Hanging out with bloggers: Me with Phil Munger of Progressive Alaska and Janson Jones of Floridana Alaskiana at the Loussac Library on June 23, 2009 during public testimony at the Anchorage Assembly on AO-64, the Anchorage equal rights ordinance. This was the first time I met Phil or Janson; there are other bloggers I admire & respect — including Steve Aufrecht — who I "talk" with but have never yet had the chance to meet.

This past Tuesday, I was honored to be asked by Steve Aufrecht of the blog What Do I Know? to be a guest blogger for class he’s teaching on blogs and blogging.  Other guest bloggers for the class (to be held later today) include Phil Munger of Progressive Alaska, Kellie (aka Tea N Crumpet) of Stress Management and Other Things, and Peter Dunlap-Shohl of Frozen Grin and Off and On:  The Alaska Parkinson’s Blog.

Steve blogged about the class on Wednesday, in a post entitled “Hatching New Alaskan Bloggers” — whence comes the title of my own post.  The class he’s teaching is an offering of Olé! (Opportunities for Lifelong Education) — which is, as my coworker Barbara Armstrong wrote Wednesday at the UAA Justice Center blog, is a UAA community partner.  Olé describes itself at its website as

a IRS-recognized 501c3 nonprofit corporation created to give Anchorage adults a place to continue learning together.

It defines lifelong learning as,

an attitude embraced by people who find life continually interesting and engaging and who welcome opportunities to learn.  In later life, perhaps in retirement, lifelong learners are people who have developed such a penchant for learning that they simply can’t stop; the habit has served them too well.

I can get behind that.

Steve’s post about the class introduces five of the blogs created by his students:

Those who had already created a blog:

Dorothy had set up a blog Meanderings by Dorothy to write about some of her interests such as Tai Chi, contract bridge, and Anchorage Opera. It was very basic, but now she has  added pictures, has a hit counter, and has set up links in categories.

Joe’s blog, HodgePodgepourri,  focused on documenting family history and personal recollections, has been around a couple of years.  There’s an interesting series of tales, last November, of his childhood working in the “Buckingham Palace” a hotel his family owned in Indiana.

Ed  has a very focused blog, Building an Alaska Wilderness Sauna, on the family’s sauna at their cabin.  There are dramatic pictures of it burning down.  He’s recently put up a lot of step-by-step pictures of the rebuilding.

Michael had begun a WordPress blog, but wasn’t doing much with it.  Since the class began, he created a new blog, Reflections, to share his interest in philosophy and particularly the ideas in his book, The Reality of Being.

The last one for this post, is Lynne’s first ever blog, Koralling Genius. Lynne can’t actually see her blog, because she is blind.  But she can hear it.  And you can tell she has a lot of thoughts on how the world tends to dismiss people with disabilities.  I think this is a blog that will give people a view of the world they don’t usually hear.  And give her a platform where she can speak without being prejudged.

Check them out: good stuff, & great new additions to the Alaska blogosphere.

* * *

After I accepted Steve’s invitation, he sent me an email with some ideas I (& my fellow guest bloggers) might want to talk about:

1. Getting started blogging.
2. How much time a day do you spend
3. What they get out of it
4. Are you addicted?
5. What you’ve learned from blogging.

Those are good enough questions that I might answer them not only in the class, but here as well.  Just not in this post, since my lunchtime isn’t long enough!

I can, however, write a partial answer to question 1:  I’ve been blogging: off & on since 2003.  My first blog is even still hanging out on the Internet at http://www.henkimaa.blogga.nu/.  This blog was an extension of my first website at Henkimaa.nu (which is no longer online) and used what I’d now call rudimentary blog software offered through the .nu domain.  Some (but not all) of those posts have been moved over to my present blog site  — mostly those having to do with the visit of members of Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church to Anchorage during Pride 2003, which was in fact the topic of my very first blog post on June 20, 2003. (I removed posts from the blogga.nu blog as I moved them over, so they no longer show up at the original site.  I need to get around to moving the rest of them, too.)

In 2005, I started Henkimaa using Blogger software, & eventually had an assortment of blogs there devoted to different issues that were important to me: Terveys, from the Finnish word for health, Field of Words on writing, and Eyes Remain Open, which was supposed to be a photoblog.  Although those blogs are still live, I never blog there anymore: all their posts were copied over when I decided to change over to a self-hosted WordPress blog at my current side at Henkimaa.com.

(I still have a couple of private Blogger blogs too: one contains the frenetic thirty days of writing from my first National Novel Writing Month novel Cold in 2007— a work I’m still working on — and one between my ex-but-still-very-loved-partner, which we just talked today about moving over to WordPress.)

I also blogged during the summer of 2006 at a University of Alaska website dedicated to a UA employee fitness program called Start Walking, which encouraged employees to walk at least 10,000 steps (or perform equivalent exercise) ever day.  Those posts got moved over to my old Blogger Terveys site sometime later in 2006, & have been duly copied over to the current blog.

I currently blog at my own blog Henkimaa, as a contributor and coadministrator at Bent Alaska (Alaska’s LGBT blog) a, at the Alaska LGBT Community Survey, and without byline for my job at the UAA Justice Center blog. Some of my more politically oriented posts have also appeared (usually as crossposts) at Progressive Alaska, The Mudflats, Celtic Diva’s Blue Oasis, Alaska Commons, and (before I became a regular contributor there) Bent Alaska.

My blogging history gives some idea of what I blog about: all kinds of stuff. As Steve told his students in introduction, “poetry, short story writing, personal reflections, and GLBT issues” — but also at various times Alaska politics, the justice system, depression & despair, insulin resistance & diabetes prevention, fitness & fat loss, and the incredibly true adventures of the Rev. Jerry Prevo.  Lately, I’ve been focusing on becoming (with limited success) somewhat less of a political blogger & more of a “I’m trying to do my own writing, dammit!” blogger, & also on “god stuff” & religion, which stems in one part out of a sporadic & difficult conversation with an important person in my life, in another with my lifelong interest in religion (which amongst other things earned me a B.A. in Religion), & in another with the endemic use of religious ideologies to batter LGBT people.

And now my lunchtime is over. Therefore, so is this blog post.

Related posts:

1. Chuffed
2. A word about our friends
3. Words for equality

With Phil Munger of Progressive Alaska & Janson Jones of Floridana Alaskiana v2.5. I met both in person for the first time on June 23, 2009 outside the Anchorage Assembly chambers, where public testimony was being heard on the Anchorage equal rights ordinance AO 2009-64.

