Hoonah students balance a small ball on two strings as a part of a team building exercise. (Photo by Lakeidra Chavis/ KTOO)
Last Friday morning, more than 50 students tossed hoops, dribbled basketballs and hustled feet in the Hoonah High School gymnasium. But this wasn’t a gym exercise. It was a part of a three-day anti-bullying awareness program.
“It takes different kinds of forms. It can be very subtle; it can be very physical and upfront in your face. It can happen on the playground, it can happen in the home,” according to coach Andy Lee.
In the last 10 years, Lee has been to more than 30 villages in Southeast and the Northwest Arctic to raise awareness about bullying and substance abuse.
School started last Wednesday, and Lee spent the first three days of the school year teaching the students about teamwork, career-building and anti-bullying awareness. He uses basketball to teach these fundamentals.
Coach Andy Lee poses with Hoonah kindergartners during their lunch house. (Photo by Lakeidra Chavis/KTOO)
“Kids need to be resilient enough to resist bullies, and people have to allow them to stand up and say ‘no’ to it, and I think it’s important to address it from both ends of the spectrum,” Lee said.
Hoonah High School is the 13th school he’s visited in the past 15 weeks. Friday evening he returned home to Sitka, where he is the basketball coach at the local high school.
“Well, I think the key thing is that I come and go, but the issues remain,” Lee said.
According to results from the 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, ninth graders were most likely to report being bullied within the past year, regardless of ethnicity. Female students were more likely than male students to experience bullying.
Two of the students at first wanted to talk about how one of them had been bullied, but after our conversation she returned to ask her experience not be shared for fear that someone might recognize her voice.
Hoonah School District Principal Lorrie Scoles, right, discusses Coach Lee’s program with teacher assistant Bob Barton and counselor Nung Dinh. (Photo by Lakeidra Chavis/KTOO)
Hoonah School Principal Lorrie Scoles thought the program was a good way to start off the year.
“We have several new teachers here with us this year. We wanted to do some community building and let the kids build some leadership skills,” Scoles said.
This year, Hoonah’s enrollment is high at 120 students. There are about 13 new students and eight new teachers out of a staff of 13. Scoles says that in a school this small, bullying may take on the form of teasing and if it’s been normalized, students might be hesitant to speak up.
Nung Dinh is one of the new hires. She’s the school’s new counselor and art teacher. Dinh says she enjoyed the program.
“I believe it was a powerful program to get the kids thinking about their future, and thinking about why are they here at school and putting a since of purpose in that,” Dinh said.
Bob Barton, a seasoned parent-teacher assistant for the special education department, agrees.
“I liked the way he didn’t pull any punches or try to sugarcoat anything, but tried to give the students of the real world, and what’s it’s going to be like to try to reach whatever goals they set,” Barton said.
All the students agreed that they enjoyed the program, but when asked about their experiences with bullying and how it was dealt with in the school?
When asked they experience bullying or if the teachers intervene, the students didn’t respond.
Alaskans voted in 1998 to define marriage in the state constitution as only between a man and a woman. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has invalidated that definition, Alaska and the entire country has marriage equality.
To some it may seem like things are changing fast, but Alaska’s fight for gay rights began half a lifetime ago.
In the course of Alaska’s legislative history, there have been six bills to outlaw sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination. In Anchorage, there have been at least three ordinances.
They’ve all failed.
The fight may have begun in 1975, when the Alaska State Human Rights Commission took a formal stance that sexual preference should be included in the state’s non-discrimination policy.
Copy of bill 125, from 15th legislative session.
House Bill 125 was introduced in 1987, during the AIDS epidemic. The commission director, the attorney general and the governor all supported the bill.
“[It was] just something that seemed to me, it was time to make some noise about it,” says former Democratic Gov. Steve Cowper.
He introduced the bill less than two months after taking office. He had served in the Vietnam War and made a friend who was gay.
“They served just as well or better than other people,” Cowper said.
Cowper can’t remember why exactly he introduced the bill, but cites that personal experience as a possible reason. Old files also suggest commission Director Janet Bradley asked for his support.
“But as a general principle, people shouldn’t be discriminated against any more than you should be able to discriminate for racial reasons,” Cowper said.
Cowper’s friend died from AIDS years later. HB 125 never made it out of committee.
Janet Bradley left the Human Rights Commission in 1988. During the last decade of her career, she had taken an aggressive approach to more inclusive legislation.
After she left, Paula Haley became the commission’s director. She’s still the director now and she hasn’t touched the issue.
In 1989 through an LGBT advocacy group, researchers Melissa Green and Jay Brause published a statewide survey documenting the experiences of Alaska’s lesbian and gay community, including issues of discrimination and health.
