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AO 64 Passes – Call Mayor Sullivan Today

Wednesday, 12 August 2009 – 4:10 PM | 3 Comments

from Equality Works

Thanks to everyone who came out last night for an unexpectedly emotional debate and vote on equal rights ordinance AO-64. I am happy to report that the Anchorage Assembly voted 7-4 to pass the S-2 version, which protects LGBT people from discrimination in all aspects of public life, while providing broad protection for religious organizations to employ and serve according to their values.

Assembly Members Selkregg, Gutierrez, Claman, Johnston, Flynn, Drummond, and Gray-Jackson voted for the legislation. Assembly Members Ossiander, Starr, Birch, and Coffey voted against.

What can you do to ensure that the ordinance becomes law?

Call or E-Mail Mayor Sullivan!

The Mayor hasn’t publicly shared his stance on AO-64, but he needs to know that people in Anchorage support equality, he needs to know why you support equality, and he needs to hear that vetoing an ordinance to protect LGBT people from discrimination sends the message that he, as the Mayor of Anchorage, believes that LGBT people should be discriminated against in employment, housing, education, financing and public accommodations. If he doesn’t want to send that message, then he should not veto this ordinance.

If you haven‘t already, PLEASE call Mayor Sullivan at (907) 343-7170 or (907) 343-7100, or e-mail him at mayor@muni.org

If you fall into one of these categories, be sure to include this information when you ask him to support AO 64:

I lived in Anchorage for X years.

I grew up in Anchorage.

I am an Anchorage voter.

I am a Native Alaskan voter.

I am a business owner/leader.

Economic justice and equality are important to me.

Then please e-mail and call the Assembly members who voted for AO 64 and thank them for their time, consideration, support and bravery. The Assembly member profiles and contact information is found HERE.

Thank you!

Assembly PASSES Ordinance 64!

Tuesday, 11 August 2009 – 7:36 PM | One Comment

The Anchorage Assembly passed Ordinance 64(S-2) tonight, voting 7-4 to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the city’s non-discrimination policies. Coffey’s resolution to commission another study of LGBT discrimination, instead of passing the ordinance, failed.

“We are thrilled that the Assembly gave us a majority vote and passed version S-2,” said Jackie Buckley, spokesperson for Equality Works. “We are looking forward to Dan Sullivan doing the right thing and making it economically safer for our families.”

Ordinance 64(S-2) will protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people against discrimination in housing, employment, finance, education and public accommodations in the Municipality of Anchorage.

Many LGBT residents and allies gave testimony to the Assembly on the need for protection, including several who risked their jobs to testify. A series of supportive testimony is posted on Bent Alaska.

The Assembly held 6 public hearings on Ordinance 64 this summer, because anti-gay leaders encouraged opponents from as far away as Wasilla to testify on the Anchorage ordinance, to delay the vote until after Mayor Sullivan took office on July 1.

Mayor Sullivan has not stated a position on the equal rights ordinance that was introduced three months ago. However, Sullivan ran on a conservative platform, took anti-gay positions as an Assembly member, and is likely to veto the ordinance.

This is the third time Anchorage has tried to pass protections for gays and lesbians. Each time, the right-wing religious groups organized against us and threatened to unseat Assembly members who voted for the protections. Mayor Sullivan’s father, then-Mayor George Sullivan, vetoed one of the ordinances.

At least 108 cities have trans-inclusive non-discrimination laws, including El Paso, TX, Kansas City, MO, Gainesville, FL, and Columbia, SC. In addition, 13 states and Washington, D.C. have LGBT non-discrimination laws.

Will Anchorage join those cities and protect its residents against anti-LGBT discrimination, or will Mayor Sullivan tell the world that Anchorage will continue to allow discrimination?

Contact Mayor Sullivan today and ask him to let Ordinance 64 become a law! Call (907) 343-7170 or (907) 343-7100, or email him at mayor(at)muni(dot)org.

YOU in BLUE, Today at the Library

Tuesday, 11 August 2009 – 8:39 AM | Comments Off

from Equality Works

The next Assembly meeting is today, Tuesday, August 11th. While there are no certainties, this very well may be the day that Assembly members get to a debate and vote on AO 64.

