Bioneers in Alaska

Posted on Fri, 21 October 2005 by Mel Green

Anchorage was one of several sites last week that participated in the annual Bioneers conference. I attended last Saturday; Rozz attended all three. Fine plenary speakers in the morning through the satellite feed from the main Bioneers site in California, Bay area I think, and afternoon workshops with local people. The “democracy school” was the most challenging for me, because it hit a lot of my despair buttons. And in the evening, some great movies, one on the long-lived a capella group Sweet Honey in the Rock and the other, called “Oil on Ice,” on the wrongheaded efforts to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration.

Having gone to it is having some appreciable effects on us, and is feeding into some stuff Rozz is already doing in school. And steering me back, I believe, to some things that really sustain me about knowing, really knowing, where I am, the land where I live here in Anchorage, which is now, literally, the Ground of my Being.

The pic here, BTW, isn’t how Anchorage looks now. We’re still in fall, not winter. It’s just the one “natural world” kinda pic I have handy to me right now. I took it in the woods of Ft. Richardson Military Reservation two or three winters ago.

Posted in Itse | Comments Off on Bioneers in Alaska

Publicity, publicity, publicity

Posted on Tue, 8 July 2003 by Mel Green

[originally published at henkimaa.blogga.nu Tuesday 08-Jul-2003 3:22 PM. Some links have been updated.]

Publicity, publicity, publicity

The Anchorage Daily News, by the way, seems to be wrong about how many churches the Phelpists actually picketed in Anchorage on June 29. I daresay they mainly depended on the Phelpists’ published itinerary, instead of checking it out with the churches themselves. The exceptions — the churches the ADN reporter talked with — were Metropolitan Community Church, which was not picketed despite its lesbian/gay outreach, and Anchorage Baptist Temple, which was picketed, despite its prominence in Anchorage as a bastion of anti-homosexuality.

My own sources indicate that the only church besides ABT that the Phelpists made it to that fateful Sunday was Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church. The Phelpists apparently considered ABT and Elmendorf AFB more important than the smaller churches they’d originally targeted, because of course they had more people, & would more likely lead to the slaking of the Phelpist thirst for publicity.

They didn’t get much, all the same. A story in the June 30 Anchorage Daily News, which said far more about the June 26 U.S. Supreme Court decision than it did about the little contingent of “religious protesters.” Maybe a story or two on local TV news. Three letters to the editor published so far, & a Compass op-ed piece a couple days before Pride day.

There has been a bit of argument behind-the-scenes about whether it was good or bad to have been so very quiet about the Phelpists. “All the Phelpists want is publicity,” says once side, “& we shouldn’t give any at all to them.” “So what?” says the other side, “if more people knew the kind of stuff the Phelpists were spewing, it would gain sympathy for us.”

The Phelpists themselves bolster the “all they want is publicity” argument by having a page on their website about how “fags can make $millions” by taking pledges for each minute of a Phelpist picket. “[G]et people to send money for each minute that WBC pickets, brag to the local newspaper about it, and get our message that ‘God hates fags’ to everyone who reads the paper,” the Phelpists jeer. Consequently, “don’t give ’em even the least bit of publicity” proponents urge targets of pickets not to do fundraisers.

But y’know, now that I’ve weighed the arguments, I don’t really think it makes a difference. The Phelpists will continue to picket with or without publicity. Very few people will have their minds changed one way or another. Those who agree with Fred Phelps & his family already feel free to say & do the same homophobic things they say & do irrespective of whether an occasional newspaper story says word one about them. Those who are unsure — well, most people I’ve met, even of the Jerry Prevo variety, think Phelpist tactics are disgusting. Such blatant idiocy, who knows, might actually drive some people into the arms of toleration & acceptance.

And if one can raise money for a deserving organization for each minute a Phelpist stands on a corner with a stupid sign, fine.

So lets ignore them even better by not even considering what they want, & should they come to your attention — well, have a chuckle. Or just blow your nose & continue on your way. It just ain’t worth agonizing over.

But I don’t mind that it went the way it did in Anchorage. The Phelpists publicity hounds just didn’t get much return for all the airfare they must’ve paid to get here, & let’s not forget hotel & per diem.

Thank you, Phelpists, for your generous contributions to the Anchorage economy.

