And so I begin the new year by coming out of a period of silence.

A silence, to be sure, less profound than the one I inhabited this time last year.  And for different reasons.  In the last month or so, mainly I’ve just needed a break.

1. The cave

But on New Year’s Day 2009, I was living in a kind of emotional cave, with no desire or wherewithal to communicate with anyone outside my day-to-day life except immediate family.  Especially my dad, who I’d learned just a couple of weeks before had been diagnosed with a terminal lymphoma. That news came on top of stuff I’d already been struggling with for some months, after my then-partner, Rozz who is now Ptery, made the decision while in school in Seattle to transition as a female-to-male (FTM) transsexual, & made accompanying decisions that have essentially ended our partnership as-it-was.

Thus, the cave, about which I wrote on April 2, a few days after coming out of it,

I seem to be have come out of the cave now. Not just feeling better — I’ve felt better a number of times (only to then go back into the grey again) — but actually able & willing to communicate. Maybe it was that I’m finally accepting the inevitable with my partner. Maybe it was finally getting the plane tickets bought to fly down in late April to see my dad. Maybe it was taking enough 5-HTP to keep the serotonin cooking in my brain. Maybe it’s the light coming into the days after a looooooong winter. Maybe it’s all just been perimenopause. Anyway… seems I’m back in the world again.

Now, before I go on, let me explain: this post isn’t just about the history of what I did or experienced in 2009: it’s also about what it meant.  Or, better yet, the meanings I’ve made of it — because that’s what it’s all about, for me — the story, the stories each of us make of our lives.  And this is my blog, of course, so this is my damn story.

And the story of coming out of the cave also has these meanings attached to it:

(1) The cave itself became a new term, describing a new form, of that rather large aspect of my life popularly known as depression (or, sometimes, despair): along with the grey, along with the pit, along with limbo — all of which are described in my late 2006 post The grey — the newly-discovered environment of the cave can include any one of the first three, or exclude all of them; it is chiefly characterized by that deep inability & lack of motivation to communicate.  Big whooptie, a new term — but I do find the language useful in understanding myself around this stuff.  Since, hey, halfway through my life give-or-take, I don’t see the depression/despair gunk suddenly evaporating from my life.  It’s a part of who I am.  I’m just lots better at handling it than before, & part of that is in refining my understanding of how it works in me.

(2) If I were to mark the exact date the cave walls dissolved around me, it would probably be March 30, 2009, which coincided with some important phone calls with Ptery, & also with my brother Mark & I buying our tickets to Spokane to see our dad for what we both understood would probably be the last time this side of our own deaths.  And also on that day, I wrote a lengthy post in memorial to Nicholas Hughes, a fisheries biologist formerly at University of Alaska Fairbanks who had taken his own life the previous week.  I hadn’t known him, but he was the son of the poets Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes, & Plath especially had been an significant figure in my life.  Not for the right reasons, initially — but the post explains that: it was my effort to honor Mr. Hughes not as mere adjunct to his famous parents’ biographies — as many of the news accounts of his death seemed to view him — but for who he himself was & for what he brought to all the people in his life, who were mourning him that day.

(3) My dad knew I’d been having a hard time. He was at peace with his own approaching death, & wanted us to be too.  But beyond that, he wanted our happiness.  He was so glad when he heard I’d come out of the cave.  That was one of the very best things about it.

2. Lima beans against WAR

Wow, after the Summer of Hate experienced by the Anchorage LGBT & allied community over Anchorage Ordinance 2009-64, one almost forgets its political prelude, when then-Gov. Sarah Palin named Wayne Anthony Ross — widely known by his license-plate acronym as WAR — to succeed the disgraced Talis Colberg as Alaska’s Attorney General.  Alaska’s top LGBT blog Bent Alaska informs us that its post about WAR, “Palin’s AG Pick Called Gays “Degenerates” (3/29/09), was one of its two 2009 posts to go viral — & that was even before he compared gays to lima beans, a vegetable that he “hates” but still claimed he could represent if he were, say, the lawyer for “United Vegetable Growers.”  We lima beans were, needless to say, not favorably impressed.

Ross also had a history of biased & even misogynistic attitudes in relation to domestic violence, sexual assault, & violence against women; hostility to Alaska Native sovereignty & subsistence rights; a mediocre reputation as a practitioner of law amongst his fellow members of the Alaska Bar Association; & a pretty shaky attitude about executive branch ethics.  Bad news all around: it motivated me to spend a considerable amount of time & energy researching him, listening to legislative confirmation hearings, & writing a very long letter to legislators, which I posted on my blog — thus embarking upon a part-time career as an occasional political blogger.  I wrote a few other posts about WAR, & commented on other sites’ coverage of him (especially Bent Alaska), & celebrated with most of the rest of Alaska when the Alaska Legislature rejected him by a vote of 23 yeas to 35 nays — an unprecedented rejection of a governor’s cabinet pick.

It took a day or two for the Alaska Department of Law to remove WAR from its website. This screenshot was taken on April 16. The red X is mine.

3. Dad

I flew to Spokane with my brother Mark in late April to visit Dad.  We also saw my sister Mer & brother-in-law Julius, with whom my Dad lived, and my brother Dave drove over from Montana.  Ptery hitchhiked up, at my request, so I got to see him too.

Dad was so happy to have all of us there. He had a lot of energy too, considering how ill he was; but near the end, as we began to return to our homes, he took a turn for the worse, as if he’d been holding to life so that he could see us all before he left us to be with Mom.  She had died in November 2005.

I took this picture during that trip: Dad telling one of his wonderful stories about growing up in the lumber camps of eastern Oregon in the 1920s where Grandpa Claude ran locomotives on the Sumpter Valley Railroad for the Oregon Lumber Company; or about the bootleg operation he & his pals in the Army Air Corps had in England during WWII; or about how he met my mom when he was looking for a job, & guy at Ellingson Lumber Company suggested he head to Izee because the camp cook there had two beautiful daughters. It was the younger of the two daughters, my Auntie Pat, who actually introduced my parents after Dad gave her a ride into John Day, where Mom was then working.

That photo on the wall behind Dad was his favorite picture of Mom, taken by a professional photographer shortly before they met. When I look at this photo, I feel his yearning to be with her again.

I last saw him on April 29.  He died not quite a month later, on May 27.  My sister was with him.

I’ve been at peace about Dad’s death almost from the beginning, partly because the peace he himself had about it put me at peace, & partly because of what for lack of better words I will call the messages that came, three of them — two of them to other family members, & the last one to me. My message was from my mother, in the form of sunflowers.  It told me that Dad was with her, & they are both okay.

On July 12, as many family members as could make it, including me & my sister & brothers, all gathered together in Spokane to remember Mom & Dad & to celebrate all that they gave us.

I love you, Mom & Dad.

4. Anchorage Ordinance 2009-64

The Anchorage equal rights ordinance AO 2009-64 was introduced in the Anchorage Assembly on May 12, & thus was my career as an occasional political blogger made much less occasional.

