If you were driving by the north lawn of Loussac Library on 36th Avenue Tuesday evening, you saw a line of sign waving activists.

Those opposed to the proposed addition of sexual orientation to the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance wore red shirts, and their signs read things like “truth is not hate” and “when the ‘Gay Agenda’ destroys Civil Liberties everyone loses!!!” Meanwhile the pro-64 crowd (the ordinance is AO No. 2009-64) was decked out in blue, with signs reading “freedom of religion = freedom from religion,” “Jesus had 2 dads,” “tax ABT” (a reference to opposition leader Jerry Prevo’s Anchorage Baptist Temple), and “We’re for the separation of church and hate.”

But if you were on the north lawn, rather than driving by, you’d have seen an entirely different scene: it was practically a rave. DJ Dan on the turntables, dropping techno and dance music, with kids dancing; a picnic with Moose’s Tooth pizza, and hundreds of people, not necessarily in colored shirts, laughing, laying on the grass, while police and security officers watched from the top of the hill with smiles on their faces. Assemblyman Patrick Flynn, a proponent of the ordinance, strolled through during the assembly’s dinner break, and seemed surprised at the party that had broken out. The lawn party was supposed to have been an opportunity for people on either side of the issue to come together and demonstrate that Anchorage isn’t the hate-filled community it appeared to be at the previous Tuesday’s hearing on the ordinance. At that meeting, according to eyewitnesses and a police report, a red-shirt told a blue-shirt “Jesus hates you,” to which the blue-shirt replied “Fuck Jesus.” Then red-shirt slapped blue-shirt, breaking blue-shirt’s glasses, and earning red-shirt a citation from the Anchorage Police Department. Although the north lawn party ended up attracting mostly supporters of the ordinance (maybe 90 percent of those who came), it still managed to make its intended point: making your voice heard in this controversial battle doesn’t have to be hateful.

Meanwhile, in the assembly chambers, Chair Debbie Ossiander introduced a new version of the ordinance, which is problematic to some supporters—the goal being to soften it enough so that Prevo and his supporters don’t initiate a referendum to overturn the ordinance once the assembly passes it.

The new version removes transgender people from the protections, and drops the employment clause (except for municipality jobs). It also strengthens the religious exemption by adding the line, “The Equal Rights Commission may not examine the genuineness of a proffered religious reason by such organizations.” Additionally, it details the maintenance and enforcement of gender-segregated restrooms, clarifies that the ordinance won’t prevent employers from enforcing dress codes and codes of conduct, and that “prohibitions under this chapter shall not be construed as mandating preferential treatment or quotas based on sexual orientation.”

As this issue went to press, there was another special assembly meeting to allow all those who wish to testify to have that chance on Wednesday night. But with the new version making proponents uncomfortable, don’t expect to see any resolution on the ordinance anytime soon.

bjk@anchoragepress.com