Janet Bradley ended the report’s forward with a call to action: “This report then becomes our challenge; for if we believe that our vision of Alaska is marred when discrimination exists, we must commit ourselves to eliminating sexual orientation discrimination.”
Melissa Green, LGBT activist and researcher. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Green)
In 2012, Green published her final report on a survey on LGBT discrimination in Anchorage through Identity, Inc. It was a few weeks before Anchorage voted on Proposition 5, a sexual identity anti-discrimination measure that failed. She says the report received a lot of criticism.
“It has important things to say. I hope that people might still read it, but I’m done. I’m done. I’m off on my own life,” Green said.
She’s burnt out and says she’s kind of bitter.
“It ate up a lot of my life and a lot of my time, and it had, I wouldn’t say exactly zero impact, but pretty close to that,” Green said. “Nobody really cared— outside of the [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] community, nobody really cared.”
In 1986, the Anchorage Daily News interviewed a gay man working at Identity, Inc., an advocacy organization. He was collecting violent and homophobic voice mail the office received for a research report on gay and lesbian discrimination.
That man’s name was Jay Brause.
“Through the AIDS crisis we started finding out how important our relationships were,” Brause said.
“We started finding out we had no rights. We were denied in so many ways.” Brause said.
He said he knew of couples who’d been together for decades and if one of them would become ill or die, often their relationship meant nothing when it came to hospital visitation, burials, military honors and home ownership.
“How do you explain that to people? It’s a potent, virulent form of discrimination,” Brause said.
During the same year the ADN published the story, he interned with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in D.C.
(left to right) Jay Brause, Gene Dugan, Fred Hillman and Les Baird. In 1982, the board members were moving out of the Alaska Gay & Lesbian Resource Center, which closed down. It was later revamped and named Identity, Inc. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Green)
Brause and his now-husband Gene Dugan applied for their marriage license in 1994. The controversial act eventually led to the 1998 constitutional amendment defining marriage.
He paid for being a prominent gay figure in the 80s and 90s in more ways.
“I felt the prejudice and the discrimination very personally and directly. In a way, you don’t know if you’re hiding or you haven’t disclosed (your sexuality),” Brause said.
Like his friend Melissa Green, he’s disillusioned about his fight and American liberties. His reaction when Alaska got marriage equality?
“I did not have the person-in-the-street’s reaction. No, not even a smile,” Brause said.
In 2006, he and his husband moved to England, where he has dual-citizenship. In September, he’ll travel back to Anchorage to clean up to the last few bits of his life in America before leaving for good.
“Thank you to every single one of us who took on that work as activists, who took chances to make a difference, and believe me, there’s more to be done.”
State Legislative Reference Librarian Jennifer Fletcher researched legislative files. This article could not be produced without her assistance.
Editor’s note: This story and audio have been updated. The number of Anchorage anti-discrimination ordinances that have failed has been qualified; there have been at least three. Also, Identity, Inc. published all three reports. Jay Brause and Identity, Inc. volunteers authored One in Ten, Brause and Melissa Green authored Identity Reports, and Green authored the LGBT Anchorage Discrimination survey report. Volunteers and community members assisted with all three of the studies.
Gov. Bill Walker on April 18. 2015. (Photo by Jeremy Hsieh/KTOO)
There are no state laws prohibiting workplace discrimination in the private sector based on gender identity or sexual orientation. Or against discrimination in housing and public accommodations. Or separate hate crimes.
The Alaska State Human Rights Commission and the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission do not accept LGBT discrimination claims; complainants are instead referred to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The state commission does not keep track of these cases in their annual report.
State commission director Paula Haley and Anchorage commission director Pamela Basler would not go on the record during initial interview requests, and would not answer questions directly. They did not respond to subsequent interview requests.
This is despite the federal commission’s recent interpretation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which says sexual orientation discrimination is the same as discrimination based on sex. The commissions are not legally obligated to accept LGBT cases despite EEOC’s rulings and interpretation of civil rights law.
Gov. Bill Walker has stated, “It would be up to the Commission to decide whether or not the Act covers sexual orientation or any other class.”
Walker has not given a direct answer when questioned about his position on LGBT rights. He’s only stated that he believes marriage is between a man and a woman. When questioned further in this interview about his stance on LGBT rights, he still did not provide a direct answer.
KTOO’s Lakeidra Chavis and Jennifer Canfield interviewed Gov. Bill Walker about LGBT issues on Aug. 11. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
KTOO: During your campaign for election, you never gave a complete answer to questions about your stance on LGBT rights and same-sex marriage. Has that changed since then? Can you say YES or NO that you support equal protections for LGBT people?
