A long-overdue Bent Alaska update — October 2013

UAA observes SafeZone Celebration Week, April 12–20

University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) observes SafeZone Celebration Week on from April 12 through 20, with a host of SafeZone activities on the UAA campus and at University Center in midtown Anchorage.

Spring Gay-la at Mat-Su College in Palmer

* * * Update: Event postponed. * * * Join Mat-Su College Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) for their Spring Gay-la on Thursday, March 29 at the Atrium at Mat-Su College in Palmer.

Candlelight vigils for homeless youth in Fairbanks & Anchorage today & tomorrow — & why this matters to LGBTQ Alaskans

According to a 2007 study by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), between 20 and 40 percent of the estimated 1.6 million homeless youth in the United States identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) — highly disproportionate to their representation in the general population. And so: youth homelessness is an LGBT issue. Which we suggest is a good reason for members of the LGBT communities of Fairbanks and Anchorage to join in two candlelight vigils for homeless youth taking place today and tomorrow.

“Out in the Silence” showing a successful event for Anchorage-area GSAs

Out in the Silence was shown two nights ago (Sunday, Nov. 6th) at Out North. It was an excellent turnout of students, families, allies, and friends to address the issue of bullying of our teens that is brought up in the video.

“Out in the Silence”, award-winning docco on bullying & discrimination in smalltown America: Sunday at Out North

The United Gay-Straight Alliances of Anchorage are sponsoring a free showing on Sunday evening, November 6 of Out in the Silence,  a 50-minute documentary which addresses bullying and discrimination against LGBT youth in rural and smalltown America. This is a free, all-ages event at Out North, though a donation of $3 at the door is suggested to help Anchorage GSAs develop anti-bullying initiatives in their schools.

Special thanks to The Family at UAA, Spectrum at APU, as well as Out North Contemporary Art House for their support as well as the many youth working to make this showing a success!

Out in the Silence captures the remarkable chain of events that unfold when a popular young jock is brutally bullied at his small town high school after he comes out as gay.  The youth’s mother reaches out for help to the only person she feels she can trust — native son and filmmaker Joe Wilson, whose same-sex wedding announcement has already ignited a firestorm of controversy in the local paper. Returning home with camera in-hand, Wilson’s journey dramatically illustrates the challenges that remain for LGBT people in 21st century America and the potential for building bridges on this human rights issue when people with different opinions approach one another with openness and respect.

The aim of Out in the Silence is to expand public awareness about the difficulties that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people face in rural and small town America and to promote dialogue and action that will help people on all sides of the issues find common ground.

This is a community event and all ages, orientations, etc. are welcome to attend! There is a suggested $3 donation at the door, with all proceeds going to support Gay-Straight Alliances across Anchorage to develop anti-bullying initiatives within their schools.

• Date/time: Sunday, Nov 6, 7:00 to 9:00 PM
• Location: Out North Contemporary Art House, 3800 DeBarr Road Anchorage, AK (see map)
• Cost of admission: Free; suggested $3 donation at the door to benefit Anchorage-area Gay/Straight Alliances (GSAs).
• Further info: see Facebook events page, the Out in the Silence website, or the Out in the Silence Facebook page

Dan Savage, journalist & author (LGBT History Month)

Dan Savage is an award-winning author, journalist, newspaper editor and political commentator. He launched the “It Gets Better” video project to combat bullying and prevent LGBT teen suicides. Bent Alaska presents his story as part of our celebration of LGBT History Month 2011, with thanks to the Equality Forum.

Dan Savage

“I thought, when I was a kid, that my mother and father would be devastated if I ever told them I was gay.”

Dan Savage (born October 7, 1964) is an award-winning author, journalist, newspaper editor and political commentator. He launched the It Gets Better video project to combat bullying and prevent LGBT teen suicides.

Born in Chicago, Savage was the third of four children in an Irish Catholic family. He attended Quigley Prep, which Savage describes as “a Catholic high school for boys thinking of becoming priests.”

At 18, Savage came out to his family. After initially having a difficult time, they became supportive. Savage enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in theater.

In 1991, Savage’s sex-advice column, “Savage Love,” first appeared in The Stranger, an alternative weekly newspaper in Seattle. The internationally syndicated column has been called funny, sarcastic, informative and outrageous.

