Anchorage Pridefest 5: Fire and Brimstone

The Pridefest was not all sweetness and light.  There were a few folks who were there to pass on their interpretation of God's word, and it wasn't pretty.   I went to the spot to figure out what was going on. There was this big sign, the rainbow flag, drummers, and people dressed like angels.  I asked one of the angels what was happening and why she was there.  Her reply was something like, "I get harassed every day.  I don't need to hear it at Pridefest where I should be safe with welcoming people."

So, the angels and the flag were surrounding the protests, blocking them from view and the drums were drowning out their message.




There are lots of interpretations of the bible.  Many conclude that homosexuality as we know it today is not what the bible refers to.  For example, this evangelical who believes practicing homosexuality is a sin, argues that the sin of Sodom was NOT homosexuality.

"There’s nothing in Genesis 19 that talks about gay people. The main sin committed in Genesis 19 was attempted gang rape. And I don’t know any gay person who’s trying to justify gang rape. In fact, whenever Sodom is mentioned elsewhere in the Bible, the city is usually described as being inhospitable and not caring for the poor — an ironic description of many straight Christians."

I'm not a biblical scholar and don't know Hebrew or Aramaic, so I'm not qualified to interpret these passages.  I can only point out that various Christians (and Jews) have different interpretations about what the bible says about homosexuality.  Another writer I saw claims the opposite of this quote - that Sodom was not about lacking hospitality and it was all about homosexuality.

The woman in the white tee shirt with the microphone was droning on and on.  I don't mean to be disrespectful, but it really didn't make any sense to me.  I'm sure all the drumming didn't help.  Someone told me that this group was from the Valley and they showed up last year and no one was prepared.  This year they were prepared.  They were even passing out earplugs.  [My wife, who wasn't there, thinks the word 'droning' is too judgmental.  Normally I'd try to find another word, but 'harangue' isn't neutral either.  But to my ear, both are good descriptions of lecturing to a crowd of people who simply don't want to hear what you have to say.]

This does, of course, raise free speech questions for some.  As the first woman I spoke to said, "This is the one day I shouldn't have to hear this sort of thing."  I expect 99% of the people at Pridefest don't want to hear this woman.  They've heard messages like hers all their lives.  One could argue she's disturbing their peace.  But Pridefest isn't shutting her down, they're just counter protesting her.  And anyone who wants to know what her message is can come in close and listen.

I'd note the implication of 'real Christians' on the tee shirt would seem to be, "If you disagree with me on this, then you aren't a real Christian."  I've always heard the the most important message of Christianity was: "do onto other what you'd have others to do onto you." That's not something these folks are doing.

If you click on the image, it will get clearer and you can see at the bottom it references Matthew 19: 4-7.

Well, here's Matthew 9 4-7

4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’1 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’2? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” 7  “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”

Hmmm, good question.

 8 Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

Leviticus says the punishment for all sexual immorality starting with adultery and including 'a man lies with a man as with a woman' is death.  I haven't heard about anyone picketing the divorce courts.  I did look quickly to make sure and only found reference to people opposing orthodox Jewish men who don't allow their wives to divorce.  I wonder if the picketers at Pridefest voted for the president who's on his third wife and was practicing sexual immorality with his second wife when he was still married to his first wife?

But let's read the rest of this section of Matthew:

10 The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.” 11 Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. 12 For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”

Professor of Theology and Ethical Studies Stephen J. Patterson interprets what "when a man lies with a man as with a woman" might mean in the context of the Middle East 2500 years ago.  He argues it does not mean what we call homosexuality today.  Instead he argues it's a form of dominance by one heterosexual male over another.  He then points out the example Jonathan and Samuel, "“Your love to me was wonderful, surpassing the love of women.” 

I'm not a biblical scholar and I don't necessarily buy this interpretation, but enough denominations of Christianity, not to mention of Judaism, accept gay love and marriage that I have to believe that when reading the original Hebrew and maybe even Aramaic, there's lots of room for interpretation.

I don't have a neat ending for this.  I'm just documenting what I saw and what I've been able to find online to help me interpret the bible passages.  I don't pretend that these interpretations I've quoted are 'right' just that they exist.

Anchorage Pridefest 4: Dogs of Pridefest

Let's start with little dogs.  Rachel's got her pup in a front pack because it's got a recovering foot.  But the dog attracted a hello from a vet and there was a long discussion. There's hemp based medication you can get for dogs.  One issue I hadn't thought about given the legal status of marijuana in Alaska now, was an increase of dogs coming to the vet after consuming cannabis edibles.  They either come in very dopey or very wired.










There were also middle sized dogs.

And very big dogs.

The first post on Pridefest covered this year's parade.
The second covered businesses that had booths at the Pridefest.
The third was people.

Anchorage Pridefest 3: People I Met

What a difference a year makes.

