Henkimaa » John Aronno

Help John Aronno of Alaska Commons go to Netroots Nation

Mel Green — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 23:29:23 +0000

I was delighted to learn that John had applied for the scholarship for Netroots Nation 2011; & I’m even more delighted to support his candidacy — both as a progressive blogger per se, and as a tremendous ally to LGBT Alaskans. Please vote for him!

Click through to help John go to Netroots Nation!

Netroots Nation is an annual conference dedicated to providing progressive activists and candidates for office a forum to strengthen the online community and grow the progressive movement. This year’s conferences will be held June 16–19 in Minneapolis.

John Aronno of Alaska Commons wants to go; and to that end he’s applied for one of the scholarships offered by Democracy for America and America’s Voice to help him get there. To get it, he needs your help! — just follow the link the the Democracy for America website, sign up (if you don’t already have an account), & vote!

I was asked on my Facebook wall why there were no LGBT candidates from Alaska for the Netroots scholarship. Here’s why: because none of us applied for it. In fact, I ran into Shannyn Moore at the Bear Tooth a few weeks ago and she suggested that I apply, but since I’m trying to steer myself toward my writing — which feeds my spirit in a way that political blogging does not — I didn’t actually want to go to Netroots Nation. But even if I had applied, why, it’s always possible to send two people, not just one. If I’m not mistaken, Netroots scholarships were awarded last year to both Shannyn Moore & to Jeanne Devon of The Mudflats. (Here’s Jeanne’s report on Netroots 2010.)

Three bloggers all in a row: John, Heather, and me at the Anchorage Assembly on tha night the Anchorage equal rights ordinance (AO-64) passed, 11 Aug 2009. (AO-64 was vetoed a few days later by Mayor Dan Sullivan.)

In any case, I was delighted to learn that John had applied for the scholarship; & I’m even more delighted to support his candidacy for a scholarship — both as a progressive blogger per se, and as a tremendous ally to LGBT Alaskans. I first met John in the trenches of the fight for the Anchorage equal rights ordinance, AO 64, in 2009, along with his then fiancee, now wife Heather. We all three of us sat side-by-side at most of those horrendous public testimony sessions in the Anchorage Assembly, all three of us blogging about it. It’s safe to say that John and Heather kept kept me sane throughout that Summer of Hate.

John and Heather, with Diane Benson, join in dancing with the Masignka Yup'ik dance group at the True Diversity Dinner in Anchorage, 25 Sep 2009.

It was also John and Heather who did more than anyone to put together the True Diversity dinner in September 2009 as an alternative to Mayor Dan Sullivan’s hypocrisy-in-action “Unity Dinner” in the aftermath of Sullivan’s veto of the ordinance. The event was a tremendous success, drawing a large cross-section of the Alaska progressive community in support of diversity and LGBT equality — including several Assembly members, candidates for statewide offices, and Senator Mark Begich.

Since then John has gone on to take a vigorous role in progressive politics in Anchorage as both an activist and a commentator on radio and other local media and blogs. He was recipient of the 2010 Alaska Press Association’s Suzan Nightengale Award for Best Columnist in a small paper for his work with University of Alaska Anchorage’s The Northern Light, is a former radio talk show host of Studio 1080 on Alaska’s Voice: KUDO 1080 AM (before it got bought out by Fox); a guest host on the Shannyn Moore Show on KOAN 1020 AM; and is a contributor to the Anchorage Press, the Alaska Dispatch (be sure to read his commentary on anti-LGBT bigotry there), and Alaska’s LGBT blog Bent Alaska. On Alaska Commons, he and Heather are currently keeping Anchorage voters informed on the candidates and issues facing us when we go to the polls in the Municipality of Anchorage elections next month. They testified before the University of Alaska Board of Regents to add sexual orientation to the university’s nondiscrimination policy, and continue to write about issues important to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans Alaskans, including the Anchorage LGBT Discrimination Survey, California’s Prop 8, the Alaska Hate Crimes bill (SB 11), and the homophobic rantings of Anchorage Baptist Temple preacher Jerry Prevo.

I am so pleased to have John as my friend and ally, & I feel privileged to support John for this scholarship. I hope you will too.

(I’m also really complimented that John’s Netroots scholarship application lists my blog Henkimaa as one of the two blogs — the other being The Mudflats — that he uses the most.)

John at the Anchorage PrideFest 2010 picnic, 26 Jun 2010.

