Anchorage Voters Reject Gay Rights Protections

In yet another example of the constant message of inferiority and bigotry that LGBT citizens still receive across much of the country on a daily basis, voters in the City of Anchorage, Alaska, have kicked LGBT residents to the curb and voted down measure that that would have extended basic civil rights protections to gays. We hear constantly about anti-gay bullying in schools, but that pales in comparison to this type of message - or that being spewed by GOP presidential candidates. And we wonder why gay youth have such a disproportionately high suicide rate? And it should come as no surprise that those who opposed the measure were those self-congratulatory hate merchants of the "godly Christian" set. It's enough to make one want to vomit. Here are highlights from the New York Times:

On Tuesday, supporters of gay rights in the city [of Anchorage], Alaska’s largest, took the issue out of the mayor’s hands — but the end result was the same. In a citywide ballot measure, voters overwhelmingly rejected language, known as Proposition 5, that would have added protections for people regardless of “sexual orientation or transgender identity” to the city’s civil rights laws.

The vote followed an unusually loud and expensive campaign for a city ballot measure in Anchorage. The organizers of Proposition 5, a group called One Anchorage, included prominent politicians from both sides of the aisle (Alaska’s United States senators, Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, and Mark Begich, a Democrat, both said they supported it), and the group outspent the opposition more than 4 to 1.

Opposition was led by conservative religious leaders in Alaska, including within the Roman Catholic Church, and was financed largely by one source, the Anchorage Baptist Temple and its leader, the Rev. Jerry Prevo.

Opponents ran ads suggesting various situations a new law would create, including one in which a church would not be able to prevent a cross-dresser from working in its day care center.

“It’s basically just a way to still be homophobic but just use different language,” Julia O’Malley, a columnist for The Anchorage Daily News, said in an interview. “That’s really what this debate is about. It hasn’t changed.”

Once again, the promise of freedom of religion for all and equal protection under the law in America is shown to be an utter lie and farce. There are days that this country utterly disgusts me.