Savage’s columns were compiled into a book, Savage Love: Straight Answers from America’s Most Popular Sex Columnist (1998). He has also written The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant (1999) and The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage, and My Family (2006) and won a Lambda Literary Award for Skipping Towards Gomorrah: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit of Happiness in America (2003).

In 2010, reacting to the suicides of bullied LGBT youth, Savage started the It Gets Better Project, which encourages adults to submit videos assuring gay teens that life gets better. As of 2011, the project generated more than 5,000 video submissions, including testimonials from President Obama, Ellen DeGeneres, Tim Gunn, Anne Hathaway, Ke$ha and other celebrities. For creating It Gets Better, Savage received a Webby Special Achievement Award, the leading international award honoring online excellence.  With his husband Terry Miller, Savage compiled a book based on It Gets Better videos, It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living, about which Bent Alaska wrote in March. Introducing the book, Savage expressed the frustration LGBT adults have had as they were forced to stand idly by while homophobic parents, ministers, teachers, and kids battered  the bodies and spirits of LGBT youth:

The culture used to offer this deal to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people: You’re ours to torture until you’re eighteen.  You will be bullied and tormented at school, at home, at church — until you’re eighteen. Then, you can do what you want. You can come out, you can move away, and maybe, if the damage we’ve done isn’t too severe, you can recover and build a life for yourself. There’s just one thing you can’t do after you turn eighteen: You can’t talk to the kids we’re still torturing, the LGBT teenagers being assaulted emotionally, physically, and spiritually in the same cities, schools, and churches you escaped from. And if you do attempt to talk to the kids we’re still torturing, we’ll impugn your motives, we’ll accuse you of being a pedophile or pederast, we’ll claim you’re trying to recruit children into “the gay lifestyle.”

That was the old order and it fell apart when the It Gets Better Project went viral.  Suddenly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender adults all over the world — all over the world — were speaking to LGBT youth.  We weren’t waiting for permission anymore. We found our voices.

Savage has been a contributor to Out magazine and HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.” As a political commentator on LGBT issues, Savage has appeared frequently on CNN and MSNBC.

Savage and  his husband Terry Miller, who married in 2005, live in Seattle with their adopted son.

The It Gets Better project got its start when Dan Savage and Terry Miller uploaded a video on September 21, 2010, in response to the suicides of teenagers bullied because they were, or were believed by their peers to be, gay. Watch:

For more about Dan Savage, visit his column, LGBT History Month page, or Wikipedia article.

Photo credit: Dan Savage, 12 June 2005. Photo via Wikimedia provided by Dan Savage; used in accordance with Creative Commons license.

Constance McMillen, youth activist (LGBT History Month)

Constance McMillen became a poster child for LGBT rights after asking permission to bring her girlfriend to the prom. When her school responded by cancelling the prom, McMillen took legal action. Bent Alaska presents her story as part of our celebration of LGBT History Month 2011, with thanks to the Equality Forum.

Constance McMillen

“Stand up like I did. It was hard but it was worth it.”

Constance McMillen (born 1992) became a poster child for LGBT rights after asking permission to bring her girlfriend to the prom. When her school responded by cancelling the prom, McMillen took legal action.

As a senior at Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton, Mississippi, McMillen challenged the prom rules forbidding same-sex couples from attending and girls from wearing tuxedos. When the school cancelled the prom, students responded by harassing McMillen.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit requesting that the court order the school to hold an inclusive prom. The case was settled when a U.S. District Court ruled that McMillen’s First Amendment rights had been violated. The Itawamba County School District consented to a judgment in which it paid McMillen $35,000 and $81,000 in attorneys’ fees.

After the settlement, the school held a prom. Only McMillen and seven learning disabled students attended. Parents organized a separate prom that all other students attended, but to which McMillen was not invited.

The school district agreed to implement policies that would prevent future discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity for extracurricular and educational activities. This was groundbreaking for a Mississippi school district.

McMillen’s story received national attention. Glamour magazine named her Woman of the Year in 2010, and she appeared on national television shows including “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” where she received a $30,000 scholarship. She was invited to the White House and served as Grand Marshal of the New York Gay Pride Parade.