I met Chris Constant last year at Pridefest.  I'd heard his name and vice versa, but we'd never met.  He had a booth as part of his campaign to be on the Municipal Assembly for downtown Anchorage.  Here are some more pictures from last year's fest.

One thing he told me last year, was he was hoping to be the first openly gay Assembly member.  He's pictured here with his mom.

He did get elected to the Assembly (our city council).  But is he the first openly gay Assembly member?  Sort of, but Felix Rivera, another openly gay candidate was also elected, so they are the first two.  When I asked him how things have been so far, he told me that there have been about 100 votes since he was sworn in.  And he and Amy (Demboski who is also on the Assembly and ran for Mayor with a very anti-gay platform) have voted the same except for three times.  But, he added, he also has voted differently from most of his more liberal colleagues about three times as well.

Another reminder that the media's focus on conflict means we think there's a lot more conflict and less cooperation than there really is.  It is easier, and more necessary, for the Assembly members to get along with each other.  There are only eleven members and the meet all year.  They have to find a way to do more than just make nice.

And here's Felix with Elvi Gray-Jackson, the long time assembly member he replaced.

This young man agreed to a picture.  I don't think I got his name, it's not written down in my notes and it was before a got a pen from Konrad at the Alaska Club booth.















But I got this picture of two more rainbow beards later and these are Thomas and Keith.

Here's my friend Kokayi with a friend of his whose name I didn't catch.

And here are some friends from University of Alaska days.

Travis (on the left) is a friend I know from Citizens Climate Lobby and he's in charge of community outreach at St. Mary's.  And to mess with people's stereotypes, he's also a  BP engineer.

And finally, for this post, we have Mary Jo Torgeson, Anchorage's library director.  I'd never met her before and we had a great discussion on a variety of library related topics, but I'll focus on the renovation.  First, why is it so late?  Well, the as-builts weren't accurate and the found things - like pipes of a different size - that caused a lot of delays.  Second, some wanted to close the library during some of the construction which would have sped things up, but keeping it open was the decision.  I don't know how long it would have been closed, but it's been under construction for over a year now and I think I'd prefer it open even if that meant it took longer.  Here's the first post I did on the renovation - back in February 2016.

But the news is they're planning an opening on July 17.  Though there still we be more internal work to finish up even then.

Here's a link to Anchorage Pridefest 1:  The Parade.
Here's a link to Anchorage Pridefest 2:  Businesses with Pridefest Booths

Anchorage Pridefest 2: Businesses With Pridefest Booths

I'm didn't get them all, and I'm not counting the food trucks here, but here are some of the companies that were at the festival.  

I'm going to start with this one - The Great Land Infusion Pharmacy - because it seems the company that's feels most at home at the Pridefest.  The pharmacy is on Tudor right near Lake Otis.  These are pharmacists Rod and Justin

and they were highlighting PrEP, and HIV prevention drug.

From the CDC website:

"Pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, is a way for people who do not have HIV but who are at substantial risk of getting it to prevent HIV infection by taking a pill every day. The pill (brand name Truvada) contains two medicines (tenofovir and emtricitabine) that are used in combination with other medicines to treat HIV. When someone is exposed to HIV through sex or injection drug use, these medicines can work to keep the virus from establishing a permanent infection.
When taken consistently, PrEP has been shown to reduce the risk of HIV infection in people who are at high risk by up to 92%. PrEP is much less effective if it is not taken consistently."

This is Bill from the Cake Studio and he assured me that they wouldn't turn down making a cake for a same sex wedding.

Mara sells stun guns and pepper spray and other tools aimed at women who feel they need some protection.  Many years ago, my wife and daughter attended a women's self defense class in town that  they felt was quite useful.  The key lesson was how to be alert and not get into risky situations - being mindful of where you are and who is around you.  Mara demonstrated a hand held stun gun that has a wrist band.  If it gets disconnected from the wrist band, it won't work.  She said it causes a severe muscle spasm.  I think classes for how to use things like this would be helpful.  But there are times when having one of these would be helpful.  This company does not have stores, just individual sales folk.

Konrad is the membership coordinator for several of the Alaska Club locations.  He's a great salesman, getting his message across, but careful not to be pushy.  He was giving out coupons for free introductory visits.

Gabe Larson actually works at the Native Hospital and this is a sideline - emergency medical aid at events like this until the Fire Department arrives.  He says he has had very few serious situations in the various events he's been at.









AARP was here with a number of other not-profit organizations.

And BP and Wells Fargo also had booths.


Next post I'll put up pictures of people who I met - some I already knew, others I met for the first time.