I had a nice surprise this afternoon when I was catching up on my blog reading & discovered that Phil Munger of Progressive Alaska had named my blog, along with Linda Kellen Biegel’s Celtic Diva’s Blue Oasis, for the Best Investigative Reporting for 2009 among Alaska progressive blogs.  He recognized a number of other blogs too — see his full post “Best of Alaska’s Progressive Blogs – 2009″.  All the blogs he named have long been in my RSS feed.  I can’t keep up with a lot of the blogs I subscribe to, but I read all of these blogs every day.

What Phil neglected to mention, though, was the bestness of his own blog.  If I were to hand out recognitions — & hey, I can, so I will — though I’m having a heckuva time coming up with a brief & tidy award title for it.  Okay, so I’ll just be verbose:

Progressive Alaska stands out as the blog which does the best to build Alaska progressive blogging as a community, to put our work into context, & to recognize our significant achievements. Almost every Saturday I can expect to find his progressive blog roundups summarizing the most important stuff written by his fellow bloggers over the course of the week.  And he’s been at the foremost commentator on how the gaps created by the increasing failures of the mainstream media — particularly of our supposed newspaper of record, the Anchorage Daily News — are being filled & at times even improved upon by the work of Alaska’s progressive bloggers.  Phil critique of ADN’s failures have sharpened my own eyes in that regard — but I might not have noticed so much, had he not noticed it first.  And that notice is needed.

That’s on top of all the posts that Phil writes on other topics, both political and artistic.  All of which feeds into me feeling pretty damn good that the “occasional political blogger” stuff I wrote last year on Henkimaa.com drew such recognition from him today. To borrow an Australianism, I’m pretty damn chuffed.  And I bet that the other bloggers he wrote about today are pretty damn chuffed too.

Thanks, Phil!

Related posts:

1. Progressive bloggers on Palin: Civility versus namecalling
2. Progressives, civility, & Palin: Anatomy of an apology
3. A word about our friends

Dan Froomkin, formerly of WashingtonPost.com, where he wrote a web-only column from January 2004 to June 2009 called White House Watch (originally White House Briefing). Modified from an original photograph by JD Lasica (jdlasica); used under a Creative Commons license. Click on photo to get full licensing info.

I’ve been catching up somewhat on stuff in the wider political world outside the Anchorage equal rights ordinance battle. Having been so focused on AO 2009-64, it wasn’t until early this morning that I learned Dan Froomkin had been fired from the Washington Post — more properly, from its online version at washingtonpost.com —  & wrote his last White House Watch web column today.

I’ve followed Froomkin’s column, originally called White House Briefing, off & on since it started in January 2004, especially in the run-up to the November 2004 presidential election .  I’m sad to see it go. White House Briefing/White House Watch was one of the most important watchdogs & fact-checkers on the numerous abuses and lies of the Bush Administration, & that kind of work is still needed.  As Froomkin wrote in his final column,

Obama is nowhere in Bush’s league when it comes to issues of credibility, but his every action nevertheless needs to be carefully scrutinized by the media, and he must be held accountable. We should be holding him to the highest standards – and there are plenty of places where we should be pushing back. Just for starters, there are a lot of hugely important but unanswered questions about his Afghanistan policy, his financial rescue plans, and his turnaround on transparency.

There’s some disagreement as to why WaPo dumped Froomkin — with some saying it was for political/ideological reasons, & others say for economic reasons.  The latter is the opinion of Erik Wemple of the Washington City Paper — Froomkin just hasn’t been generating enough hits since the end of the Bush Administration.  Wemple writes:

The Obama administration has offered a less juicy target, in part because it hasn’t had quite as much time to screw things up. In the past six months, accordingly, hits on White House Watch have dropped to the point that Post officials cite traffic as a reason for bagging the column.

Though Wemple goes on to say,

The Froomkin axing is a red-letter event in Post history because it’s the first time that a major personnel decision has hinged so squarely on Web hits. For years, the orthodoxy from Post leaders is that the paper produces journalism that it believes in—mass popularity be damned. Perhaps that’s no longer the case. Questions on this matter were sent to newspaper spokesperson Kris Coratti but went unanswered.

So maybe Froomkin’s column was no longer journalism that WaPo believes in? — or at least not enough to overcome the paper’s economic considerations.  If so, that argues for ideology being a component, if perhaps not the biggest component, behind WaPo’s decision to sack Froomkin.

Regardless, it wouldn’t be the first time that a newspaper’s overall excellence in journalism has leaked away due to decisions that are based in some part on economics.  Witness our own paper-of-record, the Anchorage Daily News, which has lost a lot of ground both economically & in overall quality of coverage over the past few years.  From stuff I’ve read over the last several months, both about the ADN in particular & the newspapers in general, the papers are being hit hard by loss of revenues from classified ads as more people turn to free online ad solutions like Craigslist, not to mention the public’s increasing dependence upon online sources — including blogs — to get their news.  And then there’s just the economic downturn itself.  And there’s blogs, many of which have stepped into the journalistic realm formerly reserved for traditional media like newspapers and broadcast news to take on stories that traditional media either don’t know enough about or don’t dare to report on.  Think: who first broke the story last year about what became known as Troopergate?  Not any of Alaska’s newspapers or news stations: it was Andrew Halcro on his blog.  Who took the lead in giving the rest of the country needed perspective on Sarah Palin when she became John McCain’s running mate?  It wasn’t the Alaska mainstream press: it was Alaska’s progressive bloggers. It’s been an adjustment, & the traditional media are still adjusting.

But wait: I was talking about Froomkin.  “I remain a big believer in the ‘traditional media,’” he wrote in his final column,  “especially when it sticks to traditional journalistic values.” But he also gave every evidence of respecting & making use of the new (blogger) media — at least when it adhered to the same values, identified in his essay Why “playing it safe” is killing American newspapers thusly:

The right way to reinvent ourselves online would be to do precisely what journalists were put on this green earth to do: Seek the truth, hold the powerful accountable, expose the B.S., explain how things really work, introduce people to each other, and tell compelling stories. And we should do all those things passionately and courageously — not hiding who we are, but rather engaging in a very public expression of our journalistic values.

His entire series for Niemen Journalism Lab on the future of news journalism is worth a read.  For political bloggers, too.

Some quotes about Froomkin from other people:

Equivocation, hedging, shading, tiptoeing—none of those turn up in Froomkin’s toolkit.

