Two Trans Women Elected In Alaska!

We in the lower 48 don't get much news out of Alaska, and when we do it's focused far too often on the tabloid mess coming from the Palin family.

But in a rough week for trans kind, we definitely can use some good news, and it's coming out of the city of Fairbanks.

In an electoral history making moment in the state of Alaska, two trans people have been elected to office in the area, and are now serving in their respective positions in Kathy Ottersten and Liz Lyke.

It comes during an election year in which like everywhere else in the US, women were running for office at all levels of government 

Ottersten was elected to a Fairbanks city council seat, while Lyke was elected to a seat on the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly,  Fairbanks is the second largest city in the state of Alaska with an estimated population of 32,751 residents.  The Fairbanks North Star Borough has a population of over 97,000 residents.

Boroughs are equivalent to county level governments in the other 48 states.

Ottersten is serving as a newly elected representative on the Fairbanks City Council in Seat D for one year.  Lyke is ironically serving a three year term on the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly in Seat D.

While Ottersten and Lyke just want to get to the business of serving their constituents and insist that being trans is just a small portion of their lives, I and the trans community recognize and salute the political history they just made in the Last Frontier for our community. 

Congrats ladies, and may you have much success serving your community to the best of your ability. 

Anchorage Anti-Trans Proposition 1 Defeated!

While many of us were heading to bed in the Lower 48, the citizens of Anchorage, Alaska were counting ballots in the latest trans rights battleground.

The anti-trans hate group the Alaska Family Council had managed to get a proposition on the ballot that if it had passed, would have stripped the trans protetctions from the city's LGBTQ rights law passed in 2015 by the Anchorage Assembly.   Proposition 1 would have also barred transgender people from using the facilities and locker rooms that matched their gender presentation, even if they had changed their identity documents.

Translation:  The Alaska Family Council haters were trying to pass a nastier Last Frontier version of North Carolina's HB 2. 

It was also going to be the first time that the city of Anchorage would attempt to use a mail-in ballot for a civic election, and turnout was expected to be high.   Anchorage is also the largest city in the state of Alaska .

The Yes on 1 IForces of Intolerance rolled out the usual anti-trans playbook of anti-trans lies and fear mongering but were outgunned by Fair Anchorage, the coalition group working to defeat the unjust Proposition 1   

The Yes on 1 haters raised $128,000 to spend on their scampaign to $800,000 for the Fair Anchorage coalition.   Fair Anchorage not only had more money, they learned the lessons from the failed HERO defense fight here in H-town and attacked the bathroom predator myth head on.

Meanwhile the Yes on 1 side was committing the cardinal sin in Alaskan politics of using a non-Alaskan in their commercials. 

In addition to ads from Alaska' native community, who have felt the sting of discrimination themselves, advocating for their trans neighbors and urging a NO vote,  Fair Anchorage also had local trans people in their commercials and engaged in their coalition of groups fighting this latest trans rights battle.



That predictably deployed trans predator lie by the YES on 1 trans oppressors was also blown up not only in this ad featuring an APD officer, but  a statement from the Fair Anchorage campaign that quoted firefighters, former state reps and a former police spokesperson. 

It also pointed out that a YES vote would be bad for Anchorage.

“While backers of Prop 1 claim they're advocating for public safety, nothing could be further from the truth," Mike Stumbaugh, president of Anchorage Firefighters Union Local 1264, said, according to the press release issued by Kati Ward, Fair Anchorage campaign manager. "And in the 200-plus cities and 18 states with laws nearly identical to Anchorage's nondiscrimination law, the results have been the same: Protecting transgender people is not a threat to public safety — here in Anchorage or anywhere else in the country."

Over 40 Anchorage based businesses also opposed the passage of Proposition 1 as bad for business and the city reputation. 

Fair Anchorage not only aggressively tackled and demolished the predator myth, they also took on and demolished another of the right wing's favorite lies in claiming that by letting transgender women poop and pee in women's restrooms, cisgender women's safety was compromised.



And here's one of the NO on 1 ads that featured a trans person and their parent




35,054 ballots (17.4% of the city's voters) had already been returned before the April 3 deadline.  With all the ballots counted, Proposition 1 was defeated by a 53%-46% margin.

Congrats to the Fair Anchorage coalition for decisively beating the Alaska Family Council haters.
That's wonderful news considering Massachusetts is facing its own looming trans rights election this November. 

It also lends credence to what I have been saying in terms of transphobia becoming less of a winning issue for Republicans and the conservative movement 

Trans Victories In Illinois And Alaska!

The trans wins just keep on coming , with one of them being from a surprising place.

Trans folks living in the Land of Lincoln can now change the gender markers on their birth certificates without having to go through genital surgery. 

There is still a requirement for a type of surgery to be performed but the specifics of that surgery are left up to the individual’s physician, according to Melaney Arnold, Public Health Communications for the Illinois Department of Public Health.

“The vital records code now requires a licensed physician to appropriately complete the affidavit, attesting that the applicant has undergone an operation, by reason of that operation the gender should be changed on their birth record,” said Arnold.

Gender changing operations that would potentially fit this criteria would include a double mastectomy, hysterectomy, orchiectomy, or facial feminization surgery. 

This is a major step forward for trans people who cannot afford the cost of genital reassignment surgery, are worried about the results or feel they don't  need to undergo such procedures.

The other win was in surprise surprise, Alaska

In the wake of an Alaskan superior court ruling that stated that the Alaska Department Of Motor Vehicle requiring proof of genital surgery before it would change the gender marker on a license was an invasion of privacy and unconstitutional, the Alaska DMV got busy writing new regulations to a comply with the ruling.

The new regulations was approved by the lieutenant governor on July 30 after a 30 day comment period and will take effect August 11.

Residents wanting to change their physical description, including sex identifiers must submit certification from a licensed physician, social worker, psychologist, professional counselor, physicians assistant or certified nurse practitioner.

In the certification paperwork the provider must certify that the individual has been undergoing treatment and that the change is expected to be permanent.   The Alaska DMV will accept, but not require documentation to change other physical descriptors such as height, weight or eye color.

This is great news and will help make our lives a little easier in these two states in terms of having idenitfication documents that match our current gender presentations.