The first post on Pridefest covered this year's parade.
And also up now: Pridefest 3 - People I Met

Anchorage Pridefest Part 1: The Parade

I joined the group from Congregation Beth Sholom marching in the Pride Parade in Anchorage today.    I'm splitting this into two or three posts, starting with the parade.  But it was a good day, lots and lots of people out, quite a few company sponsors, some protesters, and lots of dogs and food.

So let's start with prepping for the parade around 8th and F Street.

Right behind Congregation Beth Sholom was the National Park Service.

I knew who Sally Ride was, but knew nothing about Pauli Murray until I got home and googled.  Very briefly, she was born in 1903, lost both parents very early, but got herself to Hunter College, but dropped out after she couldn't get work during the crash in 1929.  University of North Carolina wouldn't admit her in 1938 because she was black, but her case was widely known and she met Eleanor Roosevelt.   She did graduate from Howard, and though she got a prestigious scholarship into Harvard Law School, was rejected ultimately because she was a woman.  Instead she went to Boalt School of Law at the University of California.  It gets better and better.  You can read all about Pauli Murray here.

From Out History:

"Albert Cashier was born Jennie Irene Hodgers on Christmas day, 1843 in Clogherhead, Ireland. . .
Cashier then found his way to Illinois as a stowaway[3][4], though the timing of this is also unclear. He worked a few different jobs including as a laborer, farmhand, and shepherd[5], all the while passing as male. In August of 1862 he enlisted in the 95th Illinois Infantry, Union army of the American Civil War as “Albert D. J. Cashier” in Belvidere, IL[6][7]. He remained in the army for three years before he returned to civilian life[8]."

Finally, Gilbert Baker.  He's the man who created the rainbow flag.  I didn't know about him either.  He died March 31 this year at age 65.  Let him tell you about the flag's creation himself in this video I found at Gilbert's website which has more videos:



One of the great things about blogging is that I learn all this stuff I didn't know and probably wouldn't have known if I weren't going to write about what I saw and did today.


Here's a shot of people on the float of the Asian Community as we marched by and they were in a cross street waiting to join the parade.

I'm not much of a parade person, but it was fun seeing the people lining the streets from within parade itself.

I'm guessing that this is Daphne, since the Anchorage Pridefest website says that Daphne will read the group bios as they get to this point.  And that's what she's doing here.









I have lots more pictures.  I'm trying to figure out how to organize them.  There are a number of dog pictures, there's the strange protest group that got masked by white angels and drums, there are the businesses and other organizations that had booths, and just a mix of other people I met along the way.  More soon.

Anchorage Pridefest 2 is now up.
So is Pridefest 3 - People I Met

While Dutch Men Protest Gay Couple Attack Hand-in-Hand, Anchorage Protests By Electing Two Gay Men To Assembly

Last summer,  already campaigning at PrideFest, Christopher Constant told me (off camera, but his poster didn't hide things) that if he won his seat on the Anchorage Assembly (city council), he'd be the first openly gay member.

He won yesterday, but he wasn't exactly right.  Because another openly gay candidate, Felix Rivera, in mid-town, won a seat as well.  Here's the video I took of Chris last summer. You can see he's not coming onto the Assembly without experience and knowledge about the neighborhoods he will represent.

I took some liberty with the headline.   I doubt any Anchorage voters even knew about the Dutch hand-holding protest when they voted.  I'm guessing that most people who voted for Christopher Constant or Felix Rivera didn't even knew they were gay.  It didn't really come up in the election until the very end when one of Rivera's opponents sent out a last minute attack ad, and even that used coded language rather than say he was gay.  And Rivera got 46% of the vote in a four way race. The next highest opponent got 29%.

No, Anchorage elected two gay men, not because they were gay (though perhaps some voted against them for that reason) but because they were the strongest candidates in their races.


As understated as gender was in the race, it is a big deal in Anchorage.  After years and years of fierce opposition from an evangelical pastor, Anchorage finally added LGBTQ to its anti-discrimination ordinance in 2015.  There was an attempt to put an initiative on yesterday's ballot to block parts of the 2015 change, but it didn't meet the legal requirements for an initiative.    Mayor Ethan Berkowitz won his mayoral race in 2015 by a landslide supporting gay rights against a rabidly anti-gay opponent.

Felix Rivera at candidate forum March 2017

So this is a milestone after a lot of bitter history over this issue.

And here's Felix Rivera at the AFACT candidate forum a couple of weeks ago.





Dutch Hand Holding Protest

While there was no direct connection between the Anchorage election, and the Dutch protest, there are a lot of indirect connections.  The article says that after the attack on the married couple who were walking home holding hands, the prime minister condemned the attack.  But two lawmakers took it a step further.

"Alexander Pechtold, who is the leader of the Democrats 66 (D66) party, arrived hand in hand with his party’s financial specialist, Wouter Koolmees, in support of Vernes-Sewratan and Sewratan-Vernes. “We think it is quite normal in the Netherlands to express who you are,” Pechtold said, according to People."

