Alaska has a long history of national leadership regarding the protection of civil rights of our citizens. Sixteen years before the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1961 outlawed racial segregation by an act of Congress, Alaska had enacted its own Civil Rights Act in 1945, becoming the first territory or state to do so. Considered by some to be one of the greatest victories for racial equality of its time, the 1945 act outlawed discrimination against any citizen of the state in public accommodations and facilities and was championed by one of the great Alaska Native leaders, Elizabeth Peratrovich, along with then Territorial Gov. Ernest Gruening and a diverse array of allies both Native and non-Native.
Why was Alaska so far ahead of the rest of the nation when it came to equality? Because living here, in one of the harshest environments on the planet, forces you to look at things in a different way. There are only 730,000 of us lucky enough to call Alaska home, many in communities so small they would fit into a reasonably sized high school gym. We see our neighbors and co-workers every day and rely on each other for help in hard times, sometimes in life or death emergencies that can happen here all too frequently. There's no room for a "them and us" mindset here on the Last Frontier, there's just us.
That sense of community and collaboration is the driving spirit behind the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation's initiative to make Anchorage the No. 1 city in America to live, work and play by 2025. AEDC's 250 investor companies, along with more than 140 of the Live. Work. Play. partner organizations, are committed to improving our community while growing and diversifying the economy of Anchorage and the state. Our partners, some of the largest employers and nonprofit/for-purpose organizations in the state, know that strong communities are the foundation on which healthy economies are built. Additionally, they know that strong communities are only possible when all of the members of that community have an equal opportunity to succeed and participate.
In an effort to help provide the legal protections that allow for that kind of environment, the Anchorage Assembly has recently been considering an ordinance, co-sponsored by Assemblymen Bill Evans and Patrick Flynn, supporting the addition of nondiscrimination protections for Anchorage's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents. AEDC and LWP support the addition of these protections for Anchorage's LGBT community and believe that all Alaska residents should have the chance to earn a living and provide for themselves and their families without fear of discrimination or prejudice.
To date, 17 of Alaska's 25 largest employers have adopted their own workplace polices that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. So has my company, KPB Architects. These employers recognize that nondiscrimination policies increase the available pool of talented job applicants as well as open up new opportunities for innovation, government contracting and business growth. It's time for the municipality to follow the lead of these businesses and provide those same protections to all Anchorage residents. With all Alaskans' eyes focused on the economy recently, supporting ordinances -- like this one -- that strengthen our businesses, attract a new workforce, and generally improve our economy is not only timely, but imperative.
On behalf of the LWP initiative, AEDC's board of directors and all of the organizations supporting our efforts to make this community even better, we would like to thank the Anchorage Assembly and Mayor Ethan Berkowitz for their commitment to creating a more inclusive and welcoming city. For our community, for our economy, and for our friends and neighbors, we urge the Assembly to continue this state's long history of civil rights protections and please pass an Anchorage nondiscrimination ordinance that adds sexual orientation and gender identity to the existing list of protected classes to create a fully inclusive ordinance that protects all Anchorage residents equally.
Mike Prozeralik is the 2015 board chair of the Anchorage Economic Development Corp. and president of KPB Architects.
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