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Daily Sitka Sentinel, Sitka, Alaska, Tuesday, December 1, 2015, Page 3 ANCHORAGE (AP) — A new ef fort is underway to repeal the recently enacted Anchorage law protecting les bian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination. The repeal referendum would ask voters to decide whether the ordinance should remain law. Assembly Ordi nance 96 was passed in September, making it illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender iden tity. The petition application filed Wednesday must be approved by the municipal attorney before supporters can begin collecting signatures. More than 5,750 signatures of registered municipal voters would need to be col lected by Jan. 11 for the measure to be considered for the April election, The Alaska Dispatch News reported. Conservative talk radio host Berna dette Wilson is listed in the application as its primary committee sponsor. Wil son said she and 11 other women joined forces to file the petition because they have “grave concerns” about the ordi nance. Some of those concerns are re lated to “bathrooms and locker rooms and the safety of our children,’ she said. “We trust that everyone here within the community is interested in looking out for the best interests of our children when it comes to bathroom and locker room use,” she said. The bathroom issue was also brought up in September when Assem blywoman Amy Demboski proposed an amendment to the ordinance that would have allowed businesses to seg regate bathrooms based on a person’s male or female anatomy. The amend ment failed, but the final version allows people to use the bathrooms, locker rooms or dressing rooms that align with their gender identity. Drew Phoenix, director of Anchor age’s LGBT nonprofit Identity Inc., said Wilson and other Alaskans have a “lack of familiarity” when it comes to the everyday issues faced by transgen der people. Phoenix said many people in the LGBT community were “heartbroken” after learning that another repeal effort was in progress. He remains optimis tic that the repeal would be rejected if brought before voters. “I really believe (perceptions have changed),” he said. “But it doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy for us.” Alaska Posts 02% Jobs Gain JUNEAU (AP) — Alaska gained nearly 2,600 jobs in the first half of the year, or a .8 percent gain from the same time in 2014. The state labor department released the figures Tuesday. On average, 335,300 Alaskans were working every month from January through June of this year. Employers paid $9 billion in wages during that time, a 2.1 percent increase from the same period in 2014 and ad justed for inflation. The private sector added a bulk of the new jobs, and the loss of federal job losses slowed. Construction and oil and gas compa nies added about a thousand new jobs. New store openings led to nearly 700 retail jobs. Hires in bars and res taurants accounted for a bulk of the 700 leisure and hospitality industry jobs. The only private industry that lost jobs was seafood processing because of fewer winter hires and a late Bristol Bay sockeye return.
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Daily Sitka Sentinel
Sitka, Alaska, US
Tue, Dec 01, 2015
Page 3
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