Alaska’s Department of Health is specifically recruiting nonbinary and LGBTQ-identifying youth, ages 14-21, to be paid advisors who help shape how the state prioritizes and develops health interventions and public policy affecting young people.

A March 26 email from Alaska’s Adolescent Health Project Coordinator Jenny Baker asks teens who personally identify as LGBTQ to apply for a spot on the Youth Alliance for a Healthier Alaska virtual advisory team.

Baker said the state is looking for youth with “lived-experience,” which she defines as “residing in rural or off the road system in Alaska, a young parent or caregiver, experience with a disability, identify as LGBT+ or non-binary, in foster care, experienced homelessness, or other ways of being.”

She makes no mention of wanting to hear from youth who have certain medical conditions, educational expertise or cultural knowledge.

To sweeten the deal, the state is offering to pay all youth advisors up to $16/hour for their insights.

Baker has a history of using her state job to promote LGBTQ priorities. She has been vocal about pushing the state to ask teens about their gender identity, sexual orientation and LGBTQ sexual practices through the biennial Youth Risk Behavior Survey – a questionnaire which is administered during February and March at schools across the state.

In 2022, she spoke during a YRBS planning meeting in which she lamented the fact that the state was only able to ask youth about “sexual intercourse” rather than alternative sex acts that some LGBTQ people are known to engage in.

“The challenge with this is that obviously sexual intercourse is between a male and a female and it is quite exclusionary of other sexual identities,” Baker noted at the time.

She has also pushed for questions that could reveal to the state whether parents were spending adequate time talking about sexual matters with their children, information that could be used to justify explicit sex education programming across the state.

As the lead coordinator for the youth advisory team, Baker is clearly prioritizing the recruitment of LGBTQ teens to help influence public policy.

Since 2009, the youth advisory team has offered suggestions to the Alaska Adolescent Health Program and other community partners on publicly funded state campaigns and projects to influence and educate youth. It also helps design and implement various interventions targeting Alaska adolescents.

TAKING ACTION

— Click here to contact Alaska Health Commissioner Heidi Hedberg.

— Click here to call Gov. Mike Dunleavy. Click here to share information with the governor.

— Click here to learn more about the Youth Alliance for a Healthier Alaska (YAHA) program.

Click here to support Alaska Watchman reporting.