AO 64 would have added sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of personal characteristics in Title 5, Anchorage’s equal rights code, which prohibits discrimination based on those characteristics in employment, housing, financial practices, education, and practices of the Municipality of Anchorage. The summer of 2009 in Anchorage featured a protracted period of public testimony at the Anchorage Assembly, with accompanying sign-waving and letter-writing both by ordinance supporters and those who opposed equal rights — led in particular by Jerry Prevo of the Anchorage Baptist Temple, who used “perverted” and other hate-terms to describe LGBT people, hence the name given the summer by commentator at the Anchorage Press: the Summer of Hate.

Identity Reports (1989) and One in 10 (1986)

From May to September, I wrote in the area of 60 posts about the ordinance, including a number that delved into the background & prevarications of its most vociferous opponent, Jerry Prevo.  I also testified in support of the ordinance on June 16 ( the second of five nights of public testimony). My testimony was based on two major research efforts in the 1980s for Identity, Inc. in which we documented the rampant discrimination in Anchorage & in Alaska based on sexual orientation. (Our research unfortunately did not cover discrimination on the basis of gender identity, which we knew little about at the time.)

The ordinance passed the Anchorage Assembly on August 11, 2009, but was vetoed the following week by Mayor Dan Sullivan — the third time in Anchorage history that equal protection for at least some LGBTQ people in Anchorage was first granted, & then stripped away again.

We weren’t real happy.

5. Friends & allies

The Summer of Hate wasn’t all hate & horror.  There was also some really cool stuff.

Cool stuff was people like Vic Fischer, Jane Angvik, & Arliss Sturgulewski testifying for the ordinance — people with just a teensy bit more credibility than, say, self-declared homophobic Bible-thumping Nazi “rascist” Eddie Burke.

Cool stuff was the huge number of people who turned out on the lawn of the Loussac Library to dance, blow bubbles, & hold signs upholding equal rights for all. The second week of public testimony, on which testimony was heard on two successive nights (June 16-17), was also the run-up to PrideFest, & every time I stepped out of the Assembly chambers for a breather, I felt like PrideFest was already in progress (once, that is, I got past the ABT redshirts & their hot dog tables).

I remember going out there one day & seeing how everyone — members of the LGBT community, & lots of non-LGBT folks including my nephew Miles & some of his friends — was celebrating equality & love for their fellow human beings, as sour-faced, red-shirted opponents stood nearby with their preprinted “Truth is Not Hate” signs agitating against equality.  I thought to myself, I’m so proud of my people — & I found myself for the first time consciously including in my people not just other LGBT people, but all the numerous non-LGBT allies who took it for granted that equality meant all of us.  And were as dumbfounded as we were at the “Truth is Not Hate” hate speech dropping out of the mouths of red-shirts both inside & outside the Assembly chambers.

On a personal level, I was lucky to make some new friendships.  John & Heather Aronno, both now of Alaska Commons, who I met a few days before the first public hearing, became my favorite folks to sit next to at Assembly public hearings: three bloggers, all in a row.

One of my other favorite new people was (& is) Janson Jones, whose fantastic photography at Floridana Alaskiana v2.5 (including of the ordinance battle) first drew my attention. He’s also an all-around cool guy who also became a new dad over the summer — & his photos of his precious daughter Aurelia are pretty wonderful too.

Thanks to the ordinance battle, I also got reaquainted with a friend from way back, Linda Kellen Biegel of Celtic Diva’s Blue Oasis, who I hadn’t seen in years. I’d known Phil Munger of Progressive Alaska through email, but not until this summer did I meet him in person. I’ve known M.E. Rider of Grrlzlist, E. Ross of Bent Alaska, & longtime activist (& maker of Equality Works buttons) Stef Gingrich for years, though it was only through the summer that we saw much of each other, since normally — yes, true story — I’m pretty much a hermit.

It was the ordinance that brought me out, for ill & for good. Despite the ordinance’s eventual fate — for me personally, thanks to people like these, it was mostly for good.

6. Palinesque

Somewhere in the middle of this was Sarah Palin’s announcement on July 3 that she would be resigning her position as Governor of Alaska.  I don’t blog that much about Palin — there are other Alaska bloggers who cover her quite thoroughly (thank goodness!) — but within a few days after her announcement, I got fed up with how the national mainstream media was uncritically passing along what I dubbed the 2 million dollar meme: Palin’s claim that $2,000,000 taxpayer (or rather, oil revenue dollars — this is Alaska, after all) had been spent on responding to ethical complaints against her. So I started taking it apart, & continued to do so over at total of six blog posts.

Wow did that raise traffic on my blog. I got nearly 1,800 hits on the first post of the series the first day after it was published; to date it’s gotten 5,530 hits, making it the most read post on my blog.  The pie chart I created for that post also proved to be pretty popular.

My stuff didn’t stop Palin from repeating her lie; but then, who expected that it would?  I’m no fool.  I just hoped the damn mainstream media would wake up & do the job they’re paid to do — so that bloggers like me wouldn’t have to do it for free. I am proud to say that my efforts, which Anchorage Daily News reporter Sean Cockerham picked up on, contributed to Linda Perez of the Governor’s Office being forced to admit there were errors in the hokey spreadsheet the Governor’s Office had cooked up in an incompetent attempt to back up Gov. Palinocchio’s claim.  Cockerham’s story (posted, as far as I know, only on the ADN’s Politics blog, but not as a full-fledged ADN story) said that Perez was going to follow up on further questions he’d brought up — I’ve seen no sign that she ever did, or that ADN itself cared.  I didn’t follow up further myself because by time Perez ‘fessed up as much as she did, I was in Spokane with my family remembering my mom & dad.  I have a feeling everyone who had actual responsibility (because, of course, they were more than mere “community organizers”) decided to drop it.  Gee. I wonder why.

7. I got a new couch

More properly, it’s a futon loveseat. Whatever.  I got it in August, & I’ve been vegging more happily (when I vege) ever since.  My cat loves it too.

8. An effort to up-end the Alaska Judicial Council

Other things were going on in my life too, of course.  But the political stuff stands out, because political blogging is not my great purpose in life — writing my own stuff is. And yet, I kept doing it.

And so it happens that in late August I learned of a lawsuit by which certain Alaska conservatives, most if not all of whom have ties to the so-called right-to-life movement, had filed suit nearly two months before — a fact not covered at all by Alaska’s mainstream media in spite of all of them having received the press release when the suit was filed — which would, if successful, overturn major provisions of the Alaska Constitution with regard to the selection & retention of state court judges. The lead attorney for the plaintiffs, James Bopp, Jr., is a big name: he has litigated similar issues elsewhere.  My own feeling is that this guy is more likely to have shopped around for the Alaskans who could be named as plaintiffs in this case, than that the plaintiffs shopped around for him.  His agenda appears to be a nationwide effort to politicize judicial selection, so that candidates can be selected through popular vote based on litmus test questions on hot-button issues (“What is your opinion on abortion?” — “What is your opinion on same-sex marriage?”), instead of being selected for their judicial integrity & knowledge of the law.

Through my job on staff of the Justice Center at University of Alaska Anchorage, which I’ve held since 1990, I’d become very familiar with Alaska’s judicial merit selection process, & have a lot of respect for it too, & for the quality of judges we have in this state.  Not perfect — but a helluva lot better than in states that have the politicized & often politically corrupt types of selection processes that Bopp seems to prefer.