I know that many of you couldn’t bear to sit through the public hearings and the offensive testimony that demonized the LGBTQ community over the last couple of months. And I have been told that some of you have given up hope that your presence in the Assembly Chambers means anything.

But I assure you that it does mean something. It means something to the people who have spent time writing letters, getting petitions signed, meeting with Assembly members, and giving testimony, to feel surrounded and supported by friends and allies. And it means something to Assembly members who plan to vote for AO 64 and need to know that the citizens of Anchorage appreciate their courage.

This could be the last time to show the Assembly members that their constituents support legislation to protect people from discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation.

Over the last couple of weeks they have sat through verbal abuse and threats to vote them out of office if they dare to vote “Yes” on AO 64. They need to be reminded that they have constituents who are grateful for their vote to support equality. If we cannot be present to show them where we stand, it is more difficult for them to feel accountable to us.

One Equality Works supporter put it this way: “No matter what happens, I want them to see me when they are making their decision. I want them to look me in the eyes.” Assembly members need to know whose lives are being affected when they cast a vote for equality and whose rights are being denied if they vote “No.”

So Be There on Tuesday

You don’t have to testify, you don’t have to engage in debates with people in red shirts, all you have to do is be there to show your support for equality. If you have never come to an Assembly meeting, please consider showing up on this crucial day. The meeting starts at 5:00 pm, but as usual, you should try to be there much earlier if you want to get a seat. 4:00 would not be too early. Doors generally open at 3:00 pm. You know the drill: Blue shirts, Equality Works buttons.

Coffey’s Resolution

Assembly Member Dan Coffey plans to introduce a Resolution to establish a task force to study the extent of discrimination against LGBT people in Anchorage and whether or not such discrimination warrants protection. The proposed resolution implies that protecting people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation would somehow infringe upon the freedoms of religion and association.

We at Equality Works believe that discrimination against people on the basis of sexual orientation has already been studied and proven. The State of Alaska Human Rights Commission—an unbiased agency—declared nearly twenty years ago that the State Legislature should pursue a statute banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation [Resolution 90-01]. The case has already been made. It is time for our representatives to act.

Furthermore, we believe that it is erroneous to argue that protecting LGBT people from discrimination infringes upon religious rights. How could 108 other cities and 13 states (including D.C.) have made such a “mistake” without any of the consequences that opponents of AO 64 predict? Religious freedoms are clearly and strongly protected in the U.S. Constitution. No local law could ever trump the power of the Bill of Rights.

Now is not the time for a resolution. It is time for our Assembly members to vote on AO 64.

Support S-2 version of the ordinance

For those of you who don’t know already, an S-2 version of the ordinance has been submitted for consideration by Patrick Flynn.

We believe that this is a strong revision that acknowledges the concerns of some in the religious community by broadening the religious exemption, but does not weaken the original intention of the ordinance to protect LGBT people from discrimination. It includes employment protections for our entire community–including transgender individuals. Please call or e-mail your Assembly members and tell them to put their support behind the S-2 version. We want this version of the ordinance to be debated and eventually voted upon.

Call or E-Mail Mayor Sullivan and Write a Letter to the Editor

Mayor Sullivan hasn’t publicly stated what he will do if the ordinance reaches his desk, but he needs to know that people in Anchorage support equality, he needs to know why you support equality, and he needs to hear that vetoing an ordinance to protect LGBT people from discrimination sends the message that he, as the Mayor of Anchorage, believes that LGBT people should be discriminated against in employment, housing, education, and public accommodations. If he doesn’t want to send that message, then he should not veto this ordinance. If you haven’t already, please call or e-mail Mayor Sullivan at mayor(at)muni(dot)org or call (907) 343-7170 or (907) 343-7100. If you’ve already written to Mayor Sullivan, please write a Letter to the Editor. Remember to be respectful. No one responds positively to insults, accusations, or anger.

