In a recent turn of events, Alaska’s human rights commission has limited its investigation of discrimination complaints against the LGBTQ community. The commission has revised its policy, and is now solely focused on investigating workplace discrimination cases. The decision to halt investigations into discrimination in housing and financing has come under intense scrutiny from various organizations, including the LGBTQ advocacy nonprofit Identity Alaska.
According to an investigation by the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica, the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights removed language from its website that promised equal protection for transgender and gay Alaskans against most categories of discrimination. In addition, the commission has been rejecting complaints related to non-employment LGBTQ civil rights cases.
This change in policy occurred in 2021, a year after the commission published new guidelines extending Alaska’s LGBTQ protections beyond the workplace to housing, government practices, finance, and public accommodation. The guidelines were issued in response to a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that declared workplace discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity illegal.
The reversal of the commission’s policy has been linked to a conservative Christian group’s request, and it was made during the week of the primary for governor. Attorney General Treg Taylor advised the commission to make the change, and it was announced on the commission’s Twitter feed.
Robert Corbisier, the executive director of the commission, stated that the attorney general directed him to make the change. He added that Taylor said the Supreme Court’s decision in the Bostock v. Clayton County case was limited to employment discrimination, and the commission should restrict its own enforcement to employment matters.
The LGBTQ community and other human rights organizations have criticized the decision, with Identity Alaska referring to the reversal as “state-sponsored discrimination” and highlighting the real-world harms resulting from this policy change.
Despite this backlash, Governor Mike Dunleavy’s office denied involvement in the Department of Law’s legal advice on LGBTQ+ discrimination cases. The human rights commission’s decision to limit investigations into discrimination against the LGBTQ community remains in place, and the impact on Alaska’s LGBTQ community will continue to be monitored.