So, I read about Miller v. Carpeneti, & I wrote about it, & I even took a day off work to attend the hearing before Judge John W. Sedwick in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska on September 11.   I’m not a lawyer, but I read through most of the briefings, & it didn’t seem to me that Bopp’s arguments held much water.  Judge Sedwick apparently agreed: he heard arguments from both sides & then dismissed the case. His opinion was published on September 15.

But we haven’t heard the last from Mr. Bopp: he’s appealed the case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and, last I heard, the last briefs in the case must be filed no later than February 10, 2010. Oral arguments might then follow.  If Bopp fails at the Ninth Circuit, there’s every possibility he might appeal all the way up to the Supreme Court — he’s argued before them before, & won.

Meanwhile, I continue to wonder what in hell is wrong with the Alaska mainstream media, including our supposed paper-of-record, the Anchorage Daily News. First they all failed to follow up any further on Palin’s spreadsheet-of-hooey in support of her 2 million dollar meme-of-hooey; now it turns out they sat for nearly two months on a press release issued in early July about a lawsuit that could theoretically undermine our state constitution with regard to judicial selection.  Phil Munger at Progressive Alaska has drawn attention to numerous other instances in which the press has sat on its duff instead of investigating & reporting stuff that in some cases is right in front of their faces — for instance, the numerous lies propounded throughout Palin’s putative “memoir,” which the ADN has yet to write any review on.  What else are they sitting on?  How are we to have democracy that way, if the MSM isn’t doing its job?

Oh yeah, I remember now.  Bloggers like me are supposed to do that job nowadays.  In our spare time.  For free.

(All due respect to those reporters who as far as I can tell are doing their best to do their job — but are being shut down by management. I know you guys are out there.)

9. True Diversity Dinner

In the aftermath of Sullivan’s veto of AO 64, several of us bloggers who had been heavily involved in writing about it started talking about what we might do keep the flame alive.  Several of us met at lunchtime one day, & out of someone’s suggestion — I don’t remember whose — next thing you know, the True Diversity Dinner was born.  Its immediate impetus was that the upcoming Mayor’s Diversity Dinner, an event originally created during the administration of Mayor, now Senator, Mark Begich, had been renamed Mayor’s Unity Dinner by Mayor Dan Sullivan — the same guy who had just vetoed equal rights for Anchorage’s lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transfolk.

Instead of protesting, we decided to celebrate the rich diversity that the Mayor’s renaming of the dinner seemed designed to whitewash away. The True Diversity Dinner was our alternative, with the motto, “Because we all deserve a seat at the table.”  It was organized by the bloggers of Alaska Commons, Anchorage Won’t Discriminate, Bent Alaska, Floridana Alaskiana v2.5, Grrlzlist Alaska, Henkimaa, and SOSanchorage.net — but especially by John & Heather Aronno (Alaska Commons & SOSAnchorage.net), who I fear fell far behind in their studies thanks to the dinner.

But it was well worth it, right guys?  It was a tremendous event, with great speakers including my Assembly person Elvi Gray-Jackson, former Congressional candidate & longtime activist for Alaska Native rights Diane Benson, Rev. Marquita Pierre of the Center for Spiritual Healing, & radio host & blogger Shannyn Moore.

On top of that, I was honored to be the recipient of a True Diversity Award for Excellence in Online Media for coverage on my blog of the battle for the Anchorage equal rights ordinance.  Booyah!

10. Hilton workers

And more occasional politics.

When the True Diversity Dinner was first thought up, I hadn’t known that Mayor Sullivan’s Unity Dinner was booked for the Hilton Anchorage Hotel — which was (& still is) under boycott by its workers due to the bad faith practices of its management on orders of the Hilton’s owners, Kentucky-based Columbia Sussex Corporation.  A blog post by Shannyn Moore brought my attention to the fact that the Mayor’s Unity Dinner was also a union-busting dinner. I spent some time researching & writing about the labor dispute, & also attended the Hotel Workers Rising March from the Sheraton (which is now also under boycott due to similar management abuses of workers) to the Hilton two days after the True Diversity Dinner was held.

11. But I’m really about writing my own stuff, & that’s what I need to do now

I’d like to follow up on the hotel workers struggle, both at the Hilton & now the Sheraton.  I hope someone will.  But I can’t.  Here’s the deal.  There are people on this planet, there are people in this state, who thrive on political blogging, & what’s more excel at it.  I think I’m pretty damn good at it when I’m doing it — but I don’t thrive on it.  I start with enthusiasm, but over time… I wear down, my spirit flags, & pretty soon it winds right back into what I started this post with: depression & despair.

Midyear, in the post in which I claimed to be an occasional political blogger, I wrote,

The main reason I set up this site & blog was to help me get back into the flow of writing, of living my life as a writer.  And while writing about politics is writing — well, it’s not my writing, the stuff close to my heart.  Besides, I also work a full-time job.

Besides, sometimes the political stuff can really whack me out….

Another factor about how I handle political posts is that my style isn’t really amenable to fast-response writing, which is a feature of a lot of the best political bloggers I read.  But me, I like to think a lot about what I’m writing.  I like to go deep.  I like to be thorough & as comprehensive as I can.  I like to source all my references thoroughly.  I like — apparently — to write term papers.  (I sure never thought so when I was in college).  And that takes a long time.  Especially since, as previously mentioned, I work a full-time job.  And I also need a certain amount of down time or I am liable to put myself into a depression.

Sometimes, writing my own stuff actually feels like down time.  Reason: I said it above, it’s stuff that close to my heart.

So October saw me returning to writing — at that time, mostly background stuff or responses to stuff that I was reading in preparation for National Novel Writing Month 2009 (NaNoWriMo).  In looking back, I remember that True Diversity Dinner month — that is, September — also saw a bit of focus on writing: a couple of politically-oriented pieces about homophobia in science fiction, including one involving a publication I was writing a story for.  As it happened, I wasn’t far enough along on that story to meet the submission deadline of September 30 — so I picked up & polished an older thing instead.

And whaddaya know! in early October, I was told they wanted to publish it!  Which did much to make me feel like a writer again.

“Cold” was published on October 31, 2009 in Crossed Genres Issue #12, the LGBT issue, & you can still read it online there.  (When it’s no longer live there, & my contract with Crossed Genres permits, I will republish it right here at Henkimaa.com.)  “Cold” was also selected for inclusion in Crossed Genres‘ first-year anthology, which will include one story from each of the magazines first 12 issues.  I think it’s still on schedule for publication in February.

My username on NaNoWriMo: yksin.

November for me was the headlong hurry of NaNoWriMo.  As a result, as anyone who knows this blog saw, I didn’t do much blogging at all.  Such blog posts as got posted were mostly automatically generated “Daily Tweets” posts from my Twitter feed.  And I haven’t done much blogging since NaNoWriMo ended, either.

But whoa! I did a lot of writing — 51,607 words worth of it in November, making me a NaNoWriMo winner this year…. er… I mean, last year.  I was writing in the same story universe as “Cold,” which is about two young women on an extrasolar planet (that is, in another solar system) in the late stages of terraformation, which I’ve finally named Oikos — but my NaNovember 2009 writing was mostly about three centuries earlier in the timeline, before & around the time the ships that will eventually arrive at Oikos leave our solar system.  I called it Long Dark.

