Alaskans Together on Palin's LGBT Record

Sarah Palin has a very limited relationship with the Alaska LGBT community, due to her short time in office as Governor and her previous background as mayor of a small city in one of Alaska's more conservative areas. Governor Palin is a conservative politician in a conservative state, and she did not initiate a relationship with the LGBT community as either mayor or governor. 

However, one of Governor Palin's first duties involved 3 pieces of LGBT legislation. 

As he was leaving office, former Gov. Murkowski called a special legislative session to challenge an Alaska Supreme Court decision granting benefits to same-sex partners of public employees and retirees in Alaska. The court decision was the result of a case filed four years earlier by ACLU on behalf of nine same-sex couples. One partner in each couple was a State employee and the other partner was denied benefits as a result of a 1998 constitutional amendment that defined marriage as between a man and a woman. The equal protection clause of the Alaska Constitution prevailed in that Supreme Court decision, but our Republican legislature was determined to prevent the benefits from being provided on the date of implementation, January 1, 2007. 

Because of the implementation deadline, Sarah Palin was required to act on the 3 pieces of legislation prior to taking the oath of office as governor: 

1) She vetoed HB 4001 on the grounds that it violated the constitution. HB 4001 would have prohibited the Commissioner of Administration from implementing the regulations that would extend same-sex partner benefits. 

2) She let a resolution stand that urged the court to delay implementation of same-sex partner benefits. The court did not grant the delay.

3) In the most detrimental move for the LGBT community, she signed into law HB 4002, calling for a statewide advisory vote on the provision of same-sex partner employment benefits. 

That advisory vote occurred on April 3, 2007 at the cost of $1.2 million to the State of Alaska. Representative John Coghill, HB 4002's prime sponsor, said publicly that he was looking for "an overwhelming majority" of Alaskans to vote in favor of only providing benefits to opposite sex couples so he would have public support for legislation to enact another constitutional amendment. He did not get his overwhelming majority. Alaskans voted 52% in favor and 48% against the advisory vote – figures which we in the LGBT community consider a strong success for our side. 

"Please know that this veto does not signal any change or modification to my disagreement with the action and order by the Alaskan Supreme Court," Palin wrote in her signing statement on her veto of HB 4001. 

"I feel as though Alaskans spoke on this issue with their overwhelming support for a constitutional amendment in 1998 which defined marriage as between a man and a woman," she said in interviews with the Anchorage Daily News. She went on to say that she would accept the Alaska Supreme Court order and that the state must provide benefits to same-sex partners. (Anchorage Daily News, Our View, Saturday, December 30, 2006). 

Marsha Buck, Co-chair

Alaskans Together for Equality, Inc.

Alaskans Together Foundation, Inc.

Alaskans Together is Alaska's statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender organization advancing civil equality for all Alaskans through grassroots organizing and advocacy.