Thanks, and See You at the Library! Equality Works

Bob Poe on the Equal Rights Ordinance and the Value of People

Monday, 10 August 2009 – 12:13 PM | Comments Off

by Bob Poe, Candidate for Governor

I support equal rights for all people. And I support banning discrimination in Anchorage due solely to someone’s sexual orientation. I support a comprehensive equal rights ordinance because it’s the right thing to do, period.

But if doing the right thing isn’t a compelling enough reason, here is an economic reason why the Assembly, Mayor and residents of Anchorage should support this ordinance: it is simply good for business.

In the best selling book, The Rise of the Creative Class, Richard Florida points out successful, growing communities are places accepting of gay and lesbian people. Florida, originally a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, has been studying successful and unsuccessful communities throughout his career. He combined his work with that of Gary Gates from UCLA, who co-authored The Gay and Lesbian Atlas. Their combined work developed a “gay index” that was strongly correlated with economically successful and growing communities. They weren’t really looking to prove this concept; it is simply what the data showed.

They believe the more accepting a community is to new ideas, alternative life styles, new art and music, the more accepting it will be to the kind of nerds and entrepreneurial geeks who have created companies like Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and hundreds of other businesses. Communities that are open to progressive ways of thinking are measurably more attractive to the smart, well-educated workforce necessary to build successful companies like these.

But you might say, Silicon Valley/San Francisco (gay index #1) and Seattle (gay index #2) would naturally attract high tech companies. Not really. It was Stanford University that probably had the most to do with Silicon Valley becoming a high tech center. When I was growing up in the early 70’s, Seattle was a rainy place where people stood in endless unemployment lines, freshly laid off from Boeing. Seattle only really began to fully evolve in the last 15 years, and Microsoft is primarily in Seattle because Bill Gates was from there. But critical to the success of these areas was the ability to attract a creative and talented workforce.

The research Florida and Gates did doesn’t indicate that a community decided to be open minded and then the economic progress flowed in, but it does show that progressive communities do attract talent and creativity, two things Anchorage and Alaska could use plenty more of. In contrast, Pittsburg, the home of Carnegie Mellon University, is the least gay friendly community. The city still produces smart, creative people through its many great universities, but they quickly lose these graduates to other more attractive communities. Others near the bottom include Detroit, Birmingham and Oklahoma City.

Through the Alaska Scholar’s Program, in large part, the University of Alaska is now retaining Alaska’s best and brightest, and by doing so is raising the quality of a UA degree significantly. Just this year, a UAA student became a Marshall Scholar, just one of 40 in the country. We need to be able to keep these graduates here and attract others from communities that don’t offer what Anchorage can.

Anchorage is becoming a real city, perhaps even destined to be the next great West Coast city, but it needs to guard against the attitudes that would hold us back. Anchorage would not be what it is today without the Performing Arts Center, the First Friday art gallery walk, a variety of music venues, Saturday Market, the Dena’ina Center, City Market, or even a downtown disc golf course. All of these are examples of things that make a city better, one that is growing. Being open to new ideas, different lifestyles, and new and different ways to embrace life, is important to a bright future here. But to get there, we need the right attitude first.

I support equal rights for every person because it is the right thing to do. I also support this ordinance because it can help Anchorage attract the talented people it will need to build its future as a great place to live and work for all of us.

Coffey Ignores Evidence, Calls for Yet Another Study

Saturday, 8 August 2009 – 5:29 AM | One Comment

After six public hearings this summer — and 30 years of studies and delays — Assembly member Dan Coffey wants the Assembly to appoint a task force to study discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people in Anchorage and postpone the Ordinance 64 vote for at least a year and three months: 30 days to choose the task force, 60 days to develop a plan, and a minimum of 12 months for the study. The report would not be due until just after the Nov. 2010 elections, at the earliest.

Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation has already been studied and proven in Alaska. Equality Works points out:

“The State of Alaska Human Rights Commission—an unbiased agency—declared nearly twenty years ago that the State Legislature should pursue a statute banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation [Resolution 90-01]. The case has already been made. It is time for our representatives to act.”