— Erik Wemple, “Why Did the Washington Post Sack Dan Froomkin?” (Washington City Paper)

Providing ample proof of why he couldn’t coexist with the go-along ethos of High Broderism. He reads, and links to, bloggers! He’s intellectually consistent, willing to criticize both Republicans and Democrats! That’s perhaps the rarest commodity in a Village that seeks at all times a political equilibrium that won’t endanger its cocktail circuit invite.

— McJoan,  “Froomkin’s Last WaPo Stand” (DailyKOS)

Hopefully, the next time the nation faces a grave national security crisis, we will listen to the people who were right, not the people who were wrong, and heed those who reported the truth, not those who served as stenographers to liars.

— Dan Froomkin himself, “White House Watched”, his last “White House Watch” column for WashingtonPost.com

What I found in Froomkin’s work was:

• He researched thoroughly, gave his sources, & based his opinions on facts;
• He was, as McJoan on DailyKOS said, intellectually consistent, & didn’t pull punches with what he saw.

Nor do I expect he’ll change in the future (he’ll be taking some time off, then launching in some new direction he’ll announce at whitehousewatch.com).

* * *

Plenty of lessons in how Froomkin for Alaska, I think.

For one: the Anchorage Daily News is Alaska’s principal statewide newspaper-of-record — Anchorage’s Washington Post, if you will.  But for whatever reasons — & it seems ever more so over the past few months & years — the ADN  often acts as the same kind of “stenographer to liars” that Froomkin criticized in his final column.  Which isn’t to say the ADN is all bad — but it’s struggling in this environment, & all-too-obviously doesn’t have the first idea of what to do about the independent bloggers springing up all around it, or how to balance its own strengths with theirs.

Which is why, for Anchorage, the Anchorage Press, web-based newspapers like the Alaska Dispatch & Alaska Report and independent bloggers like the Mudflats, Celtic Diva’s Blue Oasis, Progressive Alaska, Shannyn Moore: Just a Girl from Homer, Immoral Minority, Alaska Commons, SOSAnchorage.net (the factchecker version) — just to names some of those I follow — are so very crucial.  Especially if they do their jobs wisely & well, with the same kind of integrity that Froomkin displayed in his column.

I should say, if we do our jobs wisely & well, because I’ve become part of it too, at least when the public sphere of the polis is what I’m writing about, as with Wayne Anthony Ross’ nomination for Alaska attorney general back in April, as with the Anchorage equal rights ordinance & the activities of Jerry Prevo now.  As I wrote in the introduction to my anti-WAR letter to Alaska legislators,

I’m a writer-blogger, not a political blogger — though I did try it out a little last fall after Palin became a vice-presidential candidate. But it proved too emotionally exhausting for me, & other Alaska progressive bloggers were doing it better. Sometimes, though, you gotta take a stand on something.

But I want to be honest & based in factual reality when I do.

Integrity is a big word with me — central to my own spiritual worldview. It’s what Job had when his friends so-called were “comforting” him in his losses by telling him that the horrible things that happened to the people he cared about, & to himself, wouldn’t have come down on him if he hadn’t sinned. Except that he hadn’t. I often think of integrity as being like a pole at the center of oneself — in one part a navigational aid, in another something to hang tightly to in the midst of the storm. If you let go of your integrity, you lose your way, you lose your Self. If you hold to it, you always know where you are & who you are. It can still be plenty damn painful, but it’s far less painful then letting go & losing your Self.

The hard part of doing what any of us who write about the stuff  in the political world is knowing when to withhold judgment — because we don’t know all the facts — & when to apply judgment. “Stenographer” reporting is not so much reporting as simply copying: dutifully getting on record “both sides” of any question, but never having the moral courage to go in there & make a judgment: are the sources reliable? what might their agendas be? what’s the context, what else is in play? But then there’s the other bad way to do it: judging willy-nilly, without ever bothering to seek out the facts, depending only on what what feels or believes: truthiness not truth.

But then there’s what I believe Dan Froomkin did, & what we are all called to do: to ask questions.  And, if necessary, to make judgments.  To hold those who claim authority over our lives accountable.  No matter how damn painful it is — holding on to our integrity all the way.

Here’s some good stuff I know about because of Dan Froomkin:

• Niemen Watchdog: Questions the press should ask. A site for & about watchdog journalism, from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Froomkin is deputy editor of this site.
• Niemen Journalism Lab. “a collaborative attempt to figure out how quality journalism can survive and thrive in the Internet age.” Also from the Nieman Foundation’s
• whitehousewatch.com. The site where Froomkin will announce what he’s going to do next. Also links to archives of his columns on the Bush Administration and Obama Administration.

Tip o’ the nib to Amanda Coyne of Alaska Dispatch, relevant discussion with whom coincided with news of Froomkin’s firing.

Related posts:

1. Chuffed
2. Three things I did at lunchtime
3. A word about our friends

One.

Linda Kellen Biegel & Mel Green at an Equality Works fundraiser in May. First time we'd seen each other in years! Click through to the Flickr page to see the C4Per complaint & my reply to it. As of this writing, the complainer has no photos or contacts in Flickr -- looks like she got a Flickr account only to register her Stapletongue-inspired C4Per whine.

I’ve been aware for several days of Linda Kellen Biegel’s (Celtic Diva’s) effort to raise funds to pay for a records request that the Palin administration,with its much vaunted commitment to (pretended) transparency is wanting to charge an arm & a leg for.  The importance of the work Linda is doing with this records request is only underscored by Palin & supporters latest attacks on Linda & other progressive Alaska bloggers.  Most recently, another notch in Palin’s bedpost of victimhood:  the latest screed from Palin mouthpiece Meghan Stapleton claiming that Linda’s satirical photoshop of rightwing talk radio host Eddie Burke as a babe in arms to Mama Palin is a “descecration” of Palin’s “iconic” mother & child relationship with her son Trig. (I don’t know if Stapleton is Catholic, but really: Sarah & Trig Palin are not, in fact, Mary & Jesus.) Read Gryphen’s summary at Immoral Minority of this absurdity which is now being picked up by national media.

• Update: See AKMuckraker’s recounting of events on Huffington Post.
• 2nd update: Shannyn Moore also has a fine acount of events.

Why do the Palin people not get this political humor that visually demonstrates Burke’s too-tight relationship with the governor?  Because it’s that too-tight relationship that Linda’s records request is intended to expose.  And they’ll do whatever they can, no matter how ridiculous, to try to put a stop to it.