Walker: I’m not sure I didn’t give a complete answer on something. The answer I typically gave consistently was that I do support a traditional marraige and I also will follow the law that is in place and I follow the law that is in place regarding that. The Supreme Court has ruled that non-traditional marriage is to be recognized and that’s what we recognize
KTOO: Do you support equal rights and protections for LGBT in Alaska?
Walker: I don’t like any form of discrimination, at all. But I also respect the religious freedoms and rights of others as well, so it’s a little bit of a dilemma for me. But again, I have pledged to uphold the law. The law currently in Alaska does not recognize LGBT as a protected class. On the federal side it is, on the state it’s not — the statues do not call for that. So I can’t go beyond the letter of the law and I don’t get involved in that, there’s a commission that does that.
KTOO: Have you reviewed the Alaska State Human Rights Commission to ensure that their priorities are in line with your administration?
Walker: I have not. I have not been reviewing their actions.
KTOO: Earlier last month when we first requested an interview, your spokeswoman Katie Marquette provided us with a statement, and in that you said, “this comes down to a legal interpretation of protected classes which is determined and enforced by the Alaska State Human Rights Commission.”
If you stand by what you said, the state commission is actively deciding to not offer these protections. What are your thoughts on that?
Walker: They’re a quasi-judicial body and they make the determinations that they make. As far as I know, they’re following the law. If the legislature changes the law then they’d follow the law that was changed.
KTOO: Since 2001, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has made multiple rulings that sexual orientation and gender identity fall under sex as a protected class. Last month they made a similar ruling for the private sector. Do you think that these rulings are precedent enough for the law to be changed in Alaska and for our non-discrimination law to be updated?
Walker: I know the federal EEOC has adopted a broader interpretation and that’s currently being sorted out in the courts. So I will stand by to see what the legislature does; it’s not my intention to introduce any legislation on this particular issue.
KTOO: You said respected you the religious rights of others; it could be argued that you can discriminate against women based on some people’s religious beliefs. Do you think those are two different subjects? Can they be interpreted the same way?
Walker: No, I think those are different. Gender is a protected class. So I think that is a different issue. When Alaska makes the change, and perhaps it will, then that would be similar. [For clarification later during the interview, gender identity is not a protected class in Alaska. Sex refers to someone’s biological makeup and reproductive systems. Gender is a social construction that forms the social roles we associate based on someone’s sex. Gender identity refers to how someone might identify — or not identify — in relation to their assigned gender. ]
KTOO: Do you think that the classification of discrimination based on sex is in opposition to some people’s religious beliefs?
Walker: I can’t really anticipate various religious beliefs.
KTOO: We’re trying to get an idea from you as to whether your administration intends to address this issue at all.
Walker: At this point, we don’t intend to address this issue. That shouldn’t be a surprise. I said that during the campaign. We don’t intend to introduce legislation on these issues or other social issues. Our focus is on our economy, cost of energy, education. There’s no secret about that. We will follow the laws that are enacted and that’s what we’ve done. Again, it’s not intention, nor have we, discriminate against anyone for any reason.
KTOO: It’s estimated there are more than 19,000 LGBT working adults in your state, and they still face discrimination in the private sector, including housing and public accommodations; there are no protections against hate crimes. Why haven’t these issues been addressed in your administration so far — because they affect a large amount of people in your state, who are also a part of the workforce and contribute to the economy?
Walker: Since we’ve been in office, we’ve been involved in the financial situation we are in the state. We’ve had multiple meetings with the LGBT community — once before the election and once after. We’ve certainly spoken frequently on the phone with them and members of that community. I certainly think we have a good relationship with them. They said they’ve never been invited to the governor’s mansion for lunch. I think we had about 15-20 [people]. They don’t always agree with me. I totally respect that. But one thing we do is try to continue to have dialogue and discussion, and we’ll continue to do that throughout my administration.
KTOO: When I spoke to Paula Haley, executive director of the state Human Rights Commission, I had a very difficult time — same thing with Pamela Basler at the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission. LGBT discrimination issues are still a big topic on the national scene as well as in the state. There are still people experiencing discrimination to go, and they have nowhere to go to file those claims in Alaska, because they aren’t protected from them. Do you feel that that this is an acceptable response that two directors of your state’s human rights commissions have when being questioned about their practices?
Walker: Well, I don’t want to be judgmental about what the Human Rights Commission is or isn’t doing, but I will say we are working on that.
KTOO: What issues are you referring to?
Walker: The issue of having some venue to report, record circumstances where they feel they’ve been discriminated against.
