A long-overdue Bent Alaska update — October 2013

from Equality Works

Please come early! Doors to the Assembly chambers are unlocked at 3 pm, but if you can get there earlier, even better. Bring a book, bring friends, bring your laptop–but be there!

There is a third round of testimony scheduled for the following day, Wednesday, June 17, from 4-10 pm. So if you can’t make it on Tuesday, come Wednesday.

We are aware that the atmosphere outside Loussac Library last week was in many ways far more heated and hostile than the atmosphere inside the Assembly chambers. Many of our supporters were so intimidated by the red shirts that they never even made it into the library. Others were afraid to walk back to their cars alone when the meeting was over.

To ensure that LGBT community & allies feel safe and welcome at this week’s hearings and other hearings to come, Jackie Buckley is organizing the Buckley Brigade—a welcome wagon/security team that will be present to greet our supporters with smiling faces, escort them back and forth to their cars if necessary, and ensure that the rallying outside doesn’t get too loud or out of control.

If you have any friends who left Loussac Library last week without going inside, please let them know that the Buckley Brigade will be working all evening to make sure that everyone is safe. If you’re outside the library and don’t see a supportive face, head toward the fountain just south of the library entrance and someone will greet you there.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to email Tiffany McClain of Equality Works. Thank you!

Gov. Sarah Palin has ignored a Gay Pride Month proclamation submitted by Anchorage PrideFest, but a proposal to add “sexual orientation” to the city’s non-discrimination policies caught the attention of Wasilla fundamentalists, who arrived in busloads to testify at an Anchorage hearing on Tuesday while their children protested outside.

Children opposed to the equal rights ordinance lined the entrances to the parking lot and building during the meeting, wearing red shirts and carrying mass produced signs from the Alaska Family Council.

Palin’s hometown of Wasilla is not part of the Anchorage Municipality, but perhaps opponents could not find enough anti-gay Anchorage residents willing to testify against their neighbors and coworkers.

Before the hearing, Anchorage PrideFest sent a Pride Month proclamation to Gov. Palin, inviting her to attend the annual Parade & Festival on June 20. Palin has not responded, although she has proclaimed Flag Day, Fishing Week and Auburn Founders Day in honor of Auburn, New York, so far for June.

The proclamation asks Palin to declare June as Gay Pride Month and to “urge all citizens of Alaska to join me in celebrating diversity by attending, supporting, recognizing, and respecting Anchorage PrideFest 2009 activities and events.”

On June 1, President Obama declared June 2009 as LGBT Pride Month, stating support for measures like “outlawing discrimination in the workplace,” a subject covered by the proposed Anchorage equal rights ordinance.

The ordinance, AO 2009-64(S), adds “sexual orientation” to the list of groups protected against discrimination in employment, housing, financing, education, public accommodations and municipal business. The original proposal was revised by the mayor to address concerns by religious opponents, but opponents still object, saying “the term “sexual orientation” is not acceptable in any discrimination ordinance.”

Wasilla residents do not pay property taxes to Anchorage, nor do they vote for our Assembly members. However, a suggestion to limit testimony to Anchorage residents was turned down by the Assembly Chair.

Please join us at the next hearing on the equal rights ordinance on Tuesday, June 16, at Loussac Library. Doors open at 3, the meeting begins at 5 p.m. and ordinance testimony is likely to run from 7-11. Come early if you want a seat inside. Everyone is invited to share food and music at a Potluck for the People, on the Library lawn. Anchorage residents are encouraged to write to our Assembly members and ask them to vote YES on the Equal Rights Ordinance.

The Assembly has also scheduled a hearing for Wednesday, June 17, from 4-10 p.m.

from Equality Works

We want to thank you all for coming out to show the Municipal Assembly and the city of Anchorage how much you believe in equality for all. We appreciate and admire the courage of all who spoke, and the love and support of those who came to ensure that the people who testified had friends and allies to shore them up. 

In many ways it was a difficult and emotional night, but in other ways it was quite heartening. It is easy to dwell on the hurtful things that were said, but we also saw the best of Anchorage in that room. It is our hope that you will help us carry the positive energy into the following weeks as the public hearings continue.

Show up for the second round of testimony on Tuesday, June 16th! Once again, we want to fill Loussac Library with a sea of blue (and don’t forget your Equality Works buttons!) You may have already testified, but we still need you to be there in solidarity with those who haven’t had a chance. They need to hear you applauding and supporting their bravery just as they did for you.