So I went to Linda’s site & donated some of my hard-earned cash to the records request “government transparency for a huge cost” fee.  Please do so too.  Here’s the FAQ telling you more about the records request & how to donate.

Two.

It was my privilege to finally meet Shannyn Moore a few minutes after she finished testifying in support of the Anchorage equal rights ordinance on the third night of public testimony (June 17).

I heeded AKMuckraker’s request and added my support to send Shannyn Moore to Netroots Nation in Pittsburgh in August.  Click through to add your support too! You can be sure that if Shannyn can go, she’ll bring back what she learns in service to a better Alaska.  You can read Shannyn’s blog here.

Three.

A check of my blog stats shows that yesterday someone had visited an old post from last October called Sarah Palin & intermittent Gunderson syndrome.  I couldn’t remember what it was about so visited it myself.  Oooh, funny: a collection of satirical videos from the Palin’s vice-presidential campaign that will be especially enjoyed by fans of the Coen Brothers’ movie “Fargo.”  I discovered that on porting this post from an older blog site, the code for the embedded YouTube videos had dissappeared. I’ve readded, & also included links to their original home pages on YouTube in case this happens again.  Enjoy!

Related posts:

1. Palin's Hong Kong adventure…
2. Questions about the Palins' tax returns
3. A word about our friends

Most of the blogging I’ve been doing these past few weeks — most of it, really, since opening up business at Henkimaa.com — has been about the Anchorage equal rights ordinance, which if passed would protect LGBT people from discrimination based solely on their sexual orientation or gender identity/expression in jobs, housing, financial practices, and Municipal practices. As you already know, those opposed to the proposed ordinance have come up with all manner of untenable arguments against it, which no matter how ridiculous & repetitive the Assembly has obligated itself to hear.

But this post isn’t actually about that. It’s about our friends.

I mean the nongay/nontrans allies who have stood up for us to testify for tolerance & equality with the Assembly, or have come out & joined in the sign-waving while the Assembly hearings have been going on, or have written letters to the editor or reader comments on the Anchorage Daily News website, or marched with us in last Saturday’s Pride parade, or given us their moral support in emails, on Facebook, on Twitter. Or all of the above.

Thank you. Thank you all.

I also want to add a special word to the Alaska progressive blogger community. They have been tremendous in three ways I can think of right off the top of my head:

A number of them have testified for the ordinance (Linda Kellen Biegel of Celtic Diva’s Blue Oasis & Shannyn Moore come immediately to mind) and/or taken part in some of the other stuff listed above in support of our fight for equal rights.

Bunches of them have written about the ordinance on their blogs. Celtic Diva’s Blue Oasis, Shannyn Moore, Phil Munger of Progressive Alaska; Gryphen of Immoral Minority; AKMuckraker of the Mudflats — to name but a few.  Heather James of SOSAnchorage.net and John Aronno also of SOSAnchorage.net (the good guys version) as well as Alaska Commons, both fairly new to the Alaska progressive blogosphere (as indeed I mainly am too) have been blogging almost wholly so far about the ordinance.  I can’t say how much the work of all these wonderful people has helped those of us bloggers — most prominently me & E. Ross of Bent Alaska — who as LGBT folks ourselves are most directly affected by this fight.  If it had only been us blogging about it, well, we’da been swamped. Not only  information-wise, but also in terms of morale. See my compilation post of last Thursday and my previous one of June 2 for just some of what all the Alaska progressive blogger community has been doing to help us in this battle for tolerance & equality.

They’ve continued meanwhile to do all the important work they do in service of the larger cause of governmental accountability in Alaska and the best interests of all Alaskans.  As important as the fight for LGBT equal rights is, these are important issues too. Please visit their blogs & support our friends in this important work.  Some of the stuff going on now:

• Linda Kellen Biegel at Celtic Diva’s Blue Oasis is fundraising to collect the $5,552.64 fee required by the Palin Administration to be “transparent” — to release records of potentially questionable conversations between the Palin Administration with “preferred” members of the media — like rightwing radio host Eddie Burke and “Alaska Ear” gossip columnist Sheila Toomey.  See Linda’s FAQ about the fundraiser here — & spare her a few bucks.  What a high fee for Sarah Palin’s much-vaunted “transparency,” eh?
• AKMuckraker at the Mudflats (AKMuckraker) is passing on info from Emmonak, where Dennis Zaki is reporting on continued efforts to bring much-needed assistance to Yukon River villages suffering from the a crisis in the Yukon’s king salmon fishery.
• Phil Munger at Progressive Alaska is calling  for support of Linda’s & Dennis’s work, & also writing in-depth about the corruption & mismanagement that led to the crisis on the Y-K Delta in the first place.

Those are only a few of the things going on at these & other progressive blogs.  And I am so grateful that they are doing this work, so that I can both stay informed, & can also be freed to devote my own writing/reporting energies to the ordinance battle right here in Anchorage.

Last week when I was liveblogging the June 16 Assembly meeting, I went out during a break to see what was going on outside the Loussac Library.  I wrote,

Let me tell you, my people know how to have a great time!  My people being not just LGBT but also our fantastic allies….

Since then the feeling has only widened & expanded that my people includes our allies as much as it does members of the LGBT community “proper.”  Thank you, friends & allies, for your unwavering support of equality & economic & civil justice not only for us LGBT folks, but for all Alaskans.

Related posts:

1. Chuffed
2. Equality Works fundraiser
3. Words for equality

See you tonight! Please wear blue, & your Equality Works button.

I’ve still been too wiped out to do much of any productive thinking or blogging today.  But I was able to say a bit about the first two public hearings about Anchorage equal rights ordinance AO 2009-64, & so have other people.  And other people have also talked about last night’s (the third) public hearing too.  So I’m just gonna collect up some of the relevant stuff here, for your reading pleasure.

These are organized by which hearing (& the doings outside the library that they discuss, not necessarily the date they were posted or published.  As usual, however, I do give the date of publication or posting at the beginning of the item, & identify the source at the end.  Note that I’m not giving any precedence to stories by professional news media: I’m with Phil Munger on this, they’re so overextended & under-resourced that it’s clear full reporting is never going to get done without us bloggers.

I doubt this is comprehensive, but I’ll do my best, & add more to this list as I find it.  (Or write it, since I’ll be adding a few more posts to the coverage too.)

[Updated 6/19 to add more links.]

Anchorage won't discriminate (June 17 along 36th Avenue)

Prequel

• 6/4/09. “In Support of a Transgender-Inclusive Ordinance” by E. Ross (Bent Alaska). Anchorage pollster Ivan Moore suggests that gender identity be taken out of the ordinance: no way.
• 6/4/09. “We are all, or none” by Mel Green (Henkimaa). Another response to Ivan Moore; the Anchorage LGBT community & our allies say “We are all, or none.”
• 6/6/09. “City revises gay-rights proposal: Gays and lesbians lose some protections” by Don Hunter (Anchorage Daily News).Discusses the first S (substitution) version of the ordinance.
• 6/7/09. “Keeping the T in LGBT” by Mel Green (Henkimaa). Problems with the “bathroom language” in the subsitution version of the ordinance.
• 6/7/09. “PA Arts Sunday – June 7, 2009 – A Play for Eddie Burke” by Philip Munger (Progressive Alaska). A short play in one scene entitled “The Spirit of Elizabeth Peratrovich Confronts Rev. Jerry Prevo.”
• 6/8/09. “Sex is between the legs, Gender is between the ears” by April Rains (Bent Alaska).  A “modest proposal” essay in response to Ivan Moore’s suggestion that we take protections for transgender people out of the ordinance.
• 6/8/09. “Revised Ordinance Weakens the law and Endangers Transgender people” by Equality Works (Bent Alaska). Critique of the first substitution version of the ordinance.
• 6/8/09. “Attend the Public Hearing: Tuesday, June 9 at Loussac Library” by Equality Works (Bent Alaska). Info for ordinance supporters.
• 6/8/09. “Anchorage ex-Marine faces Work Discrimination for being Transgender” by Laura O’Lacy (Bent Alaska). Laura O’Lacy’s letter to the Anchorage Assembly describing the harassment and discrimination she has faced as a transgender woman trying to get a job in her field of training.
• 6/8/09. “Revised Ordinance Exempts Small Businesses, Religious Groups, and Bathrooms. Prevo still opposes it” by E. Ross (Bent Alaska). On the first substitute ordinance.
• 6/8/09. “Public Testimony on Sexual Orientation Discrimination Ordinance” by Erick Cordero Giorgana (Think Alaska). A brief rundown of events leading up to testimony.
• 6/8/09. “It’s only natural…help protect our LGBT friends from discrimination in Anchorage” by Linda Kellen Biegel (Celtic Diva’s Blue Oasis). Gay penguin parents, & more.
• 6/9/09. “Speaking out against sexual descrimination in Anchorage and the story of my daughter” by Gryphen (Immoral Minority). Gryphen tells the story of his daughter’s coming out and the harm she suffered from antigay prejudice at her mother’s conservative church in Georgia. Luckily she has much more acceptance up here with her dad.
• 6/9/09. “LEGISLATING HATE: The Real Anti-Christ” by Shannyn Moore (Just a Girl from Homer). On Jerry Prevo of Anchorage Baptist Temple, Ron Hamman of the Independent Baptist Church of Wasilla, and other “not-so-Christ-like” voices of hate.
• 6/9/09. “My pastors are mightier than Prevo” by Amanda Coyne (Alaska Dispatch). On Rev. John Carey & Rev. Dianne O’Connell of Immanuel Presbyterian Church.
• 6/9/09. “Kelly’s Story: A Transgender Christian woman explains Gender Identity Disorder” by Kelly (Bent Alaska). Guest post by a Christian transwoman who lives part of the year in Anchorage.
• 6/9/09. “See you tonight” by Mel Green (Henkimaa). My prequel compilation of some of the other posts from our allies in support and solidarity as we headed into the first evening of testimony.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

• 

  Ordinance supporters Arliss Sturgulewski, Vic Fischer, Jane Angvik, and Chuck O'Connell (in foreground) on the first night of ordinance testimony

  6/9/09. “Mat Su residents testifying in Anchorage?” by Erick Cordero Giorgana (Think Alaska). The first blog report I’m aware of that people had been bused in from the Mat-Su Borough to advocate that a government not their own testify against against its own citizens.

• 6/9/09. “Live from the City Assembly…” by Heather James (SOSAnchorage.net). Liveblog of the Assembly hearing from the person sitting right next to me.  I helped her spell the names right (except that I helped her spell Loren Leman’s name wrong).
• 6/9/09. “News from Assembly Meeting” by AKMuckraker & many many mudpuppies (The Mudflats). This post turned spontaneously into a liveblog by members of the Mudflats community watching the livestream of the hearing — a practice they also followed in the next two Assembly hearings.
• 6/9/09. “A long night (one of many?)” by Patrick Flynn (Patrick Flynn’s Blog). Assemblyman’s post from four hours into the five-hour meeting.
• 6/9/09. “June 9 public testimony at Anchorage Assembly” (photos) by Mel Green (Flickr photostream). 49 photos taken mostly inside the Loussac and Assembly chambers, with some supplementary photos courtesy Phil Munger of Progressive Alaska and AKMuckracker of the Mudflats.
• 6/9/09. “Emotional testimony on both sides gay rights amendment” by Jason Lamb (KTUU Channel 2 News).
• 

  Jeffrey Mittman of the AkCLU and Tiffany McClain and Mia Oxley of Equality Works

  6/9/09. “Hundreds air views on gay-rights ordinance — ONLINE: Followers max out streaming feed from meeting” by Don Hunter (Anchorage Daily News).

• 6/9/09. “A sea of red and then purple” by Amanda Coyne (Alaska Dispatch). Brief story on the night’s events.
• 6/9/09. “At the Anchorage Assembly Meeting on Civil Rights” by Philip Munger (Progressive Alaska). What was going on outside during testimony; the large number of kids bused in by fundamentalist churches, of which Phil took photos, influenced my decision to write my later “Billboards” post.
• 6/10/09. “Equal Rights in Anchorage. A Small Step on a Long Road” by AKMuckraker (The Mudflats). Like Phil Munger, AKMuckraker spent some time photographing the activism outside the Loussac; her observations about kids also informed my “Billboards” post.
• 6/10/09. “Photos from the Ordinance Hearing” by E. Ross (Bent Alaska).
• 

  How many of these ordinance opponents are Anchorage residents, and how many are not?

  6/10/09. “Last night’s anti-descrimination testimony in front of Anchorage Assembly full of emotional testimony and tears” by Gryphen (Immoral Minority). An overview of the night’s testimony.  Here’s also where you can read about the altercation between a blue-shirted ordinance supporter and drunken red-shirted opponent which led to the red-shirt striking the blue-shirt and being arrested.

