OPINION: The Dunleavy administration’s recent actions threaten women, children and LGBTQ Alaskans

I believe Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Attorney General Treg Taylor are basically good men who cherish their families just as much as I do my wife and two teenage children. Unfortunately, they fail to recognize that loving families can come in all varieties and compositions, and they don’t seem to understand that sometimes, the greatest threats to a child can sadly come from within their own home.

Whether they intend harm or not, recent actions by these two men threaten to drag Alaskans’ rights decades into the past, while importing Outside culture wars that have no place in our state. These actions are: 1) Advising the Alaska Human Rights Commission (“AHRC”) to stop protecting LGBTQ Alaskans; 2) Sending letters threatening pharmacies seeking to dispense a potentially life- and cost-saving drug to women; and 3) Promoting legislation that threatens to increase rates of child sexual abuse while also targeting and endangering LGBTQ teens.

The first item is simple. As correctly explained in Taylor’s recent column, the AHRC currently lacks specific statutory authority compelling it to investigate most discrimination against LGBTQ Alaskans. The good news is that six simple words — “sexual orientation, gender identity or expression” — inserted into AS 18.80 in about two dozen places will cure this defect in our laws. Legislation doing just that has already been filed and, to his credit, Taylor says he supports this fix. The Legislature should take him at his word and pass such legislation this year.

Second, attempting to bully pharmacies in Alaska from carrying and dispensing mifepristone. This endangers Alaska women and abridges their privacy rights. It is well settled that in Alaska, women have a constitutionally protected right to bodily autonomy, including whether to terminate a pregnancy. Mifepristone is a safe, FDA-approved drug that medically induces abortions. Its availability can save lives and allow women to obtain the procedure without having to potentially travel hundreds of miles. Using their authority under color of law to burden or block a constitutional right is an offensive abuse of power.

Finally, Dunleavy recently unveiled his so-called “parental rights” legislation. If enacted, it would prevent many young children from obtaining age-appropriate information that would help them recognize and report sexual abuse. This is a solution in search of a problem. Parents can already review their children’s curriculum and opt them out of anything offensive to their beliefs, but Dunleavy would create an “opt in” system under which far fewer children would receive information that could save them from abuse, and the youngest children wouldn’t receive that information at all.

This “parental rights” bill also specifically targets LGBTQ teens, turning them into political punching bags. This legislation would harm their rights, making it impossible for them to live as they wish at school and actually compelling teachers to forcibly “out” students to their parents under threat of litigation. Not only will this harm some of our most vulnerable children, it overrides actions taken by local school boards to deal with these issues as their constituents wish. Talk about government overreach.

Parenthood is a wonderful thing. It is the foundation of our society and, personally, it is the greatest and most rewarding role of my life.

Most parents want what is best for their children and would do anything to protect them. But this broad statement cannot blind us to a more uncomfortable truth — the fact that some children are sometimes unsafe in their own homes. Our governor cannot be naively blind to that truth, and it is unfathomable that he would make these children even less safe by depriving them of information that could protect them and by eliminating school as their safe harbor.

LGBTQ teens and abused children often suffer from more trauma, measured as adverse childhood experiences or “ACEs”. ACEs are scored on a 1-to-10 range that has been shown as highly predictive of future incarceration, depression and suicidal ideation. I can empathize. As a child, my own ACEs score was an 8, and I attempted suicide in my late teens. I’m still here — not by grit or worthiness but sheer luck. And what I’m asking the governor for is simple — I want him to help make sure all these kids make it too.

Children have a right to happiness and to live the life they want free from condemnation or abuse. Whether or not the governor understands these children’s feelings and experiences, he should readily agree with my wish for every single one of them to live and thrive. Accordingly, he should withdraw his legislation.

I hope the governor recognizes that most Alaskans don’t want him importing Lower 48 culture wars into our state. Alaskans move forward, not back. We’re the state of Sen. Ted Stevens (who championed Title IX) and Elizabeth Peratrovich (the driving force behind our nation’s first anti-discrimination law).

If the governor will not change course, I ask this of the Legislature: Don’t touch this legislation. Don’t debate it. Leave these ideas where they belong — rotting in the unmarked grave of history’s forgotten lies.

Scott Kendall is an attorney in private practice. He lives in Anchorage with his two children and his wife of 20 years. He formerly served as chief of staff to Gov. Bill Walker.

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