Come early. Doors to the Assembly chambers are unlocked at 3 pm. Bring a book, bring friends, bring your laptop–be there!

If you have any questions or concerns, contact us through the Equality Works web site. We cannot say thank you enough. 

Join supporters of the ordinance before the public hearing tonight in Anchorage at an Equal Rights Rally & Picnic at Northeast Cuddy Park next to Loussac Library, starting at 3:30 p.m. Make signs, share food, and show your support for equality!

We need YOU to be at the public hearing on June 9th to show Assembly members that people in our town want lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Alaskans to be protected from discrimination! 

Where? Loussac Library, Assembly Chambers 1st Floor (36th & Denali) 

When? 5:00-11:00, but if you want to get a seat or you plan to testify, we recommend that you get there no later than 4:30. 

What to do? Wear blue—the color of peace and unity—and your Equality Works button. 

What if I can’t stay for the meeting? Get out your markers and paint to make a sign and show your solidarity outside the library for as long as you can stick around. 

Note on Hearing Conduct: This is an official meeting that must be conducted as fairly and impartially as possible. It is important that we conduct ourselves with respect and restraint, no matter how offensive the remarks we might hear coming from the other side. Please refrain from booing, name-calling, or otherwise mocking those who disagree with you. Also, we want to see hundreds of supportive signs outside Loussac library, but they will not be allowed inside the hearing room.  

A revised version of the ordinance that removes “veteran’s status” and strengthens the religious and business exemptions was released on Friday. The revision, AO 2009-64(S), also states that the ordinance “does not apply to discrimination because of one’s biological gender in matters such as access to restrooms…”

Equality Works explains the problem with legislating bathroom use in their assessment of the revised ordinance:

“We feel that excluding transgender people from the right to use the restroom in which they feel most safe and comfortable is not only unnecessary, but an irresponsible public policy choice that endangers lives… We sincerely hope [for] an ordinance that respects everyone’s right to safe use of public restrooms and is based on facts rather than fiction and fear.”

But opponents to the ordinance fill their collection plates by pedaling fiction and fear. The response from Jerry Prevo’s site was immediate:

“NEW!!! A revised version of the sexual orientation ordinance has been released by the acting Mayor. Supposedly, it is to prevent some of the problems we have raised. However, the term “sexual orientation” is not acceptable in any discrimination ordinance. The first ordinance shows what the homosexual movement really wants. We must say NO to the inclusion of homosexuality in any discrimination ordinance. Please encourage the Assembly to vote NO on this ordinance and do not amend Anchorage’s discrimination ordinance to include homosexuality as an acceptable alternative lifestyle. This will eventually lead to homosexuals wanting to make homosexual marriages legal in Alaska.”

To Ivan Moore and others who thought that an ordinance limited to sexual orientation would be acceptable to Prevo and his followers, the message is clear: they will not accept anything that gives us civil rights, in any form. The equal rights ordinance cannot be made acceptable to Rev. Prevo, because gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered human beings are not acceptable to him:

“I can’t minister to these people. I can’t tell them that Jesus Christ died for them and will forgive them just like He will an adulterer or a murderer…”

We cannot compromise with him because he is not bargaining in good faith. He is simply using the media attention to gain money and fame.

Prevo’s real goal is to increase his power over our city’s laws and politics. He admitted to ADN reporter Julia O’Malley that he will force a recall vote if the Assembly passes any version of equal protections for gays. He also admitted that he will use his pulpit to ruin the careers of politicians who resist his control of the city. 

The choice clear for us, our allies, and anyone who thinks that Anchorage should not be run by a fundamentalist minister. We must support an inclusive ordinance, stand firm against Prevo and take back our city.

[Editor’s Note: April wrote this “modest proposal” essay in response to Ivan Moore’s suggestion that we take protections for transgender people out of the ordinance. See In Support of a Transgender-inclusive Ordinance.]

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You don’t wake up one morning and out of the blue decide that this is the day that your life has ended as the gender you were born as, and you now want to be known from here forward as the opposite sex, whether it be a male to female or a female to male. To begin to comprehend the concepts and defintions of “cross dresser”, “transvestite”, “transexual” and “transgender” is to push the contemporary limits and understanding of a host of social sciences, theories, definitions, and medical studies. Even among the minute collection of specialists in gender based areas, there is very little cohesion as to the cause and effect of who these groups of people come to be, and are, let alone how to “label” them within the common societal classifications we have come to know. While heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual, androgynous, and transsexual are commonly refered too, where and how do we fit those who cross all over these aspects of sex and gender? 

