{"id":15564,"date":"2015-12-02T09:04:30","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T17:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/anchorage-lgbt-non-discrimination-ordinance-encounters-opposition\/"},"modified":"2015-12-02T09:04:30","modified_gmt":"2015-12-02T17:04:30","slug":"anchorage-lgbt-non-discrimination-ordinance-encounters-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/anchorage-lgbt-non-discrimination-ordinance-encounters-opposition\/","title":{"rendered":"Anchorage LGBT non- discrimination ordinance encounters opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>ANCHORAGE<\/strong> \u2014 A new effort is underway to repeal the recently enacted Anchorage law protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination.<\/p>\n<p>The repeal referendum would ask voters to decide whether the ordinance should remain law. Assembly Ordinance 96 was passed in September, making it illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity.<\/p>\n<p>The petition application filed Wednesday must be approved by the municipal attorney before supporters can begin collecting signatures. More than 5,750 signatures of registered municipal voters would need to be collected by Jan. 11 for the measure to be considered for the April election, The Alaska Dispatch News reported.<\/p>\n<p>Conservative talk radio host Bernadette Wilson is listed in the application as its primary committee sponsor. Wilson said she and 11 other women joined forces to file the petition because they have \u201cgrave concerns\u201d about the ordinance. Some of those concerns are related to \u201cbathrooms and locker rooms and the safety of our children,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe trust that everyone here within the community is interested in looking out for the best interests of our children when it comes to bathroom and locker room use,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The bathroom issue was also brought up in September when Assemblywoman Amy Demboski proposed an amendment to the ordinance that would have allowed businesses to segregate bathrooms based on a person\u2019s male or female anatomy. The amendment failed, but the final version allows people to use the bathrooms, locker rooms or dressing rooms that align with their gender identity.<\/p>\n<p>Drew Phoenix, director of Anchorage\u2019s LGBT nonprofit Identity Inc., said Wilson and other Alaskans have a \u201clack of familiarity\u201d when it comes to the everyday issues faced by transgender people.<\/p>\n<p>Phoenix said many people in the LGBT community were \u201cheartbroken\u201d after learning that another repeal effort was in progress. He remains optimistic that the repeal would be rejected if brought before voters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI really believe (perceptions have changed),\u201d he said. \u201cBut it doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s going to be easy for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>Information from: Alaska Dispatch News, http:\/\/www.adn.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ANCHORAGE \u2014 A new effort is underway to repeal the recently enacted Anchorage law protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination. The repeal referendum would ask voters to decide whether the ordinance should remain law. Assembly Ordinance 96 was passed in September, making it illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-15564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15564"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=15564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}