Alaska Hate Crimes Act: My letter in support of SB11

Mel Green — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 22:26:59 +0000

Today the Alaska Senate Judiciary Committee is hearing testimony on Senate Bill 11, the the Alaska Hate Crimes Act, “An Act relating to the commission of a crime when the defendant directed the conduct constituting the crime at the victim based on the victim’s race, sex, color, creed, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, ancestry, or national origin” [click for full text].

Jim Minnery of Alaska Family Council at a public hearing on the Anchorage equal rights ordinance AO-64, 7 July 2009

In spite of the fact that the bill addresses hate crimes based on a number of personal characteristics, the factually incorrect “action alert” sent by Jim Minnery of Alaska Family Council to his supporters yesterday focused exclusively on sexual orientation and gender identity. As John Aronno of the Alaska Commons noted this morning in his debunking of Minnery’s alert, “nothing seems to get [Minnery's] soul patch flaring like ‘the gay.’” (John’s piece has also been crossposted it at Bent Alaska.) Indeed, the only opposition I’ve heard about regarding this bill is based on antigay/antitrans sentiments.

But the Alaska Hate Crimes Act isn’t only about LGBT Alaskans. It’s about all Alaskans. So while my letter in support of SB11 brought up a bunch of stats about the violence lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transfolk have experience just for being who we are, let’s not forget the paintball attacks on Alaska Natives in Anchorage just a few short years ago, or the two Anchorage youth who thought it was cool to post on YouTube their assault on an Alaska Native man in summer 2009 — a “summer of hate” not only because of the hate directed at LGBT folks in Anchorage during the public hearings on AO-64. Let’s not forget the other ways in which violent crime is directed at some people based simply on the color of their skin, what religion they practice, their sex, their national origin, their physical or mental disabilities. Hate: just for being who you are.

Given the inaccuracies being propounded by Minnery and his followers & allies, I thought I’d present some of the facts about what the bill actually says and what it will actually do if passed, before presenting the email I sent today in support of the bill.

What the Act says:

SENATE BILL NO. 11
“An Act relating to the commission of a crime when the defendant directed the conduct constituting the crime at the victim based on the victim’s race, sex, color, creed, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, ancestry, or national origin.”

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:

* Section 1. AS 11.76 is amended by adding a new section to read:
Sec. 11.76.150. Motivation by prejudice, bias, or hatred. (a) A person commits the crime of motivation by prejudice, bias, or hatred if the person commits a crime in this title and the person knowingly directed the conduct constituting the crime at the victim of the crime because of the victim’s race, sex, color, creed, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, ancestry, or national origin.(b) In this section, “gender identity” means actual or perceived gender-related
characteristics.
(c) Motivation by prejudice, bias, or hatred is a
(1) class A misdemeanor if the crime committed is a class B misdemeanor;
(2) class C felony if the crime committed is a class A misdemeanor;
(3) class B felony if the crime committed is a class C felony;
(4) class A felony if the crime committed is a class B felony;
(5) unclassified felony and the defendant shall be sentenced to a definite term of imprisonment of at least five years but not more than 99 years if the crime committed is a class A felony.

* Sec. 2. AS 12.55.155(c)(22) is amended to read:
(22) the defendant knowingly directed the conduct constituting the offense at a victim because of that person’s race, sex, color, creed, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, ancestry, or national origin; in this paragraph, “gender identity” means actual or perceived gender-related characteristics;

What the Act will do

From the sponsor statement of Senator Bettye Davis (the bill’s co-sponsors are Senators Hollis French and Johnny Ellis):

This bill increases the sentencing for crimes motivated prejudice, bias, or hatred based on the victim’s race, sex, color, creed, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, ancestry, or national origin. This new crime can only be committed when a person commits some underlying crime and the person directed the conduct constituting the crime at the victim due to one of the listed characteristics of the victim. The new crime increases the classification of the underlying crime one level.

Without creating a new list of “hate crimes” under AS 11.76, new Sec. 11.76.150 simply reclassifies the level of any crime up one notch if motivated by prejudice, bias, or hatred based on the victim’s race, sex, color, creed, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, ancestry, or national origin. For example, a class B misdemeanor becomes a class A misdemeanor; a class A misdemeanor becomes a C felony; a class C felony becomes a B felony, etc. Such reclassification, of course, increases the penalties appropriate to the classification in sentencing under AS 12.55. The bill also amends AS 55.155(c)(22), an aggravating factor as sentencing for felonies, by adding “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the list of protected characteristics.

