Anti-Gay Anchorage, AK, Group Attacks LGBT Community With Ad

An anti-gay group in Anchorage, AK, recently launched a distasteful video ad that attacked the LGBT community in hopes to convince citizens to vote against Proposition 5, a measure that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to Anchorage's anti-discrimination laws, On Top Magazine reported.

The animated 30-second video titled "Daycare" shows an owner of a daycare who is "forced to hire a transvestite." Parents are shocked by the "transvestite" who is wearing a short pink dress, has broad shoulders and has stubble.

"If she hires him, she risks losing customers," the narrator says. "And if she refuses, she can be fined or imprisoned. Anchorage is already a tolerant city, vote no on Proposition 5."

The video may be seen by some as a lame attempt for opposers of Proposition 5 to garner financial supporters. It was reported last week that Protect Your Rights, the organization that is working to ensure Proposition 5 doesn't pass, raised less than $5,000 while supporters of the measure collected more than $230,000.

"We have been working towards the same legal protections for 35 years. We've had ups and we've had downs, and today, we feel we're very much on the upswing," Trevor Storrs, the spokesman for the gay rights group One Anchorage, said in an interview. "We have crossed so many of those divides that once existed and really have shown that this is a grass-roots, 100%-supported change that Anchorage residents want."

Stores also commented on the video and said it is "offensive, stigmatizing and distorted" towards transgender people.

"Such distorted cartoons have been used over and over again in history to dehumanize groups," Storrs told the media.

Nevertheless, Jim Minnery, the spokesman for Protect Your Right defended the video.

"I think it's a shocking flaw in Prop. 5 and shows profound disrespect to voters that the authors didn't feel it was important to provide a definition of transgender identity," he told the News Tribune.

Alaska does not recognize gay marriage nor does it recognize civil unions. Additionally, the state does not have anti-hate crime laws that protect the LGBT community.
Watch the video below: