Crippled ordinance banning gay discrimination approved by Anchorage Assembly

     Protesters rally outside the Anchorage Assembly chambers

The passing of Proposition 64 today was a bittersweet moment. The proposition was intended to ban discrimination in all arenas based on sexual orientation, and the fact that such an ordinance was written up and passed in the first place highlights progress in our community. But the fact that the bill could not be passed without first being eviscerated by religious groups takes away a great deal of the pride we should be feeling right now.

The original bill had teeth. It made clear that Anchorage would no longer be a place where discrimination and prejudice were accepted.  Naturally, fundamentalist religious groups were violently opposed to any such bill, fearing that their hateful and discriminatory practices would be brought to an end under the law. (Perhaps if they’d educated themselves, they would have learned that the original bill made an exemption for religious groups.) The protests were fierce, and churchgoers were bused in from other cities to inflate the anti-gay movement’s numbers.

As a result, the bill underwent some changes – there had to be some sort of “compromise” or middle ground, right? One of the most shocking amendments was one that had no reason to be there in the first place, encouraged by the Rev. Jerry Prevo, head of the anti-gay camp. Prevo began rumors that the anti-discrimination ordinance would – GASP! – allow transgendered men to use women’s bathrooms. Not only was this not necessarily true, it was also a complete non-issue except to the ignorant, and Prevo wielded this rumor as a vicious weapon against equal rights for gay people in the community.

The final bill that passed today reflected this abhorrent amendment, enshrining in city law the idea that a transgendered person cannot use the bathroom that he or she feels is appropriate. (Sidenote: I admit that I have absolutely no idea why a transperson in the bathroom should terrify me. Commenters, enlighten me!) It made further exceptions for religious groups, but they still weren’t satisfied, and will never be with any bill that forbids anyone from discriminating against gay people – remember that Jerry Prevo refused to support any “compromise” bill unless it exempted not just religious groups but religious individuals from behaving in an equitable manner.

Anchorage’s residents should heap praise upon the seven Assembly members who voted to approve this bill: Matt Claman, Elvi Gray-Jackson, Jennifer Johnston, Mike Gutierrez, Sheila Selkregg and Harriet Drummond. Likewise, the desks of Debbie Ossiander, Chris Birch, Bill Starr and Dan Coffey should be drowned in angry letters for opposing the bill. Perhaps Debbie Ossiander should be exempted, because she says that she didn’t vote against the bill because she disagreed with the idea, but rather because the bill wasn’t strong enough. There is no excuse for Starr and Birch, however, who refused to support the bill because they weren’t convinced that there was a discrimination problem to begin with. Did they sleep through the hours of impassioned testimony from their constituents or is there another excuse for their ignorance?

The bill isn’t going to be enacted yet; new Mayor Dan Sullivan has to approve the bill first. Because of his obvious conservative ways, it’s expected that he will veto the bill just like his father, a former mayor, did when an anti-discrimination bill was proposed in the 1970’s. Perhaps, though, Sullivan will notice that firing city employees left and right won’t make him a popular mayor, and approve the bill in order to boost his ratings. That’s a political move I can endorse.