Alaska Dispatch

As we reported earlier today, a group of Anchorage residents, dissatisfied with Mayor Dan Sullivan's decision to rechristen the annual Diversity and Awards Dinner the Unity and Awards Dinner, has planned its own "True Diversity Dinner" for Sept. 25, the same day as the official dinner.

"Unfortunately, Mayor Sullivan is uncomfortable with the term 'diversity' and has changed the name to the 'Unity' Awards Banquet and celebration," reads the announcement posted to the group's Web site. "The mayor has stated publicly that he does not celebrate the ways in which we are all different, but rather, the ways in which we are the same."

Asked for a response, Sullivan spokesperson Sarah Erkmann replied via e-mail:

No comment beyond that planning for the Unity Dinner continues with the mayor's full support. It should be noted that funds raised at the dinner support the municipality's diversity programming throughout the year. So, withholding support for the event may have an adverse impact on the city's ability to fund programs next year. I have no idea what funds (if any) are being raised for any cause via the alternate event.

The mayor has continually said that he thinks the values that bind us together are just as important as what separates us. The phrase I've heard him use is "respect diversity, celebrate unity." He has also said via a press release: "Our community is made up of many unique groups, but we all share some common values: the importance of family, quality education for our children, and safe, vibrant neighborhoods. This year's event is meant to celebrate these values while respecting the diversity that makes Anchorage such a great place to live," said Mayor Dan Sullivan.

People will inevitably speculate about some kind of deeper meaning, but I can assure you that's it's just a different way of looking the same issue. As Danny Glover said at the kick-off to Diversity Month, diversity includes diversity of thought. The mayor's perspective might be different from others in the community, but the intent is the same -- we are united in our respect and fondness for our community.

I passed some of Erkmann and Sullivan's comments on to Anchorage blogger Mel Green, one of the organizers of the True Diversity Dinner. Green responded:

I'm speaking only as myself, but I think the others involved with the alternative True Diversity Dinner would agree with me that we have no argument with the Municipality's diversity programming. Nor are we asking for anyone to withhold support if they choose to attend the Unity Dinner. But a lot of us find there to be a pretty big discrepancy between Mayor Sullivan's veto of an ordinance which would have accorded equal protection from discrimination for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans citizens and visitors to Anchorage, and his supposed valuation of diversity. I'm not sure who chose the Unity Dinner's keynote speaker, Lynn Swann, but to me that choice underscores that that reference to "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" in the muni's diversity statement is, at least this year, lip service -- Swann during his 2006 run for governor of Pennsylvania endorsed an amendment to PA's constitution that would have prevented same-sex couples from having the same rights -- medical, marriage, estate -- as heterosexual couples.

The result of this is, many of us who fought for equal rights for LGBT people in Anchorage -- and that includes non-LGBT as well as LGBT people -- don't see much place for LGBTs or their allies as either individuals or as families in the Mayor's vision of diversity. Several of us bloggers who had written a lot over the summer about the Assembly hearings started talking about how to respond to our feelings after the mayor's veto of ordinance 64. We decided that holding some kind of protest wouldn't actually make us feel any better. So we decided instead to celebrate the values we'd been fighting for.

I very much share the values Sullivan named: "the importance of family, quality education for our children, and safe, vibrant neighborhoods." My partner and I raised her nephew from age 9 to the present (age 21) -- a kid, I might add, whose entire life before he came to live with us was one of physical and emotional abuse and neglect at the hands of his (heterosexual) family. I was the main economic support for my family; if my employer had decided to fire me simply for being a lesbian, not only would I suffer, but so would that boy. Lucky for me that my employer didn't. But that's a prospect that many families headed by LGBT people still face. Sullivan's veto makes it clear that he only deems some families important -- and mine's not one of them. So much for "unity."

I'm really glad that I'll be in company on the night of the 25th with people who do think my family's important.

Meanwhile, not even all the True Diversity Dinner proponents can agree on what diversity should mean. An argument broke out on the group's Web site when one commenter stated that the Alaska chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union should not be honored at the event because the executive director is a white male -- a point of view roundly dismissed by Green and other organizers.