Update/correction: 16 July 2003

I am informed by a correspondent that All Saints Episcopal Church was also picketed by the Phelpists on June 29. My correspondent points out that — unlike the other main Episcopal church in town, St. Mary’s — All Saints does not subscribe to “the acceptance and toleration of the homosexual lifestyle” but does accept “all persons have spiritual needs.” Obviously, my correspondent goes on to say, the Phelpists picked All Saints “out of the phone book” without bothering to learn about its beliefs. My correspondent also remarks that All Saints practices the teaching of love — contrary to the Phelps’ hate tactics.

Based on what I’ve learned about Phelps & Westboro Baptist Church, I agree 100 percent that the Phelpists don’t bother to learn the truth about what the targets of their pickets believe, or live. On the other hand, to teach love rather than hate in itself seems to be sufficient offense in Phelpist eyes to warrant their hatred.

Related:

  • 6/20/2003. Fred Phelps coming to Anchorage. The “godhatesfags.com” followers of Westboro Baptist Church pastor Fred Phelps announce plans to picket in Anchorage during PrideFest 2003.
  • 6/27/2003. Anchorage Pride 2003: Look how far we’ve come. A brief history history of the annual Pride parade in Anchorage from 1983, in which there were 19 marchers, to 2001, in which there were two to three thousand. Can the followers of Fred Phelps wreck that? Don’t think so.
  • 7/8/2003. Those Phelpists aren’t too clever, are they? Why did Westboro Baptist Church, famous for their website “godhatesfags.com,” picket Anchorage Baptist Temple — famous in Anchorage as the very center of antigay attitudes in Alaska?
  • 7/8/2003. Publicity, publicity, publicity.  Which Anchorage churches during PrideFest 2003 did the Phelpists picket, & which not, & why?
  • 6/12/2009. Billboards. While in 2003 Jerry Prevo decried Westboro Baptist Church tactics, in 2009 he & his allies didn’t hesitate to use children — even some younger then 10 —  in a very like way, as billboards for their parents’ prejudices.
Posted in LGBTQ history | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Publicity, publicity, publicity

Those Phelpists aren't too clever, are they?

Posted on Tue, 8 July 2003 by Mel Green

[originally posted at henkimaa.blogga.nu Tuesday 08-Jul-2003 2:15 PM]

Those Phelpists aren’t too clever, are they?

Surely that comes as a surprise.

Not.

Yes, I admit, I was curious about how the poor befuddled Phelpists were getting on, when I was out & about doing what I was doing Pride weekend instead of being in Anchorage taking part in events.

So when I got back I checked out the Anchorage Daily News coverage of Pride weekend. According to ADN, several hundred people took part in the Pride festivities — which makes me very happy, given how sparse participation used to be back in my early ’80s activist days; and then the next day, Sunday, about 20 Phelpists total picketed at the gate of Elmendorf Air Force Base, where a big airshow with estimated public attendance of 70,000 was taking place, and various churches, including Anchorage Baptist Temple.

Say what? [Double, triple take.] Did you say Anchorage Baptist Temple?

Indeed. Shirley Phelps-Roper told the ADN that they picketed Anchorage Baptist Temple — which is viewed by Anchorage’s lesbian/gay community as a sort of Homophobia Central — because it was the largest church in town, & its pastor, Jerry Prevo, didn’t condemn homosexuality “loudly” enough.

I suppose maybe because no matter how loud Prevo has gotten about it (& as a longtime Anchorageite, I can tell you he’s been very loud), Prevo has never called for homosexuals to be executed just because they’re homosexual?

Prevo himself seemed a bit bemused by Phelpist attentions, though he made clear to the ADN that his church is in no way affiliated with the Phelpists’ Westboro Baptist Church, and disagrees with Phelpist tactics and philosophy.

Good for you, Jerry.

[Double, triple take number two.] Did I say that?

By gods, I did. Good for you. Truth is, I don’t much like Prevo, or his tactics and philosophy (the ABT website doesn’t mention the slimy things he’s occasionally done in the past), but hey, on this one thing I can say I respect him. He does not so misread Christian scripture as to call for murder, or proclaim a gospel entirely based on hatred. And religious/spiritual differences aside, his church does seem to do real good for a lot of people (if harm, in my opinion, to a significant number of others).

[Update: But see Billboards, posted 12 June 2009, for a later analysis on the real differences — or not — between Phelpist & Prevoist tactics.]

That still leaves the question: how did the Phelpists come to target Prevo’s fine, huge, some would say ostentatious church on Baxter & Northern Lights?