And a lot of it was background writing, rather than the story itself.  Because there is so damn much science that I need to have at least some kind of grasp on before I can do the story for real.

Though I came up with at least four stories over the course of the month that I know I can shape into good damn stuff.  And I also discovered that a character of mine from a supposedly completely unrelated project is, whaddaya know, an important historical figure for the society in Long Dark and Cold.  And since that character is very closely based on me… whoa, it’s an awful lot like, well, writing myself into history.  How cool is that?

(Or how egotistical?)

12. Since then…

… that is, during December — what have I been doing?  Not blogging, clearly. Except for one extensive rant about the leakage in various portions of my ceiling.  (Now cured, but the holes in the ceiling still need patching.)  Other than that, lots of vegging out, some writing, lots of reading — my latest topics have included atmospheric pressure, altitude sickness, & spacesuit design (background research for a story in the Cold universe) & how people with strabismus or amblyopia (the latter being the case for me), most of whom grow up stereoblind, might be able to develop stereo (binocular) vision.  Even at 50 years old. Which is what I am now.

50 years old, soon to be 51. And now I reflect on where I was at when I turned 50, early in 2009.  I was still in the cave.  But there were inklings of possibility.  I was still in the cave, for instance, when a confluence of ideas led me to decide how to go about my writing life, which included blogging & other forms of social media to get my stuff out there, instead of just through the old “send out craploads of query letters & get a shitload of rejection letters back before someone finally decides your stuff is good enough to publish” method that has been standard for a very bloody long time.  I knew I’d feel a lot more at ease finding my own audience through social media than going through the query letter drudgery.  It was still pretty remarkable that I made such a decision at such a time, though: social media? for someone who, at that point, was incapable & unmotivated to communicate at all?  But then, I knew the cave walls would dissolve sooner or later.  And they did.

I was also deciding, back in February of 2009 that age 50 was a good time to reach the milestone that I had apparently reached in the sorrows of that time.  The boy that I & Rozz-now-Ptery raised from age 9 was now 21 (& now, some months later, is actually 22), & is setting out on his own course in the world.  He’s in a residential job training program; I seem him some weekends when he comes into town.  Ptery is embarked on another course, living a nomadic life mostly off-the-grid in the Lower 48; we are no longer partners, however much we still love each other. So, I am single &, except for my cat & the boy’s dog, essentially alone.

When I was in college & took a class on Hinduism, I learned that the traditional life path for very pious Brahmin males was supposed to consist of several stages — four of them, I think — with the third stage being that of husband, father, & householder.  When the householding stage was over, these guys were apparently supposed to just up & lickety-split out to the forest to become religious ascetics.  Or something like that.

And when I turned 50, I thought: that’s it, I’m no longer a householder.  Well, I still have my apartment.  And I don’t plan to go live in the woods as an ascetic.  (Ptery’s path is a little closer to that, really.)  But I no longer have the responsibilities of a spouse/partner or of a parent to a minor child.  I can do what I want.  And what I need.

Which is to write.  But dang, it sure takes me a long time to get the politics out of my way to do it.

But I got to that point, & now I plan to continue.

That’s my story.

I’m such a cathead.

Related posts:

1. True Diversity Dinner 1 & 2: Video by Janson Jones
2. True Diversity Dinner video, part 3: Hotel workers, & Elvi's speech
3. True Diversity Dinner: September 25, 2009

This video features our second speaker, Diane Benson.  Diane was well-known in Alaska and nationally even before she ran for governor of Alaska in 2004 on the Green Party ticket & twice for Congress as a Democrat in 2006 & 2008 — she has a long history as an actor, dramatist, writer, dog musher, and advocate for the rights of Alaska Natives.  The topic of her speech: healing racism in Anchorage.

One aspect of her speech that particularly stood out for me was her discussion of sexual and domestic violence in Alaska in relation to race.  I’ve mentioned before on my blog that I work at the Justice Center at University of Alaska Anchorage.  As a result, I have extensive familiarity with the research done by André Rosay and his research partners on sexual violence and violence against women. [Ref #1] We in Alaska have long had the highest rates of sexual assault in the nation — check out this chart published in the Spring/Summer 2008 issue of the Alaska Justice Forum [Ref #2] – and much of that violence is fueled by racism and its correlates, alcoholism and poverty.

Diane Benson spoke about healing racism at the True Diversity Dinner.

In two studies conducted of sexual assaults reported to Anchorage Police Department from 2000 to 2003, [Ref #3-4] it was found that Alaska Native women were victimized at 5 times the rate (20.1 per 1,000 population) of the next most victimized group (blacks, at 4.0 sexual assaults per 1,000 population; whites were next highest at 2.8). [Ref #5] Another stark statistic that Diane pointed out in her speech: since 1991, 41 women in Anchorage have lost their lives at the hands of rapists; of them, 32 were Alaska Native women.

Diane Benson listening to testimony on the Anchorage equal rights ordinance AO 64 on June 17, 2009. She had testified earlier that night in support of the ordinance.

But sexual violence wasn’t the only thing Diane talked about: watch her speech.

Diane also mentioned a recent accomplishment: her participation with Jeff Silverman of the Alaska independent film company Blueberry Productions in creating a new one-hour documentary, For the Rights of All: Ending Jim Crow in Alaska. The film, set to be broadcast on PBS nationwide in November (we hope that includes KAKM in Anchorage), relates the struggle of Alaska Natives for civil rights which culminated in the passage in 1945 by the Alaska Territorial Legislature of Alaska’s Anti-Discrimination Act — the first nondiscrimination law in the nation.  Diane didn’t say so in her remarks, but she was the film’s writer and also portrayed Tlingit civil rights leader Elizabeth Peratrovich, whose impassioned speech before the legislature swung legislators’ sentiments in favor the bill’s passage.  Congratulations, Diane, for your work in bringing this much-neglected history to greater attention.

Diane, along with Heather & John Aronno, joined Masingka Singers & Dancers onstage during the True Diversity Dinner

References

1. Violence against women. Biblography of publications from the Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage. Most are available online.
2. Alaska Justice Forum 25(1–2): 1 (Spring-Summer 2008). Special double-issue on issues related to sexual crime in Alaska.
3. Descriptive Analysis of Sexual Assaults in Anchorage, Alaska by André Rosay and Robert H. Langworthy. Report prepared under Grant No. 2000-RH-CX-K039 from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Anchorage, AK: Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage, Oct 2003.
4. Descriptive Analysis of Sexual Assaults in Anchorage, Alaska: 2002/2003 Update by André Rosay, Jeannie Sanders, Mary Lee Collins, Sandra Smith, Bonnie Caladine, and Donna Monahan. Report prepared for the Anchorage Police Department. Anchorage, AK: Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage, Feb 2006.
5. “Sexual Assault in Alaska” (Powerpoint slide presentation) by André B. Rosay. Slide presentation presented to the Alaska Senate Judiciary Committee, Anchorage, AK, 3 Aug 2009.

Related posts:

1. True Diversity Dinner video, part 3: Hotel workers, & Elvi's speech
2. True Diversity Dinner 1 & 2: Video by Janson Jones
3. True Diversity Dinner video, part 4: Masingka Singers & Dancers

Here are some of my own photos of Masignka. Lighting conditions were challenging, so some are a bit fuzzy, but I hope their spirit carries through.