For eons and throughout cultures world wide, those who spanned the boundaries of gender were seen as ones who were granted special powers and status by the powers, gods, or beliefs held by those groups. They were seen as encompassing in some ways both genders, rather then one or the other, giving them the ability to comprehend life beyond the clearly defined boundaries of being either a male or female. The foundation of almost all creation myths, including the bible, refer back to an undefinable time when man and woman were one single entity and through some act, were seperated into two. Both Occidental and Oriental societies, symbolisms, and beliefs consistently refer back to this concept of one being, eventually divided into two. So why is it then so difficult and perverse for modern society to accept that what was held as something special then should be any different now? Do we not all come into this world as the result of a joining of a male and female, and is it so far reaching to believe that there are those who contain not one or the other, but both within the very core of who they may be genetically, physically, spiritually, socially and culturally? 

Is it fear bred from ignorance, hatred, bigotry, or just a lack of coming to accept that a unique group of people does exist in society. That by recognizing that they not only exist now, and have always existed, that it will throw the entire dualistic nature of our society and beliefs into chaos? Or is it the sex, advertising, and porno industries who have saturated us so much with imagery of “chicks with dicks”, large hairy men in stretched out lacey women’s underwear, or male prostitutes dressed up as woman, that we can only conclude that anyone who dresses or acts as the opposite sex is strictly doing it for money, sexual deviance and/or perversion? Or as in Anchorage with the Ordinance, is it the voices of a handfull of fanatics, and their need for fame, spotlight and acknowledgement by opposing the nature of reality as it really is in order to fill their coffers, congregations, and advance their hidden political agendas?

Or does it come down to the most simple yet complex issue of our understanding of “normal” and what it is? That those fanatics who see their own worlds and perspectives as “normal” are in fact the “abnormal” ones. Should we accept their own twisted views of what their “normal” is rather than truly celebrating and protecting the stunningly incredible beauty and endless diversity of the people we all share this planet with? How long shall we allow or acknowledge anyone who fights to limit, define, and destroy anyone or anything that alludes to the truth? That we are all born as equals and will all die as equals, and that what we should be striving for is to treat and protect each other as equals during our lifetime regardless of our own individual uniqueness.

To the same degree, the issue of whether anyone should remove the “T” from “LGBTA” in order to make the Ordinance pass easier is another disturbing aspect of being transgendered. To someone who is openly transgendered and a noted supporter and advocate of the entire acroynm of “LGBTA” and more, those who support such a move show as much ignorance and bigotry as those who oppose the ordinance. It comes across as “cleansing” to get rid of the “freaks” rather then an effort to understand those of us who are the “T”, as much as the “GL” ask those who are opposed to homosexuality to understand them. 

If some are set on allowing the ordinance to protect just the “LGB”, then they need to cleanse the Bisexuals from it as well, because they already have protection when they are with the opposite sex, or can pretend to be. Also get rid of the drag queens because most gay men prefer men, not men dressed or acting as women, and they can allude to money, sex, and perversion. Get rid of the Bears and Leather crowd because that can be seen as another act of perversion as well and will not make the ordinance “pure.” As for the gays and lesbians, in order to truly help this ordinace pass as purely as possible, you need to start verifying that every single person who uses “G” or “L” is such and has never had a relationship with the opposite sex. Get notarized statements from everyone in their lives all the way back to the day of birth to fully confirm that those who are “G” and “L” have never had a thought of being sexual with, or in a relationship with, the opposite sex or gender. If it’s purity you want from the ordinance, then start cleansing everyone who is not of pure homosexual blood from day one. In fact, require they have a “pride flag” tatoo on their body so you can identify them as pure “G & L” blood. Perhaps then, the Ordinance will pass with little fight, and you can finally live totally free of discrimination in Anchorage, while the rest of the unpure “LBGTA” family is led away, me and the transgendered people, where we are eventually denied our rights to housing, jobs and a happy life, and in turn, loaded onto buses, trains or driven off to other places so we don’t disrupt the new-found “equality” under the Ordinance. Sound far-fetched? Maybe so …