A coalition of Anchorage advocacy groups, unions and faith organizations is mobilizing to oppose an ongoing effort to roll back parts of the city’s equal rights ordinance.
The group, Fair Anchorage, held a press conference Thursday morning to publicize its “Decline to Sign” campaign. It’s a counter-measure to oppose a new effort led by the faith-based Alaska Family Action group that aims to modify the city’s expanded anti-discrimination measures passed in a 9-2 vote by the Assembly in 2015. The new initiative certified by the municipal Clerk’s Office would require public facilities, businesses and churches to “segregate” bathrooms and locker-rooms based on a person’s biological sex at birth.
Critics, like the Fair Anchorage coalition, say that would create a special right to discriminate against transgender residents, as well as deny their existence.
The “Decline to Sign” initiative is modeled on similar campaigns elsewhere in the country, like Washington state. The group’s local sponsors include the American Civil Liberties Union, AFL-CIO, Identity, Inc. and Christians for Equality.
Alaska Family Action is currently collecting signatures to get its proposals on the April ballot next year. The group needs 7,500 signatures by mid-July in order to put the measure before voters.
Zachariah Hughes reports on city & state politics, arts & culture, drugs, and military affairs in Anchorage and South Central Alaska.
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