Full slide show of my Masingka photos from my Flickr photostream. (It can also be viewed full-screen.)

Related posts:

1. True Diversity Dinner video, part 5: Diane Benson
2. True Diversity Dinner video, part 3: Hotel workers, & Elvi's speech
3. True Diversity Dinner: September 25, 2009

Assembly Member Elvi Gray-Jackson at the True Diversity Dinner

This video includes footage from the protest of Hilton workers, members of UNITE HERE Local 878, outside the Mayor’s Unity Dinner, which was held at the Hilton Anchorage outside down the street from the True Diversity Dinner’s venue at the Snow Goose Restaurant.  Janson highlights a couple of reader responses to a brief Anchorage Daily News item about yesterday’s Hotel Workers Rising March (I’ll be posting my photos of it later), in which readers made bigoted comments about hotel workers’ presumed immigration status: yet another sign of how far we have yet to go in truly accepting and appreciating diversity in our community.

What diversity looks like: Hotel workers protesting outside the Mayor's Unity Dinner at the Hilton Anchorage

The balance of the video is Assembly Member Elvi Gray-Jackson’s speech at the dinner.  I’ve gotta say again, just as I told her that night: thank you for being the Assembly member from my district who actually represents me.  If you missed the True Diversity Dinner, here’s your chance to hear what she had to say.

Janson says there may be as many as four or five additonal videos in store covering the performances and speeches made that night.  Stay tuned!

Related posts:

1. True Diversity Dinner 1 & 2: Video by Janson Jones
2. Hotel Workers Rising March: Today!
3. Hotel Workers Rising March: September 30

With Janson Jones outside the June 23 Assembly meeting. I met Janson after becoming a fan of his incredible photography at his blog, Floridana Alaskiana v2.5. He also did some great videos of the True Diversity Dinner: see tweets below.

• RT: @NathanFillion: I have decided to never use “LOL” unless I’m actually laughing out loud, for reals. // What about ROTFL? #
• Lessons from Iraq (per a friend who was there): To avoid thermostat wars, never room an Alaskan with a Texan. #
• By cutting Anchorage Fire Department’s budget, Mayor Sullivan may be raising homeowner insurance rates. @afdstatus « http://bit.ly/KjNU1 #
• Atheist or not (I’m not), here’s a great guideline for personal conduct from the Friendly Atheist @hemantmehta http://bit.ly/x86B4 #
• @jansonjones Looking forward to seeing it! If it’s anything like your photos, it’ll be grreeaaaAAT! [was just possessed by Tony the Tiger] in reply to jansonjones #
• @jansonjones That sounds fantastic. More than I could do right now… feeling distinctly burnt out at the moment. in reply to jansonjones #
• Alaska Justice Forum back from the printer. Very pretty! should have online in next 2-3 days. #
• Gonna write tonight – MYstuff. (But over dinner I’ll tune into the Alaska Bloggapalooza on MSNBC! http://bit.ly/WqqgI – Mudflats & Moore) #
• RT: @jansonjones: True Diversity Dinner Video, Part One http://bit.ly/e6dD3 // Watching it now, Janson — brilliant job! #
• @jansonjones Absolutely fantastic work. Just splendid. in reply to jansonjones #
• @jansonjones Already talking you up on my blog. http://bit.ly/szTiP in reply to jansonjones #
• @jansonjones Nope, not too melodramatic. You sounded great, actually. (No one likes the sound of their own voices, except politicians!) in reply to jansonjones #
• RT: @jansonjones: True Diversity Dinner Video, Part Two http://bit.ly/K9rC4 // also added to Henkimaa post http://bit.ly/szTiP #anclgbt #
• @jansonjones Wow that was fantastic — makes me feel really good. Hope it makes you feel really good too! in reply to jansonjones #
• @jansonjones I liked it. It was dignified or somber or something but w/out getting in the way of the enjoyment of the dinner. in reply to jansonjones #
• @jansonjones Just added to my post a photo of Vic Fischer/Jane Angvik (w/ Arliss Sturgulewski) from the first night of Assembly testimony. in reply to jansonjones #
• @jansonjones what a proud achievement the whole thing was, beginning to end. _This_ is what people will remember of that night. #
• @jansonjones hahaaa I like klezmer, but no, this wouldn’t be the time. in reply to jansonjones #
• @jansonjones Wow a whole 17 people have viewed my Eating/breathing/crapping in outer space post now! But I’m not getting my story done #
• @jansonjones However, the videos are eminently worth it. #

Related posts:

1. True Diversity Dinner 1 & 2: Video by Janson Jones
2. True Diversity Dinner video, part 3: Hotel workers, & Elvi's speech
3. True Diversity Dinner: Slideshow

I met Janson as a result of becoming a fan of the fantastic photography (including of the ordinance battle) at his blog, Floridana Alaskiana v2.5.

Janson Jones of the blog Floridana Alaskiana v2.5 — one of the sponsors of the True Diversity Dinner — has completed part 1 of his video presentation of the event.

Part 1 gives background on the battle over the summer for the Anchorage equal rights ordinance, AO 2009-64, which was passed by the Anchorage Assembly by a vote of 7 to 4 on August 11, but was vetoed on August 17 by Mayor Dan Sullivan; then goes into the decision by several of us bloggers to hold a True Diversity Dinner on September 11 as an alternative for the Mayor’s Unity Dinner, with footage from KTVA Channel 11 and KTUU Channel 2 coverage of the event. Janson also discusses the labor problems at the Anchorage Hilton, where the Mayor’s event was held — the Hilton’s owner, Kentucky-based Columbia Sussex, is refusing to settle a fair contract with its workers, who picketed the hotel the night of the event — which Mayor’s Unity Event participants crossed picket lines to attend.

Janson tells me that Parts 2 & 3 of his presentation are nearly complete, with Part 2 due online within the hour. I’ll update this post with the other two parts when they’re complete.

Thanks, Janson, for your hard work on such a fine presentation.

Janson also has a fine collection of photos from the dinner: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4.

Update: Part 2 now up: a montage of photos from the event. Janson says Part 3 will probably go up tomorrow. Later update: There’s lots more than 3 parts — I’m adding them in separate posts as they get completed.

Here’s a photo of Lifetime Achievement Award winners Vic Fischer, one of the framers of the Alaska Constitution, & Jane Angvik, who helped frame Anchorage’s municipal charter, from the first night of testimony on the Anchorage equal rights ordinance on June 9.

Vic Fischer and Jane Angvik (right) with Arliss Sturgulewski (left) at the June 9, 2009 Anchorage Assembly hearing. All three testified that night in support of the ordinance (as did Chuck O'Connell, in the foreground).

Related posts:

1. True Diversity Dinner video, part 3: Hotel workers, & Elvi's speech
2. The Daily Tweets, 2009-09-29: True Diversity Dinner videos by Janson Jones
3. True Diversity Dinner video, part 5: Diane Benson

P.S. You can view this slideshow fullscreen by clicking on the fullscreen icon; you can also see them at my Flickr photostream.

