In September 2015, the Anchorage Assembly voted 9-2 to update the city's non-discrimination ordinance to include sexual orientation and gender identity. The ordinance, AO-96, passed by an overwhelming majority of the Assembly and has been protecting gay and transgender Alaskans in Anchorage for months with no adverse consequences, but its opponents are still attempting to repeal it.
On March 28, 2017, Kim Minnery, wife of Alaska Family Council President Jim Minnery, submitted an application for an initiative petition to the Municipal Clerk to roll back key provisions the non-discrimination ordinance passed by the Anchorage Assembly in 2015.
Among other things, the initiative filed by the Minnerys would bar the city from recognizing the existence of transgender people by defining sex for all municipal purposes as an “immutable biological condition” as determined at birth and would create a new special right to discriminate against transgender people by repealing the law protecting their right to use facilities “consistent with their gender identity.”
Fair Anchorage, a coalition of businesses, labor unions, faith organizations, and community groups, is urging voters to say “No” to discrimination by pledging to vote "No" on this divisive ballot proposition.
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