Anchorage Daily News

After hearing from hundreds of people over six weeks of meetings, the Anchorage Assembly late Tuesday night gavelled a public hearing to a close on one of the more controversial issues to come before it in years -- a proposal to change the city's Equal Rights laws to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

The panel is expected to take up debate at its next meeting on Aug. 11.

The Assembly opened the first in a series of public hearings on June 9, and hundreds of people have turned out for several meetings since. At the start of Tuesday's meeting, Assembly Chairwoman Debbie Ossiander said about 200 names remained on a sign-up list to discuss the proposal.

Fewer than that appeared to be in the audience, but the room was still crowded with dozens of people on both sides of the issue. The hearing started shortly before 8 p.m.

Along with the original anti-discrimination ordinance submitted by Assemblyman Matt Claman, at least two revisions are now on the table. The first person to speak, Larry Michael, told the Assembly he grew up as a conservative Christian but supports the anti-discrimination proposal. He said arguments against the measure are illogical, mean-spirited and rooted in fear, and that "gays and lesbians function every bit as successfully as heterosexuals."

Several other speakers, however, said their opposition is based in their religious beliefs. They said the ordinance, if passed, would award "special rights" to gays and lesbians and discriminate against people who believe those "alternative lifestyles" are wrong, and a symptom of "the moral decay of our society."

"We did not make it up," said Elizabeth Edmundson. "The Bible says so."

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