During the 1980’s, Mel Green worked on two other reports documenting sexual orientation bias in Alaska and included the findings in her testimony to the Assembly. She posted her testimony yesterday on Henkimaa, along with her response to Coffey’s proposed task force and her recommendation on the four versions of the ordinance. Her piece is reposted below, with permission:

* * *

Over the past couple of weeks, Bent Alaska has been publishing some of the testimony of people who testified to the Anchorage Assembly in favor of the Anchorage equal rights ordinance AO 2009-64, which if passed will grant equal protection from discrimination to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans people who live, work, and/or visit the Municipality of Anchorage. And I realized, well, although I’ve written a fair amount on my blog about the ordinance battle, and even posted the full text of the letter I wrote to the Assembly in early June, I somehow hadn’t gotten around to posting the testimony I gave at the Assembly on June 16. So that became one of my tasks this evening: to find my prepared testimony, & put it online.

I couldn’t have timed it better: earlier today I learned that Assembly Member Dan Coffey — in whose district I live — has placed a resolution on the agenda for the August 11 Assembly meeting which would establish a task force to study the issue. For a year. After we’ve just been through six long nights of public testimony stretched out over the summer.

Another year?

This isn’t the first time a task force has been suggested. It came up in some of the questions Assembly members asked during the first night of public testimony way back on June 9. The idea seemed to inform the proposal by Assembly Chair Debbie Ossiander, in her S-1 version of the ordinance, to authorize the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission to track complaints of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression (even while permitting most such discrimination to continue unabated).

My testimony, given on June 16, the same meeting at which Ossiander’s version was presented, directly addressed whether a task force was needed. Here it is as I wrote it.

Thank you for hearing my testimony.

My name is Melissa Green. I am an Anchorage resident.

I was part of two major research efforts in the 1980s to document sexual orientation bias in Alaska. One in 10: A Profile of Alaska’s Lesbian & Gay Community published in 1986 reported on the results of a statewide survey of 734 lesbian, gay, and bisexual Alaskans. Identity Reports: Sexual Orientation Bias in Alaska was published in 1989 and included three papers, including “Closed Doors,” a survey of Anchorage employers and landlords; and “Prima Facie,” which documented 84 actual cases of violence, harassment, and discrimination due to sexual orientation bias. Copies of both reports are now on the Internet at Henkimaa.com — that’s H-E-N-K-I-M-A-A dot com. I’ve also prepared copies on CD for all members of the Assembly, as well as hard copies of “Prima Facie,” which I will give to the clerk when I complete my testimony. Some of the relevant findings from both reports:

Of the 734 respondents to One in 10:

61 percent reported being victimized by violence and harassment while in Alaska because of their sexual orientation;
39 percent reported discrimination in employment, housing, and loans/credit; and
33 percent reported discrimination from services and institutions.

From the “Closed Doors” component of Identity Reports:

31 percent of the 191 employers in the survey said they would not hire or promote, or would fire, someone they had reason to believe was homosexual.
20 percent of the 178 landlords in the survey said they would not rent to, or would evict, someone they had reason to believe was homosexual.

From the “Prima Facie” component of Identity Reports:

84 actual instances of antigay bias, discrimination, harassment, or violence (including three murders) were recorded involving 30 men and 21 women. 64 of the cases we documented were in Anchorage.
Victims were predominately gay men or lesbians, but also included heterosexuals who were erroneously assumed to be gay or lesbian.

It was suggested last week that we need a “study” or a “task force” to decide if we need this ordinance. The studies have been done. The testimony you’ve already heard about discrimination updates those studies and shows that sexual orientation discrimination is still going on today. And that’s not even including the people who have not testified because there’s nothing to protect them from more discrimination for just showing up and telling you their stories. Do we really need another study, or a task force, to discover again what we already know? There are at least 108 examples of other cities with similar ordinances, which not only continue to function, but do it better because their citizens do not suffer from unfair discrimination. I ask you: how much discrimination is tolerable? What is the threshold for justice? How many stories do we have to bring to you before you stop passing it on to the future, and establish protections for the people who are being discriminated against today?

Please: pass a full version of this ordinance.

No, a task force wasn’t needed then; and nearly two months later, it still isn’t. The task force proposal is just another means to delay acting in accordance with the public policy the Municipality of Anchorage purports to adhere to, as written in Anchorage Municipal Code 5.10.010:

The public policy of the municipality is declared to be equal opportunity for all persons.