Then lots of Dutch men posted pictures of themselves holding hands in support of the couple.  One picture in the article shows a group of men who work at the Dutch embassy in London walking along the street holding hands.


Jay Brause, Gene Dugan, and Out North

Which gives me a bridge to mention Jay (Jacob) Brause and Gene (Eugene) Dugan, a gay Anchorage couple who sued the state of Alaska when they weren't allowed to get married here way back in 1994.  They won their case!  But then the state (led by that pastor) amended the constitution to define marriage to involve a man and a woman only.

Jay and Gene ran Out North, a small theater/art space that regularly brought acts that challenged conventional thinking.  They played a huge role in giving Anchorage a space in which to stretch its mind and continue to reexamine long held assumptions.  I'm sure Out North played a role in preparing Anchorage for this day, when two openly gay men have been elected to the Assembly in a race where their sexual preference was almost completely a non-issue.  For those of you who think I've gone off in a totally different tangent, Jay and Gene now live in London where those Dutch Embassy colleagues held hands.  Jay and Gene they got fed up living in a state that vigorously denied their right to get married and moved to UK.  But they did come back to Anchorage to get married here after that became possible.


Holding Hands In Thailand 

I'd like to make one more connection to the idea of men holding hands.  When I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand, one of the American values that was deeply embedded in me was that men do NOT hold hands.

But in Thailand they do.  It's no big deal.  It happens all the time.  Dealing with my own visceral response when men wanted to hold hands with me in Thailand, helped me understand the idea of biases that our cultures teach us without us even knowing that they are biases.  Instead we think that they are 'truths' about nature.  In this case, that it is unnatural for men to hold hands.  But in Thai culture it isn't and a gradually became comfortable when someone took my hand as we walked somewhere.  



The Other Winning Assembly Candidates

Here are some pictures of the other winners last night.





Suzanne LaFrance at the AFACT candidate forum March 12.  She's won the south Anchorage seat 6 that tends to be conservative.  But not always.  Janice Shamberg held this seat.   Suzanne LaFrance was supported by Berkowitz.  In fact all the winners were except Dyson.

Pete Petersen was reelected to his east Anchorage seat 5. Not only are there now two gay men on the Assembly, Petersen is one of two returned Peace Corps volunteers on the Assembly.

Fred Dyson Introducing Joe Miller 2010

Fred Dyson won in Eagle River's seat 2.  He wasn't at the forum, but I had this picture from 2010 when he introduced US senate candidate Jim Miller.  That was the meeting where Miller famously said, If the East Germans could build a wall, we could.  And it was the same meeting where journalist Tony Hopfinger was handcuffed by Miller's 'security.'






Tim Steele also missed the March 12 forum and I don't seem to have a picture of him in my files.


I realize this post seems to wander all over the place, but society is complicated.  Lots of things are interrelated and if we look at everything as an isolated event suitable for a Tweet, then we don't get all that interconnectedness.

Christopher Constant Is Running For Assembly

At PrideFest I came across Chris Constant's campaign table.  I'd heard of Chris and had just read his piece in Anchorage Press on the aftermath of Orlando.

Since I think that there should be as much information about all candidates for office up and available for all to consider, I asked Chris if we could do an interview.



It's pretty much unedited, except the freeze frame at the beginning and ending.

Anchorage PrideFest Photos

I'll let the photos do most of the talking.  I'd note that there were a lot more exhibitors than I recall from last year.

Cormac and Anton were so striking that I asked if I could take a picture and post it here.  They obviously said ok.

I'm afraid most of the other pictures are here more to document some of the organizations that hosted booths, than for the photography.

I first connected with the Alaska Workers Association at a previous PrideFest.  This is a group of volunteers that works to help workers who have no other organized support.

The local branch of Moms Demand Action.

Petroleum Club of Anchorage made its first appearance at a PrideFest.

National Park Service.

Hilton Hotels

Dogs of all sizes and shapes were there.















The Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center.

And there was plenty of food - here's Bear Mace Bites.

AARP Alaska.

There was HIV and Hep C testing.

The Writer's Block Bookstore and Café is coming soon on Spenard where the old adult books store used to be.  They had architects plans for the new building where writers and readers will be able to hang out, buy books, read, and maybe even write.

They predicted an October opening date.  We'll see.

The Alaska Club.

More food from Mimi's Kitchen.

Wells Fargo was there.  

The Family, from the University of Alaska Anchorage.  

And the National Organization for Women.  

There were lots more booths, and I have a video of a candidate for the Assembly that I'll post separately.  At first PrideFest had booths around the perimeter.  But over the years there have been more in the middle as well.  This seems to be the biggest yet.  

Lots of people, lots of rainbows, lots of kids and dogs.  Lots of smiles and lots of people talking.