• 6/10/09. “Eleven Hours in a Library; the City Assembly Meeting on Equal Rights Ordinance” by John Aronno (Alaska Commons). I think John wrote this in the middle of the night after getting home. His discussion of the “outsider” influence (Mat-Su people bused in) at the Assembly meeting influenced my decision to write a post about it later. Reposted at SOSAnchorage.net (the Prevo debunking site).
• 6/10/09. “Assembly report 1″ by Mel Green (Henkimaa). A brief complilation of some of the other blog posts that have already reported on the hearing.
• 

  Crowded Assembly chambers on June 9

  6/10/09. “Social Justice in Anchorage” by Mags (Winston’s Mom). Account of a heterosexual married woman who felt compelled to testify that the “GLBT community get that same protection under the law that all the rest of us enjoy.”

• 6/10/09. “Writing like a fiend…” by Linda Kellen Biegel (Celtic Diva’s Blue Oasis). Recovering from testimony night, with a photo of Prevo.
• 6/10/09. “Coverage of Tuesday’s MOA Civil Rights Ordinance Hearing in Local Media” by Philip Munger (Progressive Alaska). Compilation of links to the best coverage.
• 6/10/09. “Outside influence” by Mel Green (Henkimaa). A reaction to non-Anchorageites being permitted to testify before the Assembly to influence our municipal government that they are not citizens of.
• 6/11/09. “City Assembly Meeting Transcripts: Volume 1″ by John Aronno (Alaska Commons). John’s transcription of the testimony from the first ten witnesses. Reposted at SOSAnchorage.net.
• 6/11/09. “Assembly report 2: June 9 public testimony” by Mel Green (Henkimaa). My full account of Tuesday night’s Assembly meeting.
• 6/11/09. “Balancing rights” by Patrick Flynn (Patrick Flynn’s Blog). Assemblyman Flynn addresses balancing of rights between discrimination rights for LGBT people & Christianist claims about infringements on their right to practice their faith. (Note: he doesn’t use the term Christianist — that’s me).
• 6/12/09. “Billboards” by Mel Green (Henkimaa). On Prevo & co.’s use of children as billboards for their parents’ prejudices and hatreds.
• 6/13/09. “City Assembly Meeting Transcripts: Volume 2″ by John Aronno (Alaska Commons). John’s transcription of the testimony from the second ten witnesses. Reposted at SOSAnchorage.net.
• 

  Mrs. Alaska United States protesting against proposed Anchorage equal rights ordinance. Photo courtesy Philip Munger ( Progressive Alaska)

  6/13/09. “Saturday Alaska Progressive Blog Roundup – June 13, 2009″ by Philip Munger (Progressive Alaska). Highlights some of the best commentary on the ordinance hearing.

• 6/14/09. “PA Arts Sunday – June 14, 2009 – Peter Dunlap-Shohl Pegs Prevo’s Phoniness” by Philip Munger (Progressive Alaska). Cartoon by Peter Dunlap-Shohl.
• 6/15/09. “The new Carrie Prejean?” by Mel Green (Henkimaa). Prevo & co.’s cynical ploy to use the newly-crowned Mrs. Alaska United States to bait the LGBT community.
• 6/15/09. “Palin Snubs PrideFest, Wasilla Fundies Protest Gays” by E. Ross (Bent Alaska). Mat-Su residents brought in to testify against equal rights for Anchorage LGBT people, Wasilla native Gov. Sarah Palin ignoring Pride, & President Barack Obama declaring June as LGBT Pride Month: these reminders of the state of affairs as we prepared for the second hearing.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

• 

  What I testified about: At Kinko's with a couple of the copies of the "Prima Facie" component of Identity Reports, which I later gave to members of the Assembly

  6/12/09. “Ordinance Hearing, Week 2″ by Equality Works (Bent Alaska). Info for ordinance supporters for the second hearing.

• 6/15/09. “Gearing up for Round Two” by Heather James (SOSAnchorage.net). A compilation of links of commentary from the June 9 hearing & prequels to the June 16 hearing. Reposted (with some preferatory comments) on 6/16/09 by John Aronno at Alaska Commons.
• 6/16/09. “Gay rights ordinance gets 2nd Assembly hearing tonight” by Megan Holland (Anchorage Daily News).
• 6/16/09. “Hearings on Tues. & Wed., Buckley Brigade formed to Welcome and Protect” by Equality Works (Bent Alaska). Pre-hearing info for ordinance supporters.
• 6/16/09.  “2nd Hearing Today: Who Should Determine the Laws of Anchorage?” by E. Ross (Bent Alaska). E. Ross asks who should make Anchorage laws: the mayor & Assembly, with input from a variety of Anchorage residents; Wasilla residents who are being permitted to testify; or Jerry Prevo?
• 6/16/09. “ABT is a Political Action Committee…NOT a Church” by Shannyn Moore (Just a Girl from Homer). Prevo’s mobilization letter to his congregation at Anchorage Baptist Temple.
• 6/16/09. “Equal Rights Just Became Less Equal” by John Aronno (Alaska Commons). John comments on the new substitution ordinance drafted by Assembly Chair Debbie Ossiander, which removes all protections from discrimination for gender identity/expression & removes private employment protections for sexual orientation.


Three livebloggers all in a row: John Aronno (Alaska Commons), Heather James (SOSAnchorage.net), and Mel Green (Henkimaa)6/16/09. "Live Blog from the Assembly" by John Aronno (Alaska Commons). John & Heather & I were all sitting next to each other liveblogging awa

• 6/16/09. “A new day, a new version” by Patrick Flynn (Patrick Flynn’s Blog). A quickie rundown on the provisions of Debbie Ossiander’s substitution version of the ordinance. See comments for some discussion of the Mat-Su “let’s go make sure those Anchorage LGBTs continue to be discriminated against” outsider influence issue.
• 6/16/09. “Live Blogging Round Two…” by Heather James (SOSAnchorage.net). All the liveblogs are worth looking at for the different observations offered.
• 6/16/09. “Liveblogging Assembly meeting, June 16″ by Mel Green (Henkimaa). My liveblog & live-Twitter of the hearing.
• 6/16/09. “Anchorage Assembly Meeting – Non-Discrimination Ordinance Testimony” by AKMuckraker & many many mudpuppies (The Mudflats). Liveblogging by members of the Mudflats community watching the livestream of the hearing. Thanks AKMuckraker for the link to my Twitter feed!
• 6/16/09. “June 16 public testimony, Anchorage Assembly” (photos) by Mel Green (Flickr photostream). Large set of 103 photos, both inside the Loussac and Assembly chambers, and outside.
• 6/17/09. “Anti-discrimination debate raises passions” by Megan Holland (Anchorage Daily News).
• 6/17/09. “The Second Anchorage Assembly Hearing” by John Aronno (Alaska Commons). After reading accounts like this, I’ve gotta say that John is fast-emerging as one of the most incisive local bloggers I know.
• 

  EQUALITY NOW: Outside on the Loussac lawn while testimony goes on in the Assembly chambers

  6/17/09. “Ordinance Hearing #2: Religious Rule has it’s Day in Court” by E. Ross (Bent Alaska). E. Ross observed (& photographed) the activist crowds outside & the overflow crowd watching testimony from the Wilda Marston Theatre.