Is this really the Muni’s public policy? Or is it not? Decide, and vote.

* * *

More about Dan Coffey’s task force resolution, starting with the text of the resolution itself:

AR NO. 2009–186. “A resolution of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly authorizing a citizen task force to review the nature and extent of discrimination based on sexual orientation and the potential for conflict with constitutional rights.” Submitted by Assembly Member Dan Coffey for reading August 11, 2009.
8/6/09. “Coffey says city needs gay rights task force — NO DELAY: But backers and critics want to see assembly vote on proposed ordinance” by Don Hunter (Anchorage Daily News)

Incidentally, Don Hunter’s ADN story is incorrect in stating that there are “three versions of the original sexual orientation ordinance” for consideration by the Anchorage Assembly. In fact, there are four versions: on July 23, Assembly Member Patrick Flynn announced on his blog that he had written a new draft, version S-2.

Here are all four versions of Ordinance 64:

AO No. 2009-64. Original draft submitted on behalf of then-Acting Mayor Matt Claman, for reading May 12, 2009.
AO No. 2009-64 (S). First substitution version submitted on behalf of then-Acting Mayor Matt Claman, for reading June 9, 2009.
AO No. 2009-64 (S-1). Second substitution version submitted by Assembly Chair Debbie Ossiander, for reading June 16, 2009.
AO No. 2009-64 (S-2). Third substitution version submitted by Assembly Member Patrick Flynn, for reading August 11, 2009.

I’ll be writing a post comparing the four versions over the next couple of days. I’ll just say for now that I consider Ossiander’s S-1 version the worst of the four (it permits discrimination in private employment, and permits discrimination on the basis of gender identity across the board). Flynn’s S-2 is the best, and is the one I support: it’s the most clear both in its anti-discrimination provisions and in its language about religious exemptions, and addresses specific issues some had about employees of religious organizations such as Sunday School teachers and bus drivers.

I urge you to throw your support behind S-2, too. Let your Assembly representative(s) and Mayor Sullivan mayor(at)muni(dot)com know which one you support.

This Week in LGBT Alaska 8/7/09

Friday, 7 August 2009 – 2:39 PM | Comments Off

The next Ordinance 64 meeting is Tuesday August 11, and the Assembly may vote on the ordinance that evening. We need YOU in BLUE, sitting in the Assembly chambers on the first floor of Loussac Library, to show that we support them in passing the equal rights ordinance. Please attend!

This week’s events from the statewide newsletter. Subscribe to Alaska GLBT News.

Juneau

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

Fairbanks

Ducal Ball 2009 – A Fetish Ball 8/8, doors open at 7 p.m., show at 8 p.m., to elect a new monarch for Fairbanks. Pioneer Park Civic Center. Fun, food, entertainment, and fetish-friendly attire (no nudity.) $15 at the door, 18 and older. (18-21 in a separate area.)

PFLAG Booth at the Tanana Valley State Fair 8/7-8/15. Volunteer at the booth for a 2-hour shift and enter the Fair free for the whole day. Email Mike to volunteer or visit Fairbanks PFLAG for more info.

Parks Hwy

Ever Ready at the Talkeetna Bluegrass Festival 8/7, 4-5 p.m. Mile 102 Parks Hwy, Talkeetna.

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

Compassionate Communication Workshops for Parents and Anyone Working with Children 8/6-8/8, 6:30-9 p.m. T-F, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat.

Side Street Saturdays, an informal meetup for LGBT writers, at noon in Side Street Cafe.

Friday Night Divas Variety Show benefit for The Roscoe (Pet) Fund 8/7, 9p.m. $5, followed by Karaoke with Paige. Saturday DJ Mad Mike 8/8 at 11 p.m. Both at Mad Myrna’s.

Irina Rivkin performs 3 nights in Anchorage: Organic Oasis on Saturday August 8, at 7 p.m. Midtown Studio concert on Sunday August 9, at 7:30 p.m. with an optional audience-participation live-looping piece, 6407 Brayton Drive, $5-15 sliding scale. Tap Root Café on Monday August 10, from 7:30-8:30 p.m.

