This guest post by Marsha Buck gives the contact information for testifying against Wayne Anthony Ross' appointment as Attorney General, and includes her own testimony as an example. For more on Wayne Anthony Ross, see Public input needed on WAR and Palin's AG pick called gays "degenerates."
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If you were not able to testify during the Senate hearing, you have another opportunity to testify on the confirmation of Wayne Anthony Ross as Attorney General of Alaska today, Friday, April 10 at 5 p.m. when the House Judiciary Committee will take public testimony, in Room 120 of the Capitol, by teleconference (1-888-295-4546), or by going to your local Legislative Information Office. I hope many of you will be able to testify.
During the Senate hearing on Wednesday, 31 people provided testimony, 14 in support of Mr. Ross and 17 in opposition. Six people testifying in opposition spoke about his record of discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Alaskans and many more voices need to be heard on this topic. Our greatest allies in opposition to Mr. Ross' confirmation appear to be members of the Native community, many of whom spoke forcefully against the appointment because of his record on subsistence and his divisiveness.
If you cannot testify on Friday, please call or email members of the House Judiciary, or send a Public Opinion Message, and express your concerns about Mr. Ross and his statement in the state Bar Association newsletter in which he referred to GLBT Alaskans as "degenerates" and spoke of being gay as a "perversion."
Contact information for House Judiciary members:
Rep. Jay Ramras Phone: 465-3004 Email: Representative_Jay_Ramras@legis.state.ak.us
Rep. Nancy Dahlstrom Phone: 465-3783 Email: Representative_Nancy_Dahlstrom@legis.state.ak.us
Rep. Carl Gatto Phone: 465-3743 Email: Representative_Carl_Gatto@legis.state.ak.us
Rep. Bob Lynn Phone: 465-4931 Email: Representative_Bob_Lynn@legis.state.ak.us
Rep. Max Gruenberg Phone: 465-4940 Email: Representative_Max_Gruenberg@legis.state.ak.us
Rep. Lindsey Holmes Phone: 465-4919 Email: Representative_Lindsey_Holmes@legis.state.ak.us
The entire Legislature will be voting on the confirmation of Wayne Anthony Ross on Thursday, April 16th. Please contact all legislators, including your own senator and representative, and state your opinion about the confirmation of Mr. Ross as Attorney General. The Public Opinion Message (POM) system is an excellent way to communicate with legislators briefly and easily.
Thank you for your activism in support of civil equality for ALL Alaskans!
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Senate Judiciary Hearing Testimony
Wayne Anthony Ross Nomination for Attorney General
April 8, 2009
My name is Marsha Buck and I live in Juneau. I am here representing Alaskans Together for Equality, Inc. which is a new statewide organization to advance the civil equality of all Alaskans with a focus on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender equality.
I would like to testify in opposition to the appointment of Wayne Anthony Ross as Attorney General for Alaska. Mr. Ross' record of negative comments about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Alaskans would appear to make him biased against the citizens Alaskans Together for Equality represents and therefore make it difficult for us to imagine how he could uphold our constitutional rights fairly and without discrimination.
We need an Attorney General who respects ALL Alaskans equally, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersex Alaskans. I would, therefore, ask that you oppose Mr. Ross' nomination.
Thank you,
Marsha Buck
Board President, Alaskans Together for Equality, Inc.
There's some weirdness in how Gavel to Gavel Alaska has linked to the archive file for the 1:00 PM House JUD hearing today on WAR as atty. general -- they're linking to some archive.cfm file instead of to the actual .mp3 audio file. However, somehow I found it, so if you're on a Mac, you should still be able to listen to it. (I have a Mac at home, & am re-listening to it now.)
ReplyDeleteClick on the following URL http://archive.ktoo.org:8081/gavel/F5908751/2009/04/HJUD090410A.mp3 & it'll open up right in your browser. Or, copy the URL, open iTunes, use the open the Advance menu & select "Open audio stream" and input the link there to play in iTunes.
Of particular note to us was the "lima bean" exchange, which begins about 36 minutes into the feed. He first is asked if he would hire openly gay people to the Dept. of Law. He said as long as they weren't "practicing that behavior at work." Then, a female rep. asked him about the letter about gays being "degenerates" to the AK Bar -- she apparently had a copy of... Read More it & asked him if he still stood by that statement. And he went into his lima bean analogy. Then another rep. says "I don't like lima beans either" & WAR says "I like you."
