Some of the things that have happened since a Pridefest parade walker was accidentally killed have brought up the question of just how tolerant Anchorage is of homosexuality. After several media organizations, including KTVA, posted the story over the weekend, many negative comments soon followed, and some of the anonymous postings were just plain hateful. Some people said the man who was killed deserved to die because they believed he was gay. We spoke with one of the Pridefest organizers who told us she does not think the comments represent how most people in Anchorage feel. “I have never experienced the kind of hatred you are seeing on the website or in response to the news stories,” says Anne Marie Moylan, co-chair of Identity Inc. Moylan does not think of Anchorage as an intolerant city. She says the anonymous posters are a tiny minority whose views are born out of fear. “People who don’t recognize that they work next to a gay person. That they live next to a bisexual person or that they've been treated by a transgendered person in a hospital. The point is that we are everywhere, we are in your community, we are part of your lives,” she continued. If anything, she believes Anchorage has become a more tolerant community over the years and she hopes that will continue.
