Directors
Alaskans Together for Equality Inc.