KTOO: And what would that be?
Walker: That’s what we’re working on.
KTOO: Is there a timeline on when that might come out to the public?
Walker: No, not particularly a timeline, but we’ve been talking about since our last meeting with the LGBT community. When we had lunch — that was raised then. It was something that resonated with me. I’ve been giving that some thought and we’ll be coming out with something. I’m not sure when but we’ve got some thoughts we’ve been discussing internally.
KTOO: I just want to make sure we’re characterizing this correctly: nothing will change at the human rights commission but you are looking to create another system for people to log these complaints. Is that correct?
Walker: I wouldn’t say another system, I listened to what their concerns were and we’re trying to figure out some way their issues can be documented.
The Rainbow Flag is a symbol of LGBT pride. (Creative Commons photo by torbakhopper)
The U.S. Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission ruled in late July that sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace is illegal because it is a form of sex discrimination, which is already prohibited.
Some of the most common types of discrimination LGBT people face are in the workplace and in housing. Despite this, Alaska’s statewide and Anchorage anti-discrimination commissions don’t offer protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people. The commissions are not legally required to do so, and some activists see that as an injustice.
“Just imagine if you couldn’t call the fire department because you were LGBT. If you are LGBT you should be able to call any state agency and get the same service,” says attorney Caitlin Shortell. She represented the same-sex couples that sued the state for the right to marry. “This is an injustice that needs to be corrected.”
In December, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Department of Justice would treat gender identity as protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In early February, the U.S. EEOC Director of Field Programs sent a memo saying that complaints of discrimination based on gender identity should also be accepted under the Civil Rights Act. Federal and state employees already have these workplace protections.
And late last month, the federal commission ruled in a 4-2 vote that sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace was illegal, too.
When I called the toll-free number, I was directed through nearly three minutes of call options. To speak with a federal EEOC employee, on one particular day the wait was approximately 60 minutes.
Both the state and Anchorage commissions have work-sharing agreements with the EEOC and receive a portion of their budget from the federal agency. However, the funding does not require commissions to enforce civil rights laws as the EEOC interprets them.
“There’s a basis and a duty to already be taking these complaints and the commission should be doing that, without even amending our state and municipal human rights law,” Shortell said.
In initial interview requests for this story, the commission’s directors — Paula Haley for the state and Pamela Basler for Anchorage — both refused to be recorded and would not answer questions directly. Neither director responded to subsequent interview requests.
Gov. Bill Walker on April 18, 2015. (Photo by Jeremy Hsieh/KTOO)
Gov. Bill Walker says he “[doesn’t] like any form of discrimination, at all.”
But disliking discrimination doesn’t mean he’s willing to change up the state commission members and director, who serve at his pleasure.
“At this point we don’t intend to address this issue. That shouldn’t be a surprise,” Walker said.
Walker says his administration will not introduce legislation on this issue or any other social issue. He says he’s not reviewed the priorities of the state’s human rights commissioners or the commission’s executive director.
“I don’t want to be judgmental about what the Human Rights Commission is or isn’t doing, but I will say that we are working on that issue ourselves,” Walker said. “It’s come up in the past, the issue of them having some venue to report, record circumstances where they feel they have been discriminated against.”
In an earlier written statement the governor said he’d leave it to the commission to decide whether to accept LGBT discrimination complaints, or complaints from any other class.
In other words, the state commission is actively choosing to not provide coverage.
Only two of the seven board members on the state Human Rights Commission could be contacted. Although neither would agree to be recorded, one stated that discussion surrounding LGBT discrimination protections has only come up a few times in the past few years.
The federal EEOC canceled an interview and declined to reschedule. In a written statement, an agency spokeswoman says neither the state or Anchorage commissions are required to accept claims that they don’t have jurisdiction over. And jurisdiction is based on their own assessment of the law, independent of the EEOC’s positions.
“So we have a very broad area of coverage and we protect people from discrimination based on race, sex, disability, age, marital status, so there’s a lot of coverage. Pretty much everyone in Alaska is protected by our laws,” Haley said.
Later in the interview, Haley said most of the complaints the agency receives deal with employment discrimination—a type of discrimination transgender people are most at risk for, according to a 2012 Anchorage survey on LGBT issues.
In a previous story for KTOO, Paula Haley said she’s only seen a handful of cases over the years.
“Very few people contact us because they’re concerned about discrimination based on lesbian, gay, transgender, queer issues, because they know we don’t cover those. So they don’t reach out to us because we don’t have the ability to help them.”