I was honored to be the recipient of a True Diversity Award for Excellence in Online Media for coverage on my blog of the battle for the Anchorage equal rights ordinance.

True Diversity Award

At the True Diversity Dinner. Photo by Janson Jones.

I’m already way past a reasonable bedtime in the work I did processing these, & tomorrow — er, I mean later today — is a busy day: grocery shopping including taking my friend Sylvia to a farmer’s market; Side Street Saturdays writing; participating with a poetry performance in the Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Alaska’s Open House (part of the Mayor’s Diversity Month events); & hearing Max Blumenthal, author of Republican Gomorrah which I’m about 30% through, speak at UAA. So any post describing how the True Diversity Dinner was beyond “It was great!!!” will have to wait.

Related posts:

1. True Diversity Dinner: September 25, 2009
2. True Diversity Dinner video, part 3: Hotel workers, & Elvi's speech
3. True Diversity Dinner 1 & 2: Video by Janson Jones

A lot more information and commentary has come out since Shannyn Moore pointed out a couple days ago that

This Friday, Mayor Dan Sullivan will cross the picket line at the ONLY boycotted hotel in Alaska for his “unity” dinner.  In May, the Hilton workers overwhelmingly voted to place their hotel under boycott because their employer degrades their quality of life. [Ref #1]

As Steve Aufrecht pointed out yesterday,

These employees are among the lowest paid workers. And they represent some of the non-white members of the Anchorage community. [Ref #2]

Before reading Shannyn’s post, I hadn’t known anything about the Hilton boycott. But a Google search when I was writing the article I posted early yesterday morning [Ref #3] gave additional information by way of an article by Brendan Joel Kelley published in the Anchorage Press in June:

The Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) Local 878, which represents some 200 Hilton employees, announced that it had overwhelmingly voted to place their hotel under boycott on April 20, when they had a rally outside of the hotel.

HERE says it’s been negotiating with Columbia Sussex, the Kentucky-based company that owns the Hilton, since last summer, to maintain their current contract. According to Senator Bill Wielechowski, who attended the rally, Columbia Sussex has offered the workers a 10 cent an hour wage increase, but wanted the employees to pick up a significant portion of their health insurance costs, which amounts to about two weeks of a year’s pay. “It’s really a step backwards,” Wielechowski says. “It’s going to affect the lives of a thousand Alaskan families here in Anchorage, so it’s a big deal. They’re asking them to do more work for less pay, essentially. It doesn’t benefit anyone here in Alaska for an Outside company to come in and do that.” [Ref #4]

Columbia Sussex became owner of the Anchorage Hilton in December 2006, and from every evidence things have gone downhill for the hotel’s workers ever since:

Traditionally, the three large hotels in town—the Captain Cook, the Sheraton and the Hilton—have set the industry standard when it comes to negotiating contracts with unions. The Captain Cook’s local owners, for example, signed what workers considered a fair contract with the union. But the purchase of the Hilton by Columbia Sussex has threatened that dynamic. [Ref #4]

More news came yesterday by way of a piece in Alaska Dispatch by Barb Angaiak, president of NEA-Alaska. The NEA in its name stands for National Education Association: NEA-Alaska is the state’s largest union, representing 13,000 teachers and education support professionals throughout the state.  Angaiak’s article announced NEA-Alaska’s decision to cancel all its business with the Anchorage Hilton — which it had previously been a favored venue for many NEA-Alaska events — due to Columbia Sussex’s steadfast refusal to deal in good faith in negotiating a fair contract with its employees.

The Alaska chapter of the National Education Association has been monitoring the lack of progress in contract negotiations between the Anchorage Hilton Hotel and its bellmen, housekeepers, food servers, and other employee groups for some months. These hardworking Alaskans, members of Unite HERE Local 878, have been attempting to bargain a new contract for more than a year, and hotel management shows no signs that it is willing to settle.

This is part of a national pattern of union-breaking tactics and unfair treatment of employees by the Columbia Sussex Corporation. As a result, the NEA-Alaska Board of Directors met last weekend and voted to cancel its multi-year contract with the Hilton. The board severed all business ties with the hotel, despite the financial cost to our 13,000 members.

NEA-Alaska met with the Hilton management in May and August, both times offering our services as mediators to help the two sides achieve a reasonable settlement. Alaska staff returned from attending the last face-to-face negotiating session stating it has become clear that these Outside hotel managers have no interest in settling the dispute with their Alaskan employees. [Ref #5; emphasis added]

As stated in its press release announcing the severance of its relationship with the Anchorage Hilton, NEA-Alaska explained:

The hotel’s owners, Columbia Sussex, continue to delay progress in the bargaining and instead unilaterally imposed new conditions of employment, including increased workloads with no additional pay and a demand that workers pay a larger share of health care costs. [Ref #6]

You can see other evidence of NEA-Alaska’s concern and efforts to assist Unite HERE Local 878 members in gaining a fair contract at NEA-Alaska’s website. [Refs #7–12] In an August 24 letter to the Anchorage Hilton’s general manager Eric Kiddle, which informed him of NEA’s cancellation of reservations for two large events the union had planned to hold at the hotel, Barb Angaiak wrote,

Our view of the Hilton has changed substantially over the last several months.   Hilton began negotiating a successor agreement between service employees and management over a year ago, without success or much progress.  In the process, the efforts of hardworking, dedicated and loyal employees of the hotel have been disregarded by new management, which appears focused on cost-cutting.  The apparent lack of interest in developing a contract that provides employees fair treatment, wages, benefits and working conditions suggests an agenda that is new to Anchorage and our state’s hotel industry.  We note that the major hoteliers in the city have reached agreement with HERE, and the terms do not impose the kinds of concessions Columbia Sussex seeks from employees.  The requested concessions are, to our knowledge, the only reason that an agreement has not been reached. [Ref #11]

NEA-Alaska is asking all its members not to use any services at the Anchorage Hilton until the hotel settles a fair contract. [Ref #5] It has also posted a list at its website of all properties owned nationwide by Columbia Sussex [Ref #12] — which includes also the Anchorage Marriot — and is urging all Alaskans to honor the boycott by avoiding all those properties when traveling or dining out. [Ref #5]

Meanwhile — the Mayor’s Unity Dinner is being held at the Hilton tonight.  As reported late last night by Kyle Hopkins at the Anchorage Daily News,

The union of roughly 1,000 Anchorage hotel and restaurant workers this month asked new Mayor Dan Sullivan to move the dinner to another venue.

Sullivan declined, and the union, which is seeking a better offer on wages and benefits from the hotel’s Kentucky-based owner, now plans to protest the event.

“The mayor is not honoring the wishes of the diverse workforce that works in this hotel,” said Amarjeet Chhabra, spokeswoman for Unite Here Local 878. The union represents about 200 Hilton workers, she said.

Sullivan spokeswoman Sarah Erkmann said it would have been impossible to move the dinner on just days’ notice. The city had booked the Hilton because other hotels like the Sheraton and Captain Cook weren’t available, she said. [Ref #12]

But… I’ve got to wonder.  Was the Mayor’s office truly not aware of a serious labor issue that had been going on for more than a year, such that it wasn’t until early this month that they put any thought to it, and only after the hotel workers asked?  Other organizations which have pulled out from holding events at the Anchorage Hilton include the Alaska Federation of Filipino Americans — many of the Hilton’s workers are of Filipino descent — the NAACP, and the Alaska Nurses Association. [Ref #12] Did none of the people planning for the event, which regardless of its name change is still part of Mayor’s Diversity Month, take account of how the Hilton was screwing over its workers — workers who are as much at the heart of Anchorage’s diversity as any of the rest of us?