The need for this bill is demonstrated by increasing reports of violence against homeless persons, minorities, religious groups, and others motivated by prejudice, bias, and hatred in Alaska and across the country in our highly diverse and multicultural society. When crimes are committed because of people’s differences, the effects reverberate beyond a single victim or group into an entire community, city, state, and society as a whole. While this bill alone cannot eliminate prejudice, bias, or hatred, it will send a message that Alaskans will not tolerate hate crimes in any form, and sentencing for them will be substantially increased.

From the sectional summary by Legislative Counsel Gerald P. Luckhaupt, Division of Legal and Research Services, Alaska Legislative Affairs Agency:

Section 1. This new crime can only be committed when a person commits some underlying crime and the person directed the conduct constituting the crime at the victim due to one of the listed characteristics of the victim. The new crime increases the classification of the underlying crime one level.

Section 2. Amends AS 55.155(c)(22), an aggravating factor at sentencing for felonies, by adding “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the list of protected characteristics.

My letter today to the Alaska Senate Judiciary Committee

Senator Hollis French
Senator Bill Wielechowski
Senator Joe Paskvan
Senator Lesil McGuire
Senator John Coghill
Alaska Senate Judiciary Committee

Dear Senators:

I’m writing in support of Senate Bill 11, “An Act relating to the commission of a crime when the defendant directed the conduct constituting the crime at the victim based on the victim’s race, sex, color, creed, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, ancestry, or national origin.”

In the 1980s, I was part of two major research efforts conducted by Identity, Inc. to document sexual orientation bias in Alaska. One in 10: A Profile of Alaska’s Lesbian & Gay Community, published in 1986, reported on the results of a statewide survey of 734 lesbian, gay, and bisexual Alaskans on a wide range of issues, including experience of discrimination, harassment, and violence. Identity Reports: Sexual Orientation Bias in Alaska, published in 1989, comprised three papers including “Prima Facie,” which documented 84 actual cases (from personal interviews and documentary evidence) of violence, harassment, and discrimination due to sexual orientation bias. (Copies of both reports are available on the Internet at http://www.henkimaa.com/identity/.)

Of the 734 respondents to One in 10, 61% reported being victimized by violence and harassment while in Alaska because of their sexual orientation. This ranged from verbal abuse/harassment, reported by 58%, to physical violence, 11%, and sexual assault, 5%. In the “Prima Facie” component of Identity Reports, we documented 25 cases of verbal abuse, harassment, or threats; 10 cases involving actual physical violence (including 4 assaults, 3 murders, 2 sexual assaults involving multiple assailants, and one attempted sexual assault); 3 cases involving property damage; one smoke-bombing; and one tear-gassing.

We are working now to update the research of One in Ten and Identity Reports through the Anchorage LGBT Discrimination Survey, currently in progress, and a projected statewide Alaska LGBT Statewide Community Survey, which will cover a wide range of questions beside those on discrimination/bias. Unlike the studies in the 1980s, the current research includes gender identity as well as sexual orientation — an important distinction, as transgender persons are arguably victimized by violent crime at even higher rates than lesbians, gays, and bisexuals. For example, 7 percent of the 6,436 respondents to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (which included Alaskans) reported being physically assaulted at work because of being transgender or gender non-conforming, 6 percent reported being sexually assaulted at work for that reason. In schools, 31 percent were harassed and bullied, 5 percent were physically assaulted, and 3 percent were sexually assaulted by teachers and staff because of their gender identity or presentation.

For these reasons, I’m pleased that the bill’s language includes both sexual orientation and gender identity. But I’m also in support of the bill for its inclusion of race, sex, color, creed, physical or mental disability, ancestry, and national origin. Along with other Alaskans, I was appalled and upset by the paintball attacks on Alaska Natives that took place in Anchorage a few years ago, or the more recent You-Tubed bias-motivated attack on an Alaska Native man in Anchorage in summer 2009. I’ve also read minutes of the Senate Judiciary’s February 16 meeting, and especially remember the testimony of Kate Burkhart, Executive Director of the Alaska Mental Health Board, that the Department of Justice has found people with a disability to 2 to 3 times more likely to be victimized by violent crime than other people.