Anchorage mayor Ethan Berkowitz. (Photo from ethanforanchorage.com)
In the Human Rights Campaign’s 100-point 2014 Municipal Equality Index, Anchorage scored the highest at 35, Juneau at 33 and Fairbanks the lowest at 24.
Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz says he, “everyone who lives in Anchorage has equal protection under the law.”
But later in the interview, Berkowitz said he was unsure of how the Anchorage commission currently handles these complaints and didn’t mention any specific plans to address the issue.
A protester waves an American flag and a rainbow flag in support of gay marriage in Miami in 2014. Secretary of State John Kerry announced Tuesday the appointment of a special envoy for the human rights of LGBT persons. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
We’d like to hear your story, your personal, first hand experience living in Alaska.
This month, we’d like to hear from Alaska’s LGBT community. Please tell us:
What is something you’ve experienced that an LGBT Alaskan growing up in the future won’t have to?
What do you still have to put up with today because of who you are?
Please share your stories through audio, by calling (720) 50STORY (720-507-8679). The call will go straight to voicemail. Listen to the instructions and then record your message. You’ll have 2 minutes to response to one or all of the above questions. Please make sure there is no background noise while you are recording. All messages will be considered for publication.
Prefer writing instead? Email a response (400 words or less) to lakeidra@ktoo.org
Got of a photo? Even better, send one to lakeidra@ktoo.org and we’ll include it with your story.
RSVP patrons enjoy the drag performances during Monday night’s event. (Photo by Lakeidra Chavis/KTOO)
On Monday afternoon, nearly 2,000 people arrived in Juneau for their first stop on the 30th anniversary RSVP Vacations cruise. The cruise line caters exclusively to gay and lesbian people.
The Southeast Alaska LGBTQ+ Alliance, also known as SEAGLA, hosted an event for cruise patrons at the Imperial Saloon downtown. Nearly 200 patrons mingled, drank and played billiards during the 2-hour event.
SEAGLA decorated the outside of the Imperial with various gradient flags from the LGBT community, including the pride, bisexual, transgender, leather, bear flags. (Photo by Lakeidra Chavis/KTOO)
“It’s just important to remember that we are in the community, that we’re neighbors, but also to welcome people who are traveling, who might be looking for community,” says Lauren Tibbitts-Travis, SEAGLA outreach coordinator.
She helped organize the event.
“It’s one thing to go somewhere that you’ve never been and see the sights, but if you’re going there [and you] immediately identify with [the place], that makes it a much better experience. That’s what we’re trying to do at these events,” Tibbitts-Travis says.
This week’s cruise will take tourists to Glacier Bay, Sitka, Ketchikan and Victoria, British Columbia. Although the passengers are predominantly male, the cruise caters both to gay and lesbian people.
Ticket prices ranged from $900 to almost $3,000. Joe Fallon and his husband David Rodes says the cruise was worth it.
“We’d never been to Alaska and we’d always wanted to do an Alaska cruise, but a straight cruise never seemed like that much because we figured we’d be with a lot of old people,” Fallon says.
Fallon and Rodes, who are both in their late 50s, decided to take the cruise to celebrate paying off their mortgage.
“We met working in the same shopping center when we were like 17 and 18 years old.” Fallon says.
They’ve been together for 39 years, says Rodes.
Both men says they’re most excited to see Glacier Bay.
Sam Wilson, 47, sits in the Imperial with his best friend and travel partner. (Photo by Lakeidra Chavis/KTOO)
For 47-year old Sam Wilson, he decided to go on the cruise because it’s something his best friend has always wanted to do.
“He actually wanted to go for a very long time, and we finally found time to go. We travel a lot, this is like my fourth cruise. I did a couple in the Caribbean and a Mediterranean one, so this was like on the bucket list — definitely one to come and see,” Wilson says.
Wilson and his friend have traveled everywhere from Egypt to Greece. He says the cruise is like a party every night and there’s always a chance to meet new people.
Halfway through the event, four local drag performers took the dance floor to entertain the crowd. Performer Vanessa LaVoce-Kellie — who preferred to be identified by her stage name — was one of them.
For her the event symbolized a larger effort to create a more inclusive community.
“I performed tonight because there’s not very many opportunities to do drag here in Juneau; it’s been getting a lot better. We’ve been having more exposure, but any chance that I get to step out inface and give somebody a show, I’ll take it,” La-Voce-Kellie says.
For LaVoce-Kellie, the bigger the drag queen presence in Juneau, the better.
“These events give people that safe place, and help us to build the conversation for more acceptance and tolerance. The more you can do for love the better,” LaVoce-Kellie says.
The cruise left late Monday night to travel to its next destination, Sitka, before making a stop in Glacier Bay.
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