Explanation #1: A few days after getting back to town, a friend told me that an Anchorage gay man in a trubba-making mood had called up the Phelpists and told them that Anchorage Baptist Temple ministered to gays. (In fact, they do: ABT sponsors one of those questionable little “stop being gay through Christ” ministries, or at least they used to.) But the caller didn’t tell them that, he just let them form their own conclusions about what kind of ministry it might be.

Explanation #2 (which probably is the source of Explanation #1): An Anchorage gay man wrote an email to the Phelpists in late May (I’ve seen a copy) posing as a homophobe who welcomed their visit, & directing them to the Anchorage Baptist Temple as the largest church in the state that, he claimed in his email, did “nothing” to discourage the “blight” of homosexuality. (No mention in the email of any supposed ABT ministry to gays, however.)

Explanation #3 (which goes hand in hand with either of the first two explanations): These Phelpists just aren’t very good with their research.

Not a surprise. After all, they don’t even know how to research their own holy book.

Related:

  • 6/20/2003. Fred Phelps coming to Anchorage. The “godhatesfags.com” followers of Westboro Baptist Church pastor Fred Phelps announce plans to picket in Anchorage during PrideFest 2003.
  • 6/27/2003. Anchorage Pride 2003: Look how far we’ve come. A brief history history of the annual Pride parade in Anchorage from 1983, in which there were 19 marchers, to 2001, in which there were two to three thousand. Can the followers of Fred Phelps wreck that? Don’t think so.
  • 7/8/2003. Those Phelpists aren’t too clever, are they? Why did Westboro Baptist Church, famous for their website “godhatesfags.com,” picket Anchorage Baptist Temple — famous in Anchorage as the very center of antigay attitudes in Alaska?
  • 7/8/2003. Publicity, publicity, publicity.  Which Anchorage churches during PrideFest 2003 did the Phelpists picket, & which not, & why?
  • 6/12/2009. Billboards. While in 2003 Jerry Prevo decried Westboro Baptist Church tactics, in 2009 he & his allies didn’t hesitate to use children — even some younger then 10 —  in a very like way, as billboards for their parents’ prejudices.
Posted in LGBTQ history, The incredibly true adventures of Rev. Jerry Prevo | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Anchorage Pride 2003: Look how far we’ve come

Posted on Fri, 27 June 2003 by Mel Green
1983 Anchorage Pride march

Anchorage Pride marchers on 6th Ave., 1983: 19 marchers

[Originally posted at henkimaa.blogga.nu Friday 27-Jun-2003 4:35 PM]

Anchorage Pride 2003: Look how far we’ve come
Or, when it comes to Phelpists, silence doesn’t equal death

Word from our local Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) is that some great organizing work has been done around the Phelpists coming to town. Not to fundraise, not to confront — but to ignore. Since, as numerous other cities’ experiences with the Phelpists have shown, the main thing they want is publicity. “So,” our local folks say, “lets not give ’em any.”

Good idea. And y’know, if this blog was read by more than the very few people who’ve read it thus far, I wouldn’t even write about them here.

Even if the Phelpists don’t show up in news accounts, their decision to come here will probably end up being good for the community, just because of the good organizing that’s been done around it. Just as other homophobic action proved good in the end a couple years ago, when our creepy outgoing mayor kicked a diversity exhibit sponsored by MCC & the local chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) out of the Z.J. Loussac Library, our main municipal public library. The exhibit went up on a Monday evening, & was taken down before the library even opened the next morning at 10:00 AM — not even because of any complaints, but simply because Mayor George Wuerch objected to it.

Big controversy ensued. And the Pride parade that year was the biggest ever in this town: two to three thousand according to the June 24, 2001 Anchorage Daily News story about it. I was there — it was great. Lesbians, gays, transgendered, & lots & lots of allies, including about 30 library employees with a banner that read “Librarians for Free Speech.”

And I remembered when the Pride parade in Anchorage was just 19 of us trying to take up the whole street.

That was in twenty years ago, in 1983. I later sent a photo of that lesbian/gay pride march to Gay Community News (Boston) along with a letter on June 28, 1983, which GCN published.

I couldn’t find the copy as published, but I have a handwritten draft of it. Relevant excerpts:

Dear GCN:

Enclosed is a photograph of this year’s Lesbian/Gay Pride March in Anchorage, Alaska. There were nineteen of us in this city of about 200,000, so a rough estimate is that for every one of us on the street, there were 1,000 at home in Anchorage (1,000 more in the rest of the state). Despite the small numbers in our march, I am told that this is the march’s 5th consecutive year. I am told that the maximum participation was two years ago, with about 50 people….

