On May 14, Alaska lawmakers will hear public testimony on a proposed bill that aims to establish new “rights” for those who claim to have any number of LGBTQ identities.
House Bill 301, which has languished in the House State Affairs Committee for most of the current legislative session, is strongly backed by Planned Parenthood and other LGBTQ activists who are already coordinating their followers to flood the meeting with testimony, demanding that “sexual orientation or gender identity/expression” be deemed as new protected legal classifications, akin to race, sex, age and religion.
If passed, the bill would modify statutes related to public accommodations, rental facilities, employment and housing. Similar bills across the nation have forced business owners to create art, cakes and engage in photo shoots that violate their deeply held religious and moral convictions. Other such laws have forced faith-based groups and churches to provide services, such as renting venues for homosexual weddings or adhering to so-called “gender-identity” policies related to dress, pronouns, bathroom usage and other practices which contradict traditional morality.
Sponsors who are pushing the bill include hard left Democrat Representatives Alyse Galvin (Anchorage), Sara Hannan (Juneau), Andi Story (Juneau), Genevieve Mina (Anchorage), Carolyn Hall (Anchorage) and Ashley Carrick (Fairbanks).
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Critics, however, have long argued that LGBTQ identities are fundamentally different from race and other protected categories and thus should not be included among those classifications.
“First, race manifests itself readily, whereas sexual orientation and gender identity are ambiguous, subjective, and variable traits,” the Heritage Foundation has argued. “Second, sexual orientation and gender identity are linked to actions, which are a proper subject matter for moral evaluation. Race is not.”
In 2023, similar legislation was introduced in the Alaska Legislature, which drew sharp criticism when the sponsor refused to say whether the bill would permit biological males to enter women’s shower rooms and allow them to undress in front of girls
The latest bill would make it unlawful to treat people differently based on their sexual identities, meaning bathroom policies, wedding venue rentals, youth camps and many other entities could be forced to affirm and facilitate gender confusion.
With regard to churches that rent their facilities for weddings or other functions, House Bill 301 could force them to host same-sex weddings and other gender-confused events. That’s because Alaska’s public accommodations law does not currently provide specific exemptions for religious organizations or churches in this context.
TAKING ACTION
— Click here to read House Bill 301.
— HB 301 is currently in the House State Affairs committee. Click here to email these committee members.
— To testify on HB 301, call in 10 minutes before the May 14 hearing, which begins at 3:15 p.m. Numbers to call are (907)-563-9085 (for Anchorage), (907)-586-9085 (for Juneau), and (844)-586-9085 (for Fairbanks. All other locations can call (844)-586-9085. When calling, ask to testify on HB 301 in the House State Affairs committee, and then stay on the line. When it is time to testify, you will be called on and must unmute your speaker.