And golly gee whiz — is it mere coincidence that another event was held at the Anchorage Hilton starting at noon today was an Alaska Republican Party fundraiser featuring the same keynote speaker, Lynn Swann, who is also keynoting the Mayor’s event? Lynn Swann, the former Hall of Fame football player and former Republican candidate for governor in Pennsylvania, who, according to Erkmann, waived his speaking fee for the Mayor’s dinner — the Alaska Republican Party is paying for his visit.

Huh.  Interesting.  Looks a lot to me an awful lot as if arrangements for the Mayor’s Unity Dinner simply piggybacked off the arrangements for the Alaska Republican fundraiser.

The whole situation also makes me very curious to know what relationships might exist between Mayor Sullivan, the Alaska Republican Party, and the management and shareholders of Columbia Sussex.  After all, it wouldn’t be the first time that union-busting could be seen as a shared Republican value. Especially evident now with the union-busting efforts being aimed at the city’s police, fire, and electrical unions even as we speak.

As Shannyn Moore wrote two days ago,

Hmmm…unity? What is unifying about a former Pittsburgh Steeler and Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate, with a $40,000 speaker fee? Oh, you meant partisan…easy mistake. It makes more sense that you’re holding it at a union-busting hotel now.  Something about all those “diverse” looking hotel workers not being paid a living wage must really “unify” your party. [Ref #1]

This post might be updated later with photos of the union pickets outside the Hilton, which I hope to stop by on my way to the True Diversity Dinner.

Update 9/26/09, 3:40 AM: Here’s photos I took of the picketing before I went to the True Diversity Dinner. I also talked with Dave, one of the workers who was picketing. I’ll be writing more about this issue. But right now, I think I’ll go to bed.

References

1. 9/23/09. “Is Dan Sullivan Running For Senate?” by Shannyn Moore (Just a Girl from Homer; crossposted at The Mudflats and Alaska Report).
2. 9/24/09. “Sullivan’s Unity Speaker Swan Paid Enough for One Muni Job” by Steve Aufrecht (What Do I Know?)
3. 9/24/09. “True Diversity v. fake unity” by Melissa S. Green (Henkimaa).
4. 6/17/09. “Housekeeping – The Hilton’s union employees institute a boycott” by Brendan Joel Kelley (Anchorage Press).
5. 9/24/09. “NEA-Alaska cancels Hilton contract” by Barb Angaiak (Alaska Dispatch).
6. 9/25/09. “State’s Largest Union Stands Behind Hilton Worker: 13,000-member NEA-Alaska Axes Contract with Hilton” (press release). NEA-Alaska.
7. May 2009. “Bringing pressure to bear on behalf of Hilton Hotel workers” by Barb Angaiak (NEA-Alaska).
8. May 2009. “A Message from the President: Bringing pressure to bear on behalf of Hilton Hotel workers” by Barb Angaiak, NEA-AKtivist 36(9): 2.
9. 7/28/09. “Local 878 Update” by Jessica Lawson of UNITE HERE Local 878 (NEA-Alaska).
10. 8/24/09. “Alaska Educators Agree to Stand with Anchorage Hotel Workers.” Press release from NEA-Alaska.
11. 8/24/09. Letter from Barb Angaiak, President of NEA-Alaska, to Eric Kiddle, General Manager, Anchorage Hilton Hotel.
12. 9/25/09. “Columbia Sussex Hotel Properties.” NEA-Alaska. A full list of properties owned by Kentucky-based  Columbia Sussex.  Anchorage properties include the Anchorage Hilton Hotel and the Anchorage Marriot.
13. 8/24/09. “Unions, others mount protest of mayor’s ‘unity’ dinner — HILTON: Hotel workers locked in labor dispute have asked for boycott” by Kyle Hopkins (Anchorage Daily News).

Related posts:

1. Hotel Workers Rising March: Today!
2. Hotel Workers Rising March: September 30
3. True Diversity Dinner video, part 3: Hotel workers, & Elvi's speech

As we come up on Friday, when the True Diversity Dinner sponsored by a few of us bloggers will be held at the Snow Goose at the same time as the Mayor’s Unity Dinner at the Hilton, Shannyn Moore provides some additional context for the dinners in a post she wrote yesterday, “Is Dan Sullivan Running For Senate?” (crossposted at The Mudflats). [Ref #1]

Dan Sullivan at his first Assembly meeting as Mayor of Anchorage on July 7

Shannyn speculates that by means of the political maneuvering associated with his actions as mayor & with the tactics of his cronies — such as Assembly Member Bill Starr — that Mayor Dan Sullivan might be positioning himself for an eventual run for U.S. Senate against Senator (and former Mayor) Mark Begich.  Among the tactics at work are attempting to blame the Municipality’s current fiscal problems on Begich, while ignoring the huge deficit that Begich inherited from our prior mayor, George Wuerch (who, coincidentally or not, shared Sullivan’s brand of antigay conservativism) and the current attempt to invalidate the Municipality’s contracts with the IBEW and the police union, [Ref #2] with the help of (1) an opinion by an attorney who has admitted to having no expertise in employment or labor union law and (2) a widely distributed email from Bill Starr, backed by fellow conservative Assembly Member and Sullivan crony Dan Coffey, alleging Mayor Begich withheld financial information from the the Assembly that, had they known it, would have resulted in the contracts not being agreed to in the first place.

Well, we’ll see the claims and counterclaims played out in the press — and in the blogs which, all too often nowadays, are better sources than the dailies and broadcast news for the real nuts and bolts of these things. We’ll see if the Anchorage Daily News reminds us, as Shannyn already has, about the phone call Dan Coffey’s butt accidentally made to Allan Tesche, which led to a recording of a conversation between Coffey and Starr involving some highly questionable campaign financing practices (and a lot of trash talk about the police union) — because that kind of corruption is also part of the context.

But what’s this got to do with True Diversity Dinner and the Mayor’s Unity Dinner? (Besides, that is, the fact that Shannyn Moore will be the keynote speaker at the True Diversity Dinner.)

This: that Mayor Sullivan’s dinner will be held at the only hotel in Anchorage under boycott by workers because of bad faith negotiating by Columbia Sussex, the Hilton’s owners.  I hadn’t known about this situation before, & thank Shannyn for providing that context. I got additional information through an article penned in June by Brendan Joel Kelley of the Anchorage Press,[Ref #3] while I was preoccupied with the battle for the Anchorage equal rights ordinance.  The mayor’s choice of venue goes hand-in-hand with the union-busting tactics being used against IBEW and the police union (and one must also hasten to wonder about Mayor Sullivan’s valuation of the city’s other first responders in the Anchorage Fire Department, about which Brendan Joel Kelley has also written [Ref #4]).