[S]omehow a very disparate group of people came to be walking down 6th Avenue behind the Alaska banner that is a veteran of the National March on Washington…..

The last march (and my first march) was in Boston in 1991 when there were 12,000 marchers. This was more frightening — it is like one of the marchers in our parade said in comparing marching in San Francisco with marching here. He said in San Francisco the march is very much a celebration, but coming here reminded him that there are still many places where the issue for us is not yet celebration — but simple survival….

We’re not home free yet… but what a long way we’ve come in the last 20 years. And while I won’t, due to a scheduling conflict, be here for tomorrow’s parade, I’ll be there in spirit.

Two four six eight
Gay is just as good as straight
Three five seven nine
Lesbians are mighty fine

Yep.

Related:

  • 6/20/2003. Fred Phelps coming to Anchorage. The “godhatesfags.com” followers of Westboro Baptist Church pastor Fred Phelps announce plans to picket in Anchorage during PrideFest 2003.
  • 6/27/2003. Anchorage Pride 2003: Look how far we’ve come. A brief history history of the annual Pride parade in Anchorage from 1983, in which there were 19 marchers, to 2001, in which there were two to three thousand. Can the followers of Fred Phelps wreck that? Don’t think so.
  • 7/8/2003. Those Phelpists aren’t too clever, are they? Why did Westboro Baptist Church, famous for their website “godhatesfags.com,” picket Anchorage Baptist Temple — famous in Anchorage as the very center of antigay attitudes in Alaska?
  • 7/8/2003. Publicity, publicity, publicity.  Which Anchorage churches during PrideFest 2003 did the Phelpists picket, & which not, & why?
  • 6/12/2009. Billboards. While in 2003 Jerry Prevo decried Westboro Baptist Church tactics, in 2009 he & his allies didn’t hesitate to use children — even some younger then 10 —  in a very like way, as billboards for their parents’ prejudices.
Posted in LGBTQ history | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Anchorage Pride 2003: Look how far we’ve come

Fred Phelps coming to Anchorage

Posted on Fri, 20 June 2003 by Mel Green

[originally posted at henkimaa.blogga.nu, Friday 20-Jun-2003 12:04 PM]

Fred Phelps coming to Anchorage

This today from an Alaska LGBTA events announcement list:

The Pride parade and PrideFest Celebration is on Saturday, June 28th, downtown on the Park Strip. The parade begins at 11, the picnic at noon. It is believed Fred Phelps will be visiting Anchorage to make a number of protests, including the parade and next Sunday’s MCC service. Here’s his planned schedule, as copied from his website

http://www.godhatesfags.com/fliers/Picket_Information.html

June 28, 2003 10:30 am – end of parade Anchorage, AK 2003 PrideFest Parade, 6th Ave. & E St.
June 28, 2003 5:00 pm – 5:30 pm Anchorage, AK Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church, 2901 East Huffman Road
June 29, 2003 9:00 am – 9:30 am Anchorage, AK All Saint’s Episcopal Church, 545 West 8th Ave.
June 29, 2003 9:30 am – 10:00 am Anchorage, AK Lutheran Church of Hope, 1847 West Northern Lights
June 29, 2003 10:15 am – 10:45 am Anchorage, AK Unitarian Universal Fellowship, 32nd St. & Turinigan Blvd
June 29, 2003 10:30 am – 11:00 am Anchorage, AK Unity Church of Anchorage, 10821 Totem Road
June 29, 2003 1:30 pm – 2:00 pm Anchorage, AK Metropolitan Community Church, 2311 Pembroke St.
June 29, 2003 6:00 pm – 6:30 pm Anchorage, AK St. John’s United Methodist Church 1801 O’Malley Road
June 30, 2003 7:45 am – 8:45 am Anchorage, AK City Hall (Municipal Hill Building), 632 W. 6th Ave.

Fred Phelps, for those who don’t know him, is a disbarred lawyer and the pastor of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, whose manifesto is contrary, to put it lightly, to what Jesus preached as documented in the Gospels.

Westboro Baptist Church manifesto:

To every lover of Arminian lies — believing and preaching that God loves every individual of mankind — we say, You are going to Hell! Period! End of discussion!

Jesus:

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matt. 5:43-45, KJV)

Guess Jesus is going to hell, according to the Phelpists.

