Alaska AG hid key decision on LGBTQ rights from public during gubernatorial election

Alaska Attorney General Tregarrick Taylor should be called to testify before the Alaska Legislature on why he hid a key change in state policy on civil rights in the midst of the last election.

We only know of this important change to reduce the civil rights of LGBTQ people because of excellent reporting by Kyle Hopkins for the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica.

This thorough investigation is worth a close review and should be followed by legislative hearings.

Taylor directed the Alaska State Commission on Human Rights to reduce protections for LGBTQ people in an email last August, at a time when Gov. Mike Dunleavy was facing criticism from the far right during his reelection campaign.

Taylor, who campaigned for Dunleavy and owes his job to Dunleavy, hid this key decision from the general public.

Taylor has a state-funded public relations staff, which has issued 51 press releases since that time, many of them about minor matters that didn’t warrant or generate any publicity for Taylor.

But he never had anyone distribute a general announcement that on his recommendation, the state commission had voided its previous position that “LGBTQ+ discrimination applied to places of public accommodation, housing, credit/financing, and government practices. . .”

Hopkins reports that there was a tweet by the human rights commission on Aug. 16 to its small group of followers on Twitter and a note on Facebook, but that’s about it.

“An investigation by the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica found the decision had been requested by a conservative Christian group and was made the week of the Republican primary for governor, in which Gov. Mike Dunleavy was criticized for not being conservative enough. The commission made the change on the advice of Attorney General Treg Taylor and announced it publicly via its Twitter feed — which currently has 31 followers — on Election Day,” Hopkins wrote.

“The agency issued no press release saying it was rolling back enforcement of equality laws. There was no essay or editorials. The human rights commission’s social media posts reached only a smattering of followers on the day of the statewide primary elections.”

“The commission also began deleting language from its website.”

Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor directed the Alaska State Commission on Human Rights to “void” its position last August that LGBTQ discrimination cases applied to a wide range of activities. Taylor, who campaigned for Gov. Mike Dunleavy, hid this decision from Alaskans during the gubernatorial election.