Sunday worship and monthly potluck with MCC Anchorage, 2 p.m.

TLFMC Potluck meeting & social 8/9, 6 p.m. at Mad Myrna’s.

Transgender Support Group, Sundays 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the GLCCA.

Assembly meeting and possible Ordinance 64 vote, Tuesday 8/11, 1st floor of Loussac Library, meeting begins at 5 p.m but come early for a seat inside. Wear blue.

Anchorage Frontrunners, Tuesdays, 6 p.m.

August 11th Assembly Meeting: YOU in BLUE

Thursday, 6 August 2009 – 5:40 AM | Comments Off

– from Equality Works

The next Assembly meeting is August 11. While the agenda hasn’t been set yet, this very well may be the day that Assembly members get to a debate and vote on AO 64.

I know that many of you couldn’t bear to sit through the public hearings and the offensive testimony that demonized the LGBTQ community. But the public hearings are over now. This is our last time to show the Assembly members that their constituents support legislation to protect people from discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. You don’t have to testify, you don’t have to engage in debates with people in red shirts, all you have to do is be there to show your support for equality.

If you have never come to an Assembly meeting, please consider showing up on this crucial day. The meeting starts at 5:00 pm, but as usual, you should try to be there earlier if you want to get a seat. You know the drill: Blue shirts, Equality Works buttons.

AO 64 (S-2)

For those of you who don’t know already, an S-2 version of the ordinance has been submitted for consideration by Patrick Flynn. We believe that this is a strong revision that acknowledges the concerns of some in the religious community by broadening the religious exemption, but does not weaken the original intention of the ordinance to protect LGBT people from discrimination. It includes employment protections for our entire community–including transgender individuals. Please call or e-mail your Assembly members and tell them to put their support behind the S-2 version.

Mayor Sullivan needs to know that people in Anchorage support equality, he needs to know why you support equality, and he needs to hear that vetoing an ordinance to protect LGBT people from discrimination sends the message that he, as the Mayor of Anchorage, believes that LGBT people should be discriminated against. If he doesn’t want to send that message, then he should not veto this ordinance. Please e-mail Mayor Sullivan or call him at (907) 343-7170 or (907) 343-7100.

Thanks, and Remember: Equality Works. See you on Tuesday!

Tim’s testimony: The research is clear

Wednesday, 5 August 2009 – 5:44 AM | Comments Off

Good evening. I live in Anchorage, I’m 52 years old and I’m gay, and I make no apologies for that. EVER. But what’s wrong with being gay anyway? Absolutely nothing.

The research on homosexuality is very clear:

Homosexuality is neither mental illness nor moral depravity. It is simply the way a minority of our population expresses human love and sexuality. Study after study documents the mental health of gay men and lesbians. Studies of judgment, stability, reliability, and social and vocational adaptiveness all show that gay men and lesbians function every bit as well as heterosexuals.

This is from The American Psychological Association’s “Statement on Homosexuality” from way back in July 1994.

The Church also teaches understanding and compassion toward gay and lesbian people. In their 1976 statement, To Live in Christ Jesus, the American bishops wrote, “Some persons find themselves through no fault of their own to have a homosexual orientation. Homosexuals, like everyone else, should not suffer from prejudice against their basic human rights. They have a right to respect, friendship, and justice. They should have an active role in the Christian community.… The Christian community should provide them a special degree of pastoral understanding and care.” In 1990, the U.S. National Conference of Catholic Bishops repeated this teaching in their instruction, Human Sexuality.

When I discussed this ordinance with my family who lives in the Deep South, I was surprised at a comment I received from my sister-in-law, a woman who lives in rural North Carolina. She wrote “this is about fundamental decency towards each other and if one doesn’t have that type of basic respect for another human being, all of the religion and political views in the world are meaningless.”

Before I run out of time I would like to state that I enthusiastically support Ordinance 64. Please vote YES…. all 11 of you!

Obviously some disagree with me and I’d like to address a few of their objections:

Including sexual orientation as a protected class, grants “special rights” or privileges to gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. This is factually incorrect because the legislation protects every person without exception, whether they are heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual or, sometimes, asexual.