Virtually all the opposition I’ve heard to this bill so far has come from those who opposition rests solely on its inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity. Yesterday, Jim Minnery of the Alaska Family Council sent out an action alert that claimed, among other things, that “A person who assaults a homosexual will be given a harsher penalty than if that same assault was perpetrated on, for example, an elderly person.” I considered whether Mr. Minnery would claim to his members that, “A person who assaults a mentally disabled person will be given a harsher penalty than if that same assault was perpetrated on, for example, an elderly person” — or substitute any other word that covers people whose personal characteristics would be covered by this act: Christian, Muslim, Alaska Native, Caucasian. Mr. Minnery also falsely claimed that passage of this bill would result in antigay speech itself being treated as a hate crime (in notable contrast to SB11 supporter Jeffrey Mittman of the Alaska ACLU’s efforts to ensure that the bill’s language steer clear of language that might subject it to constitutional “free speech” challenges). Other logical inconsistencies of Mr. Minnery’s action alert were persuasively debunked by John Aronno on the blog the Alaska Commons last night.

I hope that testimony and emails from Mr. Minnery’s supporters based on poor and even dishonest reasoning will not dissuade members of the Senate Judiciary Committee from acting positively on this important legislation.

Thank you for your consideration.
Melissa S. Green
Anchorage, Alaska

My story of 2009

Mel Green — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 08:19:28 +0000

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!

At the True Diversity Dinner. Photo by Janson Jones.

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.

How to be a friend to an accused serial rapist

Mel Green — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:40:01 +0000

Nesbett Courthouse at 4th & I in Anchorage. A demonstration will be held there at noon today in protest of the limited-release of accused serial rapist APD Officer Anthony Rollins, & in support of his victims.

Many years ago, a friend of mine stood accused of a misdemeanor crime involving sexual contact with a minor — a crime he pled no contest to, & for which, based on conversations with him, I felt he bore responsibility. But nonetheless I went to court with him. I paid a price for that — turns out that I knew the mother of the youth in the case, & she never forgave me for taking, as she thought it, the side of the man who victimized her son. But the reason I’d gone was not because I judged him innocent (I didn’t), but because a guilty person needs friends in facing his guilt, & facing the consequences of his crime, as much as he’d need friends beside him if he’d been innocent.

Based on accounts in the press of the evidence in the case against Anchorage police officer Anthony Rollins, accused of sexually assaulting six different women while on duty, I’m inclined to believe that he, too, is guilty. But I’m less certain of the motivations of the numerous people, fellow members of Lighthouse Christian Fellowship, who have been packing the courtroom at Rollins’ hearings to the point — well, I’ll let AK Muckraker’s words speak here, in the Mudflats post she wrote earlier this week:

At the first hearing, according to a source at STAR [Standing Together Against Rape], two victims were forced to fight their way through the mass of people and stand, “crushed against the back wall” by the crowds that had come to give moral support to the man they say sexually assaulted them. “They couldn’t even see,” she said. “The mood of the people who came was like it was some kind of social event. It was appalling.”

The court room was packed to overflowing, with Rollins’ church supporters filling the defendant’s side of the room, the seats in the jury box, the side of the coutroom usually reserved for the plaintiff, and spilling out into the hall when the room reached capacity. [Ref #1]

Were they there because they’re certain, based on factual evidence, that he’s innocent? Were they there because they believe him guilty & are helping him to face the consequences? Or were they there based on “he goes to my church & I feel in my heart he’s innocent” evidence (which is hardly evidence) & are thereby not only helping him maintain but actively participating in denial of crimes he’s committed?

In the witness, yet, of the very persons he’s accused of violating? To the extent that those women, & their friend & families, couldn’t even get a seat?

At least there was some improvement at the latest hearing, last Tuesday:

This time, knowing what awaited them, arrangements were made in advance for the victims and their families to have access to the courtroom and a place to sit down. What that experience must have been like, facing your accused rapist in a room full of his supporters is to most of us, unimaginable. [Ref #1]

But my questions stand: what are the motives of the churchgoers who are packing the court for Rollins? At Alaska Commons, John Aronno writes:

Rollins was released on $100,000 bail and is now under house arrest. He also gets field trips every Sunday, because the judge recognized how important it was for him to attend his church. And what church does he attend? Christian Lighthouse Fellowship. And how might the judge have reached the conclusion to release an alleged serial rapist? Well, the fact that the church came together as a “community” in support of Rollins probably helped; Lighthouse parishioners packed the courthouse, leaving standing room only, even forcing the alleged victims to be packed against the wall while people stood in a pathetic brand of solidarity in support of their fellow Christian; someone who may have raped a half dozen women, while wearing a badge. [Ref #2]

Is this, for members of Lighthouse Christian Fellowship, just a matter of Christian solidarity? Or shall I say, Christianist solidarity. Blind support for another believer who may have committed serious crimes is not actually Christian — but fits right in with the Christianist ideology which assumes as a matter of course that only people outside the flock are guilty.