Mayor Sullivan appears to care as little about fair terms for Anchorage police, fire, electrical, and hotel workers as he does about LGBT workers.  Are unionbusting, bad faith bargaining, and unilateral attempts to get out of contracts part of the Mayor’s platform of diversity — or rather, er, unity?  As for me, I think a strong diverse workforce is rather essential to both, and unions are part of that.

Shannyn also points out the partisan credentials of the Mayor’s keynote speaker, former Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Lynn Swann, who will also be getting a hefty fee for headlining a Republican fundraiser while he’s in town. “Unity”?  Looks more like Republican party-building to me.

True Diversity Dinner program

Meanwhile, planning for the True Diversity Dinner proceeds — and we’re almost there!  Our speaker line-up includes Rev. Marquita Pierre, Diane Benson, Elvi Gray-Jackson, Shannyn Moore, and more. We’ll also have performances by Yup’ik dancers and singer Steven Alvarez, plus a dance afterwards.  We’re gonna have a great time!

Plea$e help!

But here’s time for a plea for help: the $10 being charged for tickets to the dinner only begins to cover the dinner’s cost; much of the cost has been coming out of our pockets.  Any help you can give will be appreciated — just go to the True Diversity Dinner web page and use the handy Donate button.

References

1. 9/23/09. “Is Dan Sullivan Running For Senate?” by Shannyn Moore (Just a Girl from Homer; crossposted at The Mudflats).
2. 9/23/09. “City labor contracts invalid, attorney says” by Don Hunter (Anchorage Daily News).
3. 6/17/09. “Housekeeping – The Hilton’s union employees institute a boycott” by Brendan Joel Kelley (Anchorage Press).
4. 8/19/09. “AFD gets its axe handed to it” by Brendan Joel Kelley (Anchorage Press). See also the Anchorage firefighters’ blog AFD Status about rolling closures instituted by the Sullivan Administration and other current issues affecting the Anchorage Fire Department’s ability to effectively serve the people of Anchorage.

[Crossposted at Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis]

Related posts:

1. True Diversity Dinner video, part 3: Hotel workers, & Elvi's speech
2. True Diversity Dinner 1 & 2: Video by Janson Jones
3. True Diversity Dinner: September 25, 2009

True Diversity Dinner Announced on KTVA

You can also read the text version of the story on KTVA’s website. [Ref #1]

Shortly after I learned Heather was being interviewed, a query popped up in my email from Alaska Dispatch‘s Maia Nolan.  She asked me if I’d be willing to respond to two comments she’d received from the Mayor’s office about the dinners, as follows:

Sullivan spokesperson Sarah Erkmann:

No comment beyond that planning for the Unity Dinner continues with the mayor’s full support. It should be noted that funds raised at the dinner support the municipality’s diversity programming throughout the year. So withholding support for the event may have an adverse impact on the city’s ability to fund programs next year. The mayor has continually said that he thinks the values that bind us together are just as important as what separates us. The phrase I’ve heard him use is ‘respect diversity, celebrate unity.’

(The full text of Sarah Erkmann’s copy is in the story Maia Nolan filed.  The above is just the portion I got in the email.)

Mayor Dan Sullivan (from press release):

Our community is made up of many unique groups, but we all share some common values: the importance of family, quality education for our children, and safe, vibrant neighborhoods. This year’s event is meant to celebrate these values while respecting the diversity that makes Anchorage such a great place to live.

I replied as follows:

I’m speaking only as myself, but I think the others involved with the alternative True Diversity Dinner would agree with me that we have no argument with the Municipality’s diversity programming.  Nor are we asking for anyone to withhold support if they choose to attend the Unity Dinner.  But a lot of us find there to be a pretty big discrepancy between Mayor Sullivan’s veto of an ordinance which would have accorded equal protection from discrimination for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans citizens and visitors to Anchorage, and his supposed valuation of diversity.  I’m not sure who chose the Unity Dinner’s keynote speaker, Lynn Swann, but to me that choice underscores that that reference to “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” in the muni’s diversity statement is, at least this year, lip service — Swann during his 2006 run for governor of Pennsylvania endorsed an amendment to PA’s constitution that would have prevented same-sex couples from  having the same rights — medical, marriage, estate — as heterosexual couples.

The result of this is, many of us who fought for equal rights for LGBT people in Anchorage — and that includes non-LGBT as well as LGBT people — don’t see much place for LGBTs or their allies as either individuals or as families in the Mayor’s vision of diversity. Several of us bloggers who had written a lot over the summer about the Assembly hearings started talking about how to respond to our feelings after the mayor’s veto of ordinance 64.  We decided that holding some kind of protest wouldn’t actually make us feel any better.  So we decided instead to celebrate the values we’d been fighting for.

Me with my family at the 1997 Alaska State Fair

I very much share the values Sullivan named: “the importance of family, quality education for our children, and safe, vibrant neighborhoods.” My partner and I raised her nephew from age 9 to the present (age 21) — a kid, I might add, whose entire life before he came to live with us was one of physical and emotional abuse and neglect at the hands of his (heterosexual) family.  I was the main economic support for my family; if my employer had decided to fire me simply for being a lesbian, not only would I suffer, but so would that boy.  Lucky for me that my employer didn’t.  But that’s a prospect that many families headed by LGBT people still face.  Sullivan’s veto makes it clear that he only deems some families important — and mine’s not one of them.  So much for “unity.”

I’m really glad that I’ll be in company on the night of the 25th with people who do think my family’s important. [Ref #2; emphases added]

I will add here that I once was, in fact, fired for being a lesbian. Part of my story was aired when I took my own turn being interviewed by KTVA last May, after the Anchorage equal rights ordinance AO 2009-64 was introduced in the Anchorage Assembly; I gave a more complete account in a followup blog post. At the time I was fired in 1984, I had no family to support — just myself. But discrimination still happens — as Assembly Chair Debbie Ossiander herself admitted when she voted against the ordinance on August 11 — and some of the people who are discriminated against do have families that they support, along with themselves. Not to mention that all of us, LGBT or not, are the children of mothers and fathers, the siblings of brothers and sisters. Don’t kid yourself that anti-LGBT discrimination is about “family values”: it’s about the devaluation and ostracization of members of people’s families and, in some cases, of entire families.

So much for “unity.” So much for the “Unity Dinner.”

The True Diversity Dinner will be held on September 25, 2009 at 7:30 PM at the Snow Goose Restaurant in downtown Anchorage. Tickets for the dinner are $10.00 and can be purchased at Borders Books & Music. We hope to have a midtown venue selling tickets soon; see the True Diversity Dinner blog for updates.

References

1. 9/15/09. “Controversy Brews between ‘Diversity’ & ‘Unity’” by Christina Grande (KTVA Channel 11 News) (misdated on KTVA’s website as 9/4/09).
2. 9/15/09. “More on the dueling diversity dinners” by Maia Nolan (Alaska Dispatch).
3. 5/13/09. “Channel 11 interview, part 1 (the video)” by Melissa S. Green (Henkimaa).
4. 5/13/09. “Channel 11 interview, part 2 (the full story)” by Melissa S. Green (Henkimaa).

Related posts:

1. True Diversity Dinner video, part 3: Hotel workers, & Elvi's speech
2. True Diversity Dinner 1 & 2: Video by Janson Jones
3. True Diversity v. fake unity