No "Dead Queers" means No Discrimination: Anchorage, AK Ordinance 64

What is the Anchorage anti-gay lobby saying about the passage of Ordinance 64, the trans-inclusive nondiscrimination measure passed by the Assembly last week? One conservative blogger wrote:

" Chris Birch and Bill Starr said they had not been convinced that discrimination against gays and lesbians is a problem in Anchorage. "I don't see signs that say, 'No Gays Allowed,'. We have a tolerant and diverse community that generally gets along," he said. Birch also bemoaned the amount of time devoted to this issue, saying he would rather have devoted the time to determine how to better deal with the homeless problem. This is a valid point, since we are not finding dead queers on our streets, but dead homeless people. (emphasis mine)


Is that what it takes: "dead queers" on our streets? We don't even know if there are "dead queers," since no state or city agency collects data on anti-gay discrimination. And if the 3 reported anti-gay murders and dozens of attacks and harassment incidents are not enough evidence, how many "dead queers" will be necessary before the city admits there is discrimination against gays?

Homelessness is a serious problem in Anchorage, one that deserves more attention. But there is no point in blaming ordinance supporters for the 25 long hours of testimony to the Assembly. It was the opponents' strategy to delay the vote, by getting hundreds of church members to testify from as far away as Wasilla.

The local blogger, who lists a dozen white supremacist groups on his blogroll, also calls supporters of Ordinance 64 "abusive." He assumes that a ballot measure to repeal the ordinance, if the Mayor does not veto it by Tuesday, will pass because:

"The gay-lovers may be the most vocal and the most abusive, but they are not the most numerous."


Bent Alaska attended the public hearings and watched in disbelief while dozens of anti-gay opponents shouted and insulted and threatened and preached hellfire at the Assembly members each night. They won the "most abusive" label, hands down.

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/12522/no-dead-queers-means-no-discrimination-anchorage-ak-ordinance-64

:eyes:

Anchorage is tolerant? We don't need no stinkin' tolerance. Just acceptance. Unless you want us to tolerate them. sounds funny when you turn it around.

When someone says they are "not convinced" they will never admit that they "are convinced" - it's a fact of a social conservative using that phrase to sound erudite.

To compare gay bashing and discrimination (problem type A) to homeless and economic insufficiency (problem type B) is to compare apples to orange basketballs. Each one deserves its own solution, not a comparison of "convincin'"

I'm convinced I'm going to win the lotto. What does that have to do with reality?

at a much higher rate than straights, comprising 20-40% of the homeless youth problem.

passed in Anchorage for over 30 years, but the same homophobic bigots (and I mean, YOU "Pastor" Jerry Prevo and your braindead minions) have steamrolled it every time. The Anchorage Daily News is reporting that Mayor Sullivan (who is a conservative by nature) is receiving e-mails 4-1 urging him to veto the ordinance which the Assembly passed by a 7-4 vote. The Anchorage Baptist Temple, the force behind the endless whining at the Assembly meetings and this e-mail campaign, is not a church, it's a PAC -- one that does not have to abide by the same laws, regulations and reporting requirements as other political action committees, but is instead given preferential tax-exempt status. These idiots are the main reason why Alaska hasn't been able to achieve the progressive potential promised to us by our very liberally-conceived constitution. I am sick to death of them.

Full reporting here: http://www.adn.com/anti-discrimination/story/900681.html

ed: This quote here from the article is very revealing, I think.



So if there's no discrimination, Mr. Minnery, why are you fighting so hard against the ordinance? Why should specifically laying nondiscrimination out in the the municipal code upset you if it's just words anyway?

God, I hate these people.

Dan Sullivan caves to the Prevo Mafia.

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/anchorage/story/901286.html?qwxq=4956125&pageNum=1&&&&mi_pluck_action=page_nav#Comments_Container