Including sexual orientation will criminalize any religious speech that presents homosexuality as a sin. This is factually incorrect because in the U.S., speech attacking a minority group is protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. Hate-crime legislation does not inhibit speech, it only is applicable if a violent crime has first been committed such as attempted murder, assault, aggravated assault, etc.

Including sexual orientation as a protected class is invalid because such classes must be reserved for innate, unchangeable, unchosen factors in a person’s life, like race, skin color, sex, degree of permanent disability, etc. This is not a defensible argument because religion has traditionally been included in hate-crime and human rights legislation. One’s faith identification is certainly changeable and chosen. Also, according to the vast majority of mental health therapists, human sexuality researchers, the Roman Catholic Church, liberal faith groups and some mainline faith groups, sexual orientation is neither changeable nor chosen.

Sexual orientation and gender identity may be words that cause unease or fear for individuals who have not studied the issues, and this is exactly why major civil rights changes usually come from legislatures, judges, or executive decree rather than by popular vote.

Take slavery for example. Late in the 17th century, Leander, a Roman Catholic theologian wrote:

It is certainly a matter of faith that this sort of slavery in which a man serves his master as his slave, is altogether lawful. This is proved from Holy Scripture…It is also proved from reason for it is not unreasonable that just as things which are captured in a just war pass into the power and ownership of the victors, so persons captured in war pass into the ownership of the captors… All theologians are unanimous on this.

Is it difficult to guess what a “vote of the people” would have decided about abolishing slavery in those times?

On women’s right to vote: In March 1884, Rev. Professor H. M. Goodwin wrote in the New Englander and Yale Review, Volume 43, Issue 179:

Before committing ourselves to one more radical and irremediable error, and plunging blindly into this gulf of women’s suffrage, it will be well to pause and see whither we are going, and what this new movement, or ‘reform’ really signifies; whether it rests on a true principle or a shallow and pleasing fallacy, and whether its results are likely to be beneficial or disastrous. This whole movement for female suffrage, is, at least in its motive and beginning, a rebellion against the divinely ordained position and duties of woman, and an ambition for independence and the honors of a more public life; as if any greater and diviner honor could be given to woman than those which God has assigned her; as if the sanctities of home and the sacred duties of wife and mother, with all their sacrifices, were not a higher sphere and a truer glory—a glory she shares with the world’s Redeemer—than the vulgar publicity of the polls and speech making, or the campaigning, or even the Senate and the bar.

Were women allowed to vote in 1884? In some places yes, but in many places not until the Nineteenth Amendment was passed by Congress and ratified by the states in 1920.

It was only 42 years ago — on June 12, 1967 — that the U.S. Supreme Court knocked down a Virginia statute barring whites from marrying non-whites. The decision also overturned similar bans in 15 other states. Since that landmark Loving v. Virginia ruling, the number of interracial marriages has soared; for example, black-white marriages increased from 65,000 in 1970 to 422,000 in 2005, according to Census Bureau figures. Factoring in all racial combinations, Stanford University sociologist Michael Rosenfeld calculates that more than 7 percent of America’s 59 million married couples in 2005 were interracial, compared to less than 2 percent in 1970.

Opinion polls show overwhelming popular support, especially among younger people, for interracial marriage, but that’s not to say acceptance has been universal. Bob Jones University in South Carolina only dropped its ban on interracial dating in 2000; a year later 40 percent of the voters objected when Alabama became the last state to remove a no-longer-enforceable ban on interracial marriages from its constitution. The US Supreme Court, not a vote by the majority of citizens, is what has allowed several of my friends to be married today.

So in summary, your YES vote on Ordinance 64 will help ensure that ALL citizens of Anchorage are treated fairly, equally, and without discrimination. Thank you.

