I listened in horror to Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s news conference outlining HB 105. This announcement came on the heels of the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights having deleted language from the state website promising equal protections for transgender and gay Alaskans.
These actions are a blatant attack on the LGBTQ community. The governor has stated that he wants to make Alaska the most “pro-life” state in the nation, but how does discriminating against a minority help you achieve that goal?
Students should feel safe at school. Like the governor, I too was a teacher, and my No. 1 priority was to make every student in my care and my school feel safe. Without that, nothing else can be achieved. All students deserve to feel safe, and the bill the governor is proposing not only leaves out a segment of our population but targets them, making them even more vulnerable to bullying and discrimination.
Bills like this and the removal of basic protections for a group of citizens will damage Alaska fiscally as well as socially. People who may have thought of relocating here — and we are very much in need of reversing the loss of population — will have second thoughts if they see that this is how the state treats people, even if they are not directly affected by these laws.
— Irene Bortnick
Anchorage
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