Celtic Diva wrote yesterday about an Anchorage police officer she personally knew who used his position to rape and torture women, & concluded:

I share [this story] now in hopes that supporters of Officer Rollins will open their minds to the possibility that six women are not lying. I ask them to think back on their relationship with him and remember past inappropriate comments, humor or boundary issues…they have leaked out somewhere, giving hints of his true nature. [Ref #3]

A friend’s duty to a friend who stands accused of a crime is not to blindly assert his innocence — but to discern, to the best of one’s ability, whether he might be guilty. And if he is, to help him face his guilt. And to accept the consequences that are due him.

If any of you are reading this, I hope you’ll think about it.

Meanwhile, a demonstration has been called today for people to support the victims & to protest the preferential treatment this accused serial rapist has already received. Here’s the press release:

ALASKAN WOMEN DESERVE BETTER

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

October 9, 2009

CONTACT:
Kirsten Stolle, 907-602-8042
Sara Anderson, 907-903-4121

Community to Rally Against Release of Accused Rapist Cop

CONCERNED CITIZENS TO PROTEST AT COURTHOUSE TODAY

A group of concerned citizens will gather today in front of Nesbett Courthouse to protest the limited-release of accused rapist and Anchorage Police Officer Anthony Rollins. On October 5th, a bail hearing was held in which Judge Phillip Volland modified third party conditions to allow for electronic ankle monitoring and house arrest that included a provision to allow Rollins to still attend church while awaiting trial.

“Alaskan women deserve better than this,” said Kirsten Stolle, a concerned citizen working to organize today’s rally. “Officer Rollins stands accused of raping six different women while on duty, and is now free to cause more pain.”

“Our state leads the nation in so many of tragic sexual abuse statistics. It’s time for our legal system to send a strong message to perpetrators that Alaskans simply won’t stand for it.”

Officer Rollins is currently under house arrest where he is living with his wife, who is also an acting Sergeant with the Anchorage Police Department.

Today’s rally will be held in front of Nesbett Courthouse (corner of 4th and I Street) at noon.

References

10/6/09. “Indicted Serial Rapist Receives Overwhelming Support by AK Muckraker (The Mudflats).
10/9/09. “Anchorage Rapist Revered by Fellow Church-Goers. Is That Okay with You?” by John Aronno (Alaska Commons).
10/8/09. “Welcome to October 8th, ‘D-Day’ (Dividend Day) in Alaska” by Linda Kellen Biegel (Celtic Diva’s Blue Oasis).

Happy wedding! (for John & Heather)

Mel Green — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 21:53:29 +0000

Last week at the PrideFest parade, I spotted my two recently-met friends John & Heather marching with the ACLU & Equality Works. Here they are looking all properly festive:

Now, I’m a little fuzzy on if it’s today or tomorrow that they’re getting married — but last Saturday after the parade, when I ran into them at the PrideFest picnic on the Delaney Park Strip, I said, hey, I need to get a picture in honor of your wedding. Here it is:

Besides being two really cool people who love each other, Heather & John are also two really cool people who are committed to equality. Together they created the website SOSAnchorage.net to counter & factcheck the lies of the Jerry Prevo/Anchorage Baptist Temple antigay site SOSAnchorage.com (a site I will not, sorry, directly link to); John also has another blog called Alaska Commons, where he also writes a lot about the Anchorage equal rights ordinance. The two nights at the Anchorage Assembly that I sat through the entirety of the evening of public testimony — June 9 & June 16 — were made tolerable in no small part because I was sitting next to them.

Throughout this ordinance fight, I’ve several times found myself thanking straight allies for their testimony at the Assembly, for waving signs outside the Loussac, for being present in the parade. Something always has seemed a little awkward about that, & I finally figured out why [banging side of head with palm of hand in realization: duh!!!!]: they don’t need that kind of thanks. They’re sitting beside us through those long hours of testimony & turning out with us on the Loussac Library lawn & along 36th Avenue with signs, they’re coming to celebrate with us in the PrideFest parade & picnic not just as some kind of favor they’re doing for us. They’re doing it because they are our friends & families, because they care about & love us, they care about justice & fairness for not only their own sisters & brothers & daughters & sons & mothers & fathers, but for everyone’s. Just like I do. They’re doing it because it’s just part of who they are.

So you’re not going to hear me saying “Thank you” anymore for testifying or turning out on our behalf. Instead I’ll be saying, I’m glad to know you, & count you as one of my friends.

In this case, two friends. Have a beautiful wedding, John & Heather. Have a beautiful honeymoon too. I’ll look forward to seeing you when you’re back.