Fred Phelps came to national prominence in the wake of the death of Matthew Shepard, the gay University of Wyoming student who in October 1998 was deceived by two homophobic men into leaving a gay bar with them. They drove him to a remote area, tied him to a split-rail fence, and pistol-whipped, beat, and robbed him, then left him there to die. He was found the following day by two bikers, and died in the hospital four days later, never having awakened from a coma. (His murderers are each serving two consecutive life sentences without possibility of parole.)

Fred Phelps came to Matthew Shepard’s funeral — not to mourn, but to picket with signs saying things like “No Tears for Queers” and “God Hates Fags” (also the name of Phelps’ website). This wasn’t new, however. Phelps and his congregation (which reportedly is made up primarily of family members) had already made a career of picketing businesses, churches, and events perceived to promote homesexuality, harassing Topeka city officials with faxes full of namecalling & vitriol, & adding to the sorrow of families grieving the deaths of family members lost to AIDs or hate crimes.

Reactions range from outrage to education to humor to fundraising to…hmmm, what would one call it…anarchic creativity? This last for the Des Moines cell of the Biotic Baking Brigade, which on May 31 launched a pie attack on Phelpists protesting a local high school commencement ceremony because of a college scholarship awarded to a graduating (gay) senior in honor of Matthew Shepard.

Meantime, a local Iowa gay organization raised $80 for each minute that the Phelpists ran their picket (just over a half hour)– a fundraising technique that has become an increasingly popular way for LGBTA organizations to make the best of Phelpist hate tactics. Even the Topeka Symphony Orchestra has made money off the Phelpists.

The best piece written on a humorous note that I’ve seen on Phelps thus far is a February 2000 story in the international (English) edition of the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, which reported on Phelps’ plans to come to Finland because he objected to the human rights record of then newly-elected Finnish President Tarja Halonen. Actually, they accused the (heterosexual) Halonen of being a lesbian, and even wrote a letter to the Finnish ambassador to the U.S. to say so. Phelps also asked the Finnish ambassador to provide 25 applications for visas — not required for visitors from the U.S. — and, per the Helsingin Sanomat story, “In a display of grit and determination, the Westboro Baptist Church claims that if Finland denies the-visas-that-are-not-required, the Church will take the matter to the EU and the United Nations.”

Factually speaking, two good sources are the Topeka Capital-Journal‘s online archive of their coverage of Phelps and BaptistWatch.org’s page on Phelps, which includes the full text of Addicted to Hate by Jon Michael Bell with Joe Taschler and Steve Fry, a book about Phelps that came into the public domain as a result of a lawsuit by Bell against the Topeka Capital-Journal.

Westboro Baptist Church announced their visit to Anchorage in a press release cleverly entitled

WBC to picket Anchorage PrideFest 2003 fag/dyke Parade and Festival, the fag-infested Univ. of Alaska, Anchorage, and the sodomite whorehouses masquerading as churches in Anchorage* –June 27-29 — in religious protest & warning: ‘God is not mocked!’ God Hates Fags! & Fag-Enablers! Ergo, God hates Anchorage: “Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose scum is therin.” Ezek. 24.6.”

Except for the specific event & location names, this is essentially identical to the announcements the Phelpists make for every other picket they decide to hold.

Needless to say, we are quaking in our shoes.

But that’s okay, we’re used to earthquakes hereabouts.

Related

  • 6/20/2003. Fred Phelps coming to Anchorage. The “godhatesfags.com” followers of Westboro Baptist Church pastor Fred Phelps announce plans to picket in Anchorage during PrideFest 2003.
  • 6/27/2003. Anchorage Pride 2003: Look how far we’ve come. A brief history history of the annual Pride parade in Anchorage from 1983, in which there were 19 marchers, to 2001, in which there were two to three thousand. Can the followers of Fred Phelps wreck that? Don’t think so.
  • 7/8/2003. Those Phelpists aren’t too clever, are they? Why did Westboro Baptist Church, famous for their website “godhatesfags.com,” picket Anchorage Baptist Temple — famous in Anchorage as the very center of antigay attitudes in Alaska?
  • 7/8/2003. Publicity, publicity, publicity.  Which Anchorage churches during PrideFest 2003 did the Phelpists picket, & which not, & why?
  • 6/12/2009. Billboards. While in 2003 Jerry Prevo decried Westboro Baptist Church tactics, in 2009 he & his allies didn’t hesitate to use children — even some younger then 10 —  in a very like way, as billboards for their parents’ prejudices.
Posted in LGBTQ history | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Fred Phelps coming to Anchorage