Wednesday, June 10, 2009

A lot to handle in one night



Hundreds air views on gay-rights ordinance
ONLINE: Followers max out streaming feed from meeting.
By DON HUNTER
dhunter@adn.com
Published: June 9th, 2009 03:28 PM
Last Modified: June 10th, 2009 08:24 AM
Hundreds of people converged on the Anchorage Assembly chambers Tuesday night to discuss a question that has challenged the city for decades: whether legal protections in city law against discrimination in employment, housing and finance should be extended to gays, lesbians and bisexuals
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I sit down at the computer this morning with sinking feeling in my stomach, the feeling I get when I feel helpless and conflicted. The events of last night haven't dimmed, it seems I have had my first real brush with prejudice. I sit here so full of feelings and words but not enough to adequately explain to you in words.

Last night after work Seth and I managed to find each other in a huge crowd and managed to spend a few hours showing support for the Gay community in what turned out to be one hell of a night. I'll admit when I first showed up and walked down the road to the Anchorage Assembly chambers it was all too much. Young children and teens dressed in red with pre-made signs full of prejudice, hate and fear lined the street, larger groups lined the sidewalks all around the assembly chambers. It took me a good 10 minutes to pick my jaw up off the sidewalk and get a grip, I was surrounded by homophobic Baptist Temple followers; Jerry Prevo had bussed his followers in to the Loussac Library where the assembly was to meet that night. Seth showed up, didn't even see him walk across the street, between the chanting and music it was hard to concentrate on anything, he had been inside the meeting to check on progress and sign-up to testify in support of the bill. We stared in disbelief at the huge crowd, I was worried I would see students or acquaintances dressed in red. After pinning on paper EQUALITY button I made for us we wondered over closer to the doors to see what the situation was. In small bunches we found people wearing the same color we were, blue, for equality and started to recognize faces of friends and local politicians. Someone handed us signs and there we were, a disheartening few in a sea of uneducated Baptists, many of them children. We cheered for same sex couples who were finished giving testimony inside the assembly meeting and walked hand in hand down the middle of the road, filled to brim with protestors. We cheered and whistled for the EQUALITY sign that was paraded down the center, there seemed to be a little light in the storm after-all. I won't lie, the highlight of my evening was when I was mistaken for local liberal radio/blogger Shannyn Moore.

Unquestionably Seth and I were uncomfortable but a little respite came in the form of a Korean Baptist women who slapped her bible and repeated "One Man, One Women." The bible was falling apart, she was going horse and provided a comic relief, she was taking down her own team with her crazy ramblings. I politely pointed out Proposition 64 was not about the merits of Gay marriage but equal housing and hiring practices, crazy lady stared at me than returned to thumping her bible and scaring small children. It seems education and research is not a Baptist Temple's strong point, many seemed to not understand why they were even there.

Two hours later and a headache later we headed home. I headed to a soccer game where I we happened to play a young team, many of which I recognized from the rally just an hour before. We were defeated but it was fun, our team is full of great sports with positive attitudes, I told them about my experience that night, turns out one team member was there wearing blue as well, they all were excited to head to the assembly next week to show support and we all agreed to give it 100% in the finals where we will again play the young Baptist team, us being the Unicorns we decided it wouldn't be that hard to give them a hard time, nothing like a man with a tight fitting yellow unicorn on his chest to scare a homophobic Baptist.

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