Mike’s testimony: I will fight for liberty

Tuesday, 4 August 2009 – 5:40 AM | 2 Comments

Like Kat, author of yesterday’s testimony, Mike is a young adult who spoke in favor of the ordinance. Bent Alaska is happy to report that many Anchorage youth support LGBT equal rights. — Editor

* * *

As a fantastic orator, Mark Hamilton, once said, “Responsibility means that if you have the ability to respond, then you have the responsibility to speak.” I will take a moment to remind all present of the words in our great Constitution, “That all persons have the natural right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and are equal and entitled to equal rights, opportunities, and “protection under the law.”

The essence of this matter is not what one religion or what one advocacy group feels, but whether We, as Alaskans, can allow inequality to persevere. Denial of the rights of an entire minority is beyond morally reprehensible. It is something I cannot, in good conscience, sit idly by and watch happen in my city.

I want to make it clear: I do not seek to force or push my opinion on others, merely to be free from their persecution against myself, against my brothers and sisters, against our children, and yours.

The protection of a minority from the tyranny of a majority is one issue each and every Alaskan ought to be proud of. I won’t ask you for Liberty; I will scream for it, from the mountaintops, from city hall, from the steps of your courtrooms.

I will fight for Liberty because I know better than most that Freedom is not Free, and because it is the American thing to do. I urge you to vote “yes.”

I would like to end with a quote from one of my first letters to the Editor of the ADN, as it is still pertinent today:

The religious right would like to resort to ad-hominem attacks on us and other illogical counters to our arguments. Well, frankly all this religious hoopla has no place in a secular argument; it doesn’t matter what your Bible says in a debate over how the laws of our country (or city) ought to be. What matters is right and wrong, and that their oppressive policies and limitations on our God-given freedoms are wrong.

Kat’s testimony: Don’t be silenced

Monday, 3 August 2009 – 5:27 AM | 3 Comments

Editor’s Note: This is Kat’s testimony and post-testimony comments, exactly as she shared them. Anchorage is lucky to have eloquent young adults like Kat, willing to stand up and be counted.

* * *

i won’t take up much of your time since what i have to say will not take long. but i do thank the assembly for granting me these few moments.

i have lived in and around anchorage since i was 4 years old.

i have tremendous pride in my state and in my city and i had no intention of testifying when all of this began. indeed, i waited until i had reviewed the testimony already given in it’s entirety. what i saw was a great deal of prejudicial speech that proved exactly why these laws were needed. i also saw a great deal of pain and fear from those pleading with you, the assembly, to protect them.

i’m here today in the place of those who would otherwise have no voice. these people are silenced because the law does not protect them. basic needs like housing, employment and loans would be stripped from them for standing where i am now.

i’m extremely dismayed that our city has allowed religious leaders to dictate our laws and how our laws are written like their own personal theocracy for quite a few decades.

i think it is time for our assembly to take a stand and use their elected positions as public servants to protect all the people of our city and not give special rights of discrimination to certain groups.

i believe that rights are not just tokens to be doled out on a whim, but are the foundation for what our fore fathers delivered to us in the act of ultimate personal sacrifice.

i urge you to consider what has transpired and how it is viewed by the people.

we depend on our elected officials to protect the rights of minorities, as the majority would just as soon trample them. we depend on you to do what is just. we depend on you to protect the rights of all the citizens of Anchorage.

you have the voice.

please don’t be silenced.

* * *

At first i wondered if they would even get to my name that night. when suddenly, dozens of names were being called and no one went to speak, my heart pounded in my chest.

then my name was called.

my legal name.

and i went to the front. i waited as the gentleman before me finished speaking. supporters on both sides of me urged me forward. step after step, i approached the podium.

i set down my purse.

and i said my name.

my legal name.

for the record.

my voice wavered and tears nearly stopped me. but i knew that those supporters where behind me. i knew they were silently cheering me on.

i finished with a steady gaze into each assembly members eyes as i spoke those last few words. i wouldn’t have had the strength to do that without the energy of those behind me.

when i was through, i thanked the assembly and turned to walk away. i nearly ran. i didn’t make it all the way out before i had to sit down at the back of the chamber to catch my breath. my hands shook and my pulse choked me.

but i have never been so proud of myself.

because i will be able to tell my children and my grandchildren that my name is on that record as someone who stood on the side of a government that doesn’t kneel to the whims of religion, and of love without conditions.