Alaska Attorney General Signs Onto Harmful Amicus Brief, Targeting LGBTQ Youth
For Immediate Release: July 19, 2024
Juneau, AK — Recently, Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor signed onto an amicus brief requesting the U.S. Supreme Court to take on a case centering parental rights to “make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their children.”
If successful, the case could dismantle rights protecting trans and nonbinary students, including forced outings regardless of the danger this could put them in, and requiring students to use facilities based on their sex assigned at birth. This case is an attempt to curtail the rights of transgender and nonbinary students who are simply asking to use names and pronouns with which they identify. The parents who are seeking to exert total control are ignoring the real harm being faced by transgender and nonbinary students.
This last legislative session was particularly hostile towards Alaska’s LGTBTQ2S+ community with the unprecedented number of legislation introduced that attacked their rights and opportunity to live freely and authentically. Though the community was able to come together to stop these harmful pieces of proposed legislation, AG Taylor’s decision highlights that this battle is not over, and that extremist elected officials are being swayed by external influences from the lower 48, rather than hearing the voices of those who live in Alaska.
Statement from Rose O’Hara-Jolley (they/them), Alaska State Director
“In Alaska, 78% of people support LGBTQ rights. However, this year we have seen increasingly relentless attacks against the LGBTQ2s+ community in our state. We know these attacks are being driven by outside players pushing an extreme political agenda that is frankly out of line with our values. Alaska’s youth are paying close attention to these battles, and those who are seeking to deny their truth and reality. It’s time that our elected officials begin to focus on issues that people in Alaska care about, and not get sucked into a national attack that is baseless, without merit, and not reflective of our state.”
These relentless attacks against trans youth need to stop. All people who call Alaska home deserve to live authentically, without fear, and with the opportunity to thrive. Until this is achieved, we will be here, fighting alongside the community.
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Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, Serving AK, HI, ID, IN, KY, WA (PPAA) is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization educating residents and policymakers about reproductive health issues in Alaska, Hawai‘i, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky and Washington. PPAA lobbies and educates to advance Planned Parenthood's mission, and engages in limited electoral activities