• 6/17/09. “Anchorage Non-Discrimination Ordinance. (Photos)” by AKMuckraker (The Mudflats). Photos of events outside Tuesday night’s hearing.
• 6/17/09. “Last night at the Assembly meeting was emotionally draining and yet quite uplifting. Is that even possible?” by Gryphen (Immoral Minority). Includes text from Rev. Jerry Prevo’s mobilization email sent to ABT members. Gryphen reports he also interviewed Prevo, video forthcoming.
• 6/17/09. “Whining in the Assembly” (Fairview View). Reposted on SOSAnchorage.net.  Author thinks ordinance opponents are experiencing one of the first challenges to their calcified ways of thinking, & should get over it.
• 6/17/09. “Sex in the City” by Brendan Joel Kelley (Anchorage Press).  Observing activists on both sides of the issue, including the blue-sponsored lawn party going out outside Tuesday’s Assembly hearing.
• 6/17/09. “On gays and God” by Krestia DeGeorge (Anchorage Press). “The whole point of this exercise,” the author writes of Prevo’s mobilization letter to his congregation, “was reinforcing lines that keep some people in and others out, the lines that divide those who belong from those who don’t.” She goes on to desdribe how her own conservative religion upbringing kept her shielded from knowing people different from her — until an important friend came out to her, & her own beliefs about sexual orientation began to change.  An important piece.
• 6/18/09. “My daughter makes videos!” by Gryphen (Immoral Minority). Gryphen’s daughter made a YouTube video focusing particularly on the red-shirted Christianists waving preprinted signs outside the Loussac Tuesday night: definitely worth watching!  Gryphen also asks, as so many of us do, why Assembly Chair Debbie Ossiander is permitting testimony from people who have been imported from outside the boundaries of the Municipality of Anchorage.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

• 

  Day Three: Red Sea Rising inside the Assembly chambers

  6/17/09. “Wednesday Meeting Information” by Heather James (SOSAnchorage.net). Pre-meeting info.

• 6/17/09. “Gay rights measure’s changes criticized by both sides” by Megan Holland (Anchorage Daily News).
• 6/17/09. “Gay Rights – A Fathers Testimony” by Emperor Bob (Emperor’s Rants and Observations). Straight talk from the father of a lesbian daughter (& some straight kids as well).
• 6/17/09.  “Personal is Political. And vice versa” by Daniella Marie (Mouthy Maries Speak Up). Straight talk from the straight sister of a lesbian (& another of Emperor Bob’s kids).
• 6/17/09. “Assembly Hearings, Day Three” by John Aronno (Alaska Commons). Liveblog of the hearing up through about 8:29 PM.
• 6/17/09. “Anchorage Public Testimony on Non-Discrimination Ordinance – Chapter III” by AKMuckraker & many many mudpuppies (The Mudflats). Liveblogging by members of the Mudflats community watching the livestream of the hearing.
• 6/17/09. “The Daily Tweets, 2009-06-17″ by Mel Green (Henkimaa). Automatically-generated list of my tweets, several of which refer to events at the Loussac.
• 

  Jerry Prevo at the ABT picnic on the Loussac lawn

  6/17/09. “June 17 public testimony at the Anchorage Assembly” (photos) by Mel Green (Flickr photostream). Large set of 142 photos taken at the Loussac Library both outside and inside the Assembly chambers.

• 6/18/09. “Day Three, Red Sea Rising” by John Aronno (Alaska Commons). Must-read analysis of Day 3 of testimony.  This was the day that Jerry Prevo canceled Anchorage Baptist Temple’s church service so that ABT members could “overwhelm” the Assembly.  Most (though not all) testimony was from Assembly opponents who are part of  Prevo & co.’s fillibuster effort. John writes:  “I was there from the beginning of the meeting at 4pm, and left shortly after nine-thirty. The “voices of the people” are not sending any new messages that need to be put on record. The “voices of the people” are now a loop. These talking points were repeated all night long, often sprinkling old wounds with the salt of homosexuality being an abomination, perverse, a lifestyle choice, a deviant behaviorism.” Reposted at SOSAnchorage.net.
• 

  But there was plenty of Pride along 36th Avenue too

  6/18/09. “Anchorage Anti-Discrimination Ordinance Rally: Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four“ by Janson Jones (Floridana Alaskiana 2.5).  A series of four posts of photos chronicling activists on both sides of the issue outside the Loussac Library on Wednesday night as testimony was heard inside.  I love the comment on part one in reaction to a sign that said “I was born Asian. You choose to be gay” — commenter Poietes (a name that I as a poet love!) replies, “Well, I was born Asian, and I choose not to be stupid, uninformed, closed-minded, and bigoted.”  Meanwhile, I’ve added this blog to my Google Reader for all the fine photos from Alaska, Florida, Oklahoma, & elsewhere.  Well-met, Janson!

• 6/18/09. “More reflections on Day Three” by Heather James (SOSAnchorage.net). Brief compilation of other posts on Day 3 testimony.
• 6/18/09. “Photos from Ordinance Hearing #3″ by E. Ross (Bent Alaska).
• 6/18/09. “Our view: No exemptions —City’s equal rights law should not leave any group out” (editorial) (Anchorage Daily News).  ADN comes down strongly in favor of Matt Claman’s substitution version of the ordinance, but likes Debbie Ossiander’s provision for the Equal Rights Commission to track & report on LGBT discrimination cases now.
• 6/19/09. “Honk if You’re Straight” Civil Rights Ordinance Video” by Shannyn Moore (Just a Girl from Homer). “There are many loving Christians in Anchorage who support the ordinance to give equal rights to our GLBT brothers and sisters,” Shannyn writes,  “yet the Xians are the ones marching. If you have any doubts our community suffers from discrimination against our GLBT community, just watch this.” Images of the Christianists from all three public hearings & associated protest, to the music of Amy Ray.