McMillen transferred to a school in Jackson, Mississippi, and graduated in 2011. She enrolled at Northeast Mississippi Community College to study psychology.

Here’s the March 2010 Ellen Degeneres Show on which Constance McMillen appeared — and received, to her obvious astonishment, a $30,000 check from Tonic.com towards her education. Watch:

For more about Constance McMillen, visit the Tonic.com page about her, her LGBT History Month page, or the Wikipedia article about the prom controversy.

Photo credit: Constance McMillen at the 2010 GLAAD Media Awards, 17 April 2010. Photo by Greg Hernandez (greginhollywood on Flickr); used in accordance with Creative Commons license.

Bent News, 10/22/11: Michigan bill would void local nondiscrimination measures

A proposed bill in Michigan would negate local LGBT non-discrimination ordinances in several Michigan cities; October 20th celebration of Spirit Day against bullying; and more in this edition of Bent News.

Based on @bentalaska tweets and Facebook shares from October 21, with supplementation.  We apologize for neglecting the news lately: Bent’s editor is overwhelmed with a whole lotta stuff at the moment, & is working to catch up.

Michigan bill aims to negate local nondiscrimination ordinances

• Michigan bill would negate cities’ LGBT non-discrimination laws, including Lansing, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo. http://t.co/ezOGARLr #

A proposed bill in Michigan would negate cities’ LGBT non-discrimination laws, including Lansing, Grand Rapids, & Kalamazoo, whose One Kalamazoo campaign has been an inspiration for the One Anchorage campaign. Anti-LGBT legislators in Tennessee succeeded with a similar ploy in May, negating Nashville’s local antidiscrimination law.

Bent Alaska has been told that provisions in Alaska law would prevent social conservatives in the Alaska Legislature from pulling the same thing on Anchorage should the One Anchorage campaign succeeds. One Anchorage is currently collecting signatures to place a ballot measure on the Anchorage municipal ballot in April 2012. If successful, it would add sexual orientation and transgender identity to Anchorage’s equal rights code.

Spirit Day against bullying

• Bent Alaska & friends weren’t the only ones to go purple against bullying for #SpiritDay – so did lots of celebs. http://t.co/rs0w2lFS #
• … but #SpiritDay ended w/ Senate committee FAIL on addressing bullying in education bill. What did Lisa do? http://t.co/iIMLyO53 #

October 20 was Spirit Day, which asks people to wear the color purple to show support for LGBT young people who are victims of bullying. Purple is the color representing spirit on the Rainbow flag. Spirit Day was first celebrated in 2010, created by Canadian teenager Brittany McMillan as a response to the young people who had taken their own lives, and is now publicized by GLAAD.  Bent Alaska’s Facebook wall turned positively purple with spirit on Thursday, with friends tagging Bent on their purple pictures. Even the White House took part.

Unforunately, the Senate Health, Education, Education & Pensions (HELP) Committee failed to even consider the antibullying Student Non-Discrimination Act or Safe Schools Improvement Act on Thursday as it passed the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (ESEA) bill by a vote of 15 to 7.  Senator Lisa Murkowski sits on the HELP Committee, and Bent had been urging Alaskans to call her to urge her to support the antibullying measures.

Other news tweets

• LA Times: # of gay/lesbian couples who adopt tripled over last decade despite some states discrimination. http://t.co/oykPClgI #
• The @glsen Respect Awards are tonight! Follow #RespectLA for livetweets or visit http://t.co/og60raET for a list of honorees.#

The circle turns

by Lauren Tibbits. Alaska Pride Conference was about drawing the younger and older generations together to better serve the LGBT community in Alaska — a wonderful experience, but coupled with grief for the passing of a beloved mentor, Alison McKenna of Juneau, who died unexpectedly on Saturday. The important thing, I’ve discovered, is to be part of the living legacy Alison has left behind.

Alaska Pride Conference 2011: A photo essay

Mel Green spent most of yesterday at Alaska Pride Conference 2011, held on the Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage. The Alaska Pride Conference is an annual day-long event held in Anchorage filled with workshops, speakers, vendors, and great food.