Sitka and 10 other American cities had no legal protection for residents based on sexual orientation or gender identity earlier this fall, when the Human Rights Campaign gave these communities a score of zero on its municipal equality index.
That is about to change in Sitka.
The Sitka Assembly will consider on final reading Tuesday of a sweeping anti-discrimination ordinance. But will it really change anything in Sitka?
Cheryl Barnes and Madison Kosma are a couple with a pretty classic “how we met” story. Both researchers working on advanced degrees crossed paths at school in Fairbanks last year.
“I kept having feelings for her, staying at the lab later because I knew her car was in the parking lot, leaving my office door open in the hopes she would come to talk to me,” Kosma said.
“Which I never did!” Barnes said, laughing.
Long before she met Barnes, Kosma first moved to Sitka from Hawaii in 2012. She felt comfortable being open about her sexual orientation there, but a move to a new state caused some trepidation.
“When I was planning on moving to Alaska, not knowing much about Alaska, I did have some moments of wondering how I should approach the topic. It’s a red state,” Kosma said. “But then when I first landed in Sitka, I didn’t have any fear that anything was going to happen or safety reasons for not being open about who I am, who I love, and how I identify.”
Barnes moved here this year. She’s on the board for Southeast Alaska LGBTQ Alliance — or SEAGLA — and to get to know the community, she threw an event at a local business for National Coming Out Day.
“A month or so ago, and tried to get people to come out,” Barnes said. “Come out to celebrate,” Kosma clarified.
Sitka felt welcoming to both Kosma and Barnes when they arrived.
But the city code didn’t fall in line with the values of Sitkans they knew.
Currently, there’s nothing on the books that offers hiring or housing protections based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Barnes said that’s a problem.
“It does come into play when you’re discriminated against,” Barnes said. “You need to have some sort of legal leg to stand on so you can fight not being hired for a job or being rented a house because of your sexual orientation or gender expression or gender identity.”
Earlier this fall, Sitka fell into the national spotlight, when the Human Rights Campaign issued their annual report that scores cities based on LGBTQ protections in city codes.
Sitka received a score of zero.
Barnes said the absence of these protections could discourage people from moving to or even visiting Sitka.
“That is the sort of thing that LGBTQ folks look into before they go somewhere to live or even on vacation,” Barnes said. “They want to go to a place that feels supportive or at the very least non-discriminatory.”
In fact, the Alaska State Commission of Human Rights received 58 inquiries about discrimination in Sitka in the last five years, though not all were LGBTQ related. Director Marti Buscaglia said that number is pretty typical when compared to other small cities in Alaska.
“Several physical and mental disability cases from Sitka. Several age cases. A few religion cases and from what I can see, one national origin.”
Twenty of those inquiries became formal complaints. To protect privacy, Buscaglia can’t share any specific details about the Human Rights complaints in Sitka. And she can’t say how many of those complaints were from members of the LGBTQ community because, as of now, they can’t pursue complaints based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
“We did attempt to pass a resolution this year and it unfortunately did not go through,” Buscaglia said. “We do have a resolution in front of the legislature right now urging them to pass a law that protects the LGBTQ community in Alaska, but they’re pretty busy and it just hasn’t been prioritized.”
Kosma said it’s easy to forget that Sitka is not monolithic and that discrimination happens here.
“You can get into your groups and your bubbles,” Kosma said. “Maybe the voice for equality is really loud in your group, but that doesn’t mean it’s everywhere, and you’ve gotta figure out where those voices are.”
In the end, everyone will end up ahead if the ordinance passes, Barnes said.
“It puts the values that people in Sitka already have on the books and protects people,” Barnes said. “That actually makes a better situation for all of us even those of us who aren’t directly impacted. How can we all feel properly protected and free in our society when others aren’t.”
The ordinance also protects for discrimination based on age and disability, race and class and religion and nationality.