Yes on 64 along 36th Ave.

Related posts:

1. Assembly report 1
2. The noise begins
3. The Daily Tweets, 2009-06-16 (Assembly public hearing #2)

Support Equality Works!

On Tuesday, May 12, 2009, an ordinance was introduced in the Anchorage Municipal Assembly which would prohibit discrimination in employment, housing, financial practices, public accommodations, and education on the basis of sexual orientation and veteran status — adding these two classes to those already included in Title 5, Anchorage’s equal rights code: race, color, sex, religion, national origin, marital status, age, and physical or mental disability.

One week away from ordinance testimony & possibly an Assembly vote. Time to write those letters to the Anchorage Assembly, if you haven’t already done so.

Meanwhile, here’s a list — as comprehensive as I’ve been able to make it so far — of blog posts & opinon pieces favoring equality.  I’ve compiled a list of pieces that are anti-equality too, but see them on my Equality page — I don’t want to give them another link here.  And please do tell me if I’m missing anything.

Anchorage equal rights ordinance

Proposed ordinance

• AO 2009-64, “An ordinance of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly amending Anchorage Code Chapters 5.10 Equal Rights Commission and 5.20 Unlawful Discriminatory Practices.” Draft prepared for reading May 12, 2009. Anchorage Municipal Assembly, Anchorage, AK.

Facts about the ordinance (as opposed to lies)

• Equal Rights Ordinance: Focus on the Facts (Equality Works)
• 5/29/09. Equal Rights Q&A (Patrick Flynn’s Blog — Patrick Flynn, Anchorage Assemblyman)
• SOSAnchorage.net. Fact checks the Prevo/Anchorage Baptist Temple fundraising-through-a-pack-o’-lies website of a similar name.

Blogs & opinion pieces

Henkimaa.com

• Follow the tag Anchorage equal rights ordinance for all my ordinance-related posts.
• See also the category Equality, which includes posts about equal rights (including marriage equality) in general.

Bent Alaska. Your best single blog source for news & events in the Alaska LGBT community.

• Follow the tag Ordinance for all ordinance-related posts.

Other blogs.  Various other Alaska blogs have also posted news/commentary related to the ordinance, including  Celtic Diva’s Blue Oasis, Progressive Alaska, Shannyn Moore: Just a Girl from Homer, Elise Sereni Patkotak, The Immoral Minority, What Do I Know?, Christ Our Savior Lutheran Grace Notes, The Alaska Commons, The Mudflats, and Mamadance.

• 5/10/09. …and justice for all (Patrick Flynn’s Blog — Patrick Flynn, Anchorage Assemblyman)
• 5/13/09. The noise begins — repost of my blog post posted at Henkimaa here. (Progressive Alaska)
• 5/14/09. Anchorage Assembly Gay Rights Ordinance — my 1990′s flashback (Celtic Diva’s Blue Oasis)
• 5/16/09. Equality Works has a Fun-Raising party…more on Mike Method’s show — KBYR at 7:00 PM! (Celtic Diva’s Blue Oasis)
• 5/17/09. Sermon (a poem) — repost of my poem posted at Henkimaa here. (Progressive Alaska)
• 5/21/09. Gays deserve all the protections of the law, Jerry Prevo notwithstanding (Elise Sereni Patkotak; published as column entitles “If anyone has a gay agenda, it’s Prevo” in Anchorage Daily News, 5/19/09)
• 5/23/09. HOW AFRAID ARE THE “Not So Jesus Christians?” (Shannyn Moore: Just a Girl from Homer)
• 5/24/09. Jerry Prevo shows the whole world his ignorance and intolerance. Thanks for saving us the trouble buddy! (The Immoral Minority)
• 5/24/09. “What they are not telling you about the homsexual ordinance!” by GottaLaff (Political Carnival)
• 5/25/09. Dr. Prevo’s Friday Anchorage Daily News Letter to the Editor (Progressive Alaska)
• 5/26/09. Perfect love casts out fear (Christ Our Savior Lutheran Grace Notes)
• 5/28/09. If it’s good enough for J.Edgar Hoover…. (Elise Sereni Patkotak; published as column entitled “Unlike gays, church has its ‘special’ rights” in Anchorage Daily News, 5/26/09)
• 5/28/09. Men Jerry Prevo Would Ban from Anchorage Schools (What Do I Know?)
• 5/28/09. Equal Rights; Our Problem Just Got Holier Than Thou (The Alaska Commons)
• 5/29/09. Fundamentalists raise bar of intolerance by Alan Boraas (Anchorage Daily News)
• 5/29/09. Civil rights activist now focuses on gays by Steve Haycox (Anchorage Daily News)
• 5/29/09. Equal Rights Q&A (Patrick Flynn’s Blog — Patrick Flynn, Anchorage Assemblyman)
• 5/29/09. Out, out, demon hatred (Christ Our Savior Lutheran Grace Notes)
• 5/29/09. Please Help Bring Equal Rights to Anchorage! (The Alaska Commons)
• 5/30/09. What renews my belief in humanity (Elise Sereni Patkotak)
• 5/30/09. HATE; The Real Antichrist (Shannyn Moore: Just a Girl from Homer; reposted at the Alaska Report)
• 5/30/09. Fear and Loathing in Alaska (The Immoral Minority)
• 5/30/09. Isn’t There an Ice Floe Somewhere That Needs a Homophobic Preacher? (The Mudflats)
• 5/30/09. Saturday Alaska Progressive Blog Roundup – May 31, 2009 – Part One — The Quality of Writing at Our Blogs (Progressive Alaska)
• 5/31/09. All You Need is Love (Mamadance)
• 6/1/09. Check this out (Elise Sereni Patkotak)
• 6/1/09. Homophobes and their motives (Celtic Diva’s Blue Oasis)
• 6/1/09. Beware of beards in women’s bathrooms by Andrew Halcro (Alaska Dispatch)
• 6/1/09. It’s time for city to stand for equality by Cynthia Toohey and Arliss Sturgulewski (Anchorage Daily News)
• 6/2/09. Paint This Town EQUAL! (Alaska Commons)

Related posts:

1. The noise begins
2. Equality Works optimistic on gaining equal protection (press release)
3. Assembly report 1