Later, there was a little haha laugh thing when a rep. talked about his "flamboyants" & he "joked" about flamboyance being something he associated with a fancy hanky in his breast pocket, "that kind of guy." He chuckled, & so did at least one or two of the legislators present -- clearly a "lets make fun of the fags" kind of joke. That's maybe an hour & 29 minutes in.
That's on top of his lie early in the hearing about the "rape" comments made in that DADS meeting, which the chair or whoever followed up on his comment was readily accepted.
I didn't have time to compose a letter earlier with some of my thoughts, so I decided to take my time over the weekend to compose carefully, & will send it in particular to my legislators (Sen. Ellis & Rep. Gara) & to some others, like Hollis French whose constituent I used to be & who sent out a constituent email earlier today specifically seeking input on WAR & on the Juneau Senate vacancy.
Typo: "flamboyance" not "flamboyants."
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update and the link. Can I post your letter next week?
ReplyDeleteSure. I'll send you a copy after I get it written. I'm going to hit particularly hard on the violence against women stuff, based not just on the prejudicial statements he is alleged to have made, but also on the complete ignorance he displayed when asked about it in the Senate JUD hearing two days ago.
ReplyDeleteWith all the NRA guys coming out for him, I've gotta say, geez: I haven't notice that Alaska gun-owners are under any particular danger of losing even their interpretation of 2nd Amendment rights -- whereas we have an incredible problem with sexual violence against esp. women & children, as well as domestic violence. Which he seems to care nothing about (much like Palin), even if it weren't for the crap he said at the DADS meeting or to the symposium that Sharon Araji gave a few years ago.
And of course he's a terrible homophobe. Or shall I say lima-bean-phobe.
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ReplyDeleteI deleted my prior comment & repost it with corrections here -- I had forgotten to make the links clickable.
ReplyDeleteAccidentally, I discovered that by trying to "save" the Gavel to Gavel archive files to the desktop version of Stanza -- which is supposed to be a book reading program for the Mac that syncs with the iPhone/iPod Touch app Stanza -- that I was able to find the URL for the .mp3 files for the hearings. Note to self: remember this!
Okay, so here's the four WAR files, I think in the correct order:
Apr 8 Senate JUD 1:30 PM hearing
http://archive.ktoo.org:8081/gavel/F5908751/2009/04/SJUD090408A.mp3
Apr 8 Senate JUD 5:30 PM public testimony
http://archive.ktoo.org:8081/gavel/F5908751/2009/04/SJUD090408B.mp3
Apr 10 House JUD 1:00 PM hearing
http://archive.ktoo.org:8081/gavel/F5908751/2009/04/HJUD090410A.mp3
Apr 10 House JUD 5:00 PM public testimony
http://archive.ktoo.org:8081/gavel/F5908751/2009/04/HJUD090410B.mp3
The audio files can also be heard at through the Legislative BASIS site through this nice custom-made tiny URL link I've made http://tinyurl.com/WARoss but this is only good for Windows users & even then they have to download a particular player (though the Legislature is kind enough to provide a link).
I am gonna gird up my loins or maybe just set myself up with a lot of antacid & listen to all of these over the weekend. Bleh. And do some letterwriting therefrom. Maybe I'll even dead-blog 'em. (My coinage for listening to archived files rather than live streams.)
(What will be more painful -- doing this, or doing my taxes?)
Apr 10 House JUD 1:00 PM hearing
http://archive.ktoo.org:8081/gavel/F5908751/2009/04/HJUD090410A.mp3
Apr 10 House JUD 5:00 PM public testimony
http://archive.ktoo.org:8081/gavel/F5908751/2009/04/HJUD090410B.mp3
The audio files can also be heard at through the Legislative BASIS site through this nice custom-made tiny URL link I've made http://tinyurl.com/WARoss but this is only good for Windows users & even then they have to download a particular player (though the Legislature is kind enough to provide a link).
I am gonna gird up my loins or maybe just set myself up with a lot of antacid & listen to all of these over the weekend. Bleh. And do some letterwriting therefrom. Maybe I'll even dead-blog 'em. (My coinage for listening to archived files rather than live streams.)
Bugger. double-copied part of it. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteP.S., I called UAA Sociology Department today re: the domestic violence symposium, but got only the secretary's voicemail, & she didn't return my detailed call by the time I left work.
I testified today in WAR's confirmation hearing--Mr. Ramras made it clear that he believes WAR will be confirmed next week--the house confirmation hearing was a JOKE. At least three of the reps were on their black berries-doubt they even know what was being said. You should listen to ramras' response to Leah Burton's testimony--very disturbing. Says a lot about how dysfunctional our legislature is and why so many of legislators are incarcerated. Very sad.
ReplyDelete