Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan's decision to pander to his conservative supporters does not seem to be working out too well.

Clearly the Mayor believed he could simply change the name and philosophy of this annual dinner with no backlash whatsoever. Boy did he underestimate the people of Anchorage!

This city belongs to ALL of us. Not just the people who financed his campaign or think like he does.

Here is more from Mel Green, of Henkima fame, courtesy of the Alaska Dispatch:

I'm speaking only as myself, but I think the others involved with the alternative True Diversity Dinner would agree with me that we have no argument with the Municipality's diversity programming. Nor are we asking for anyone to withhold support if they choose to attend the Unity Dinner. But a lot of us find there to be a pretty big discrepancy between Mayor Sullivan's veto of an ordinance which would have accorded equal protection from discrimination for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans citizens and visitors to Anchorage, and his supposed valuation of diversity. I'm not sure who chose the Unity Dinner's keynote speaker, Lynn Swann, but to me that choice underscores that that reference to "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" in the muni's diversity statement is, at least this year, lip service -- Swann during his 2006 run for governor of Pennsylvania endorsed an amendment to PA's constitution that would have prevented same-sex couples from having the same rights -- medical, marriage, estate -- as heterosexual couples.

The result of this is, many of us who fought for equal rights for LGBT people in Anchorage -- and that includes non-LGBT as well as LGBT people -- don't see much place for LGBTs or their allies as either individuals or as families in the Mayor's vision of diversity. Several of us bloggers who had written a lot over the summer about the Assembly hearings started talking about how to respond to our feelings after the mayor's veto of ordinance 64. We decided that holding some kind of protest wouldn't actually make us feel any better. So we decided instead to celebrate the values we'd been fighting for.

If you would like to read more about this dinner, and learn where to purchase tickets then just take a minute to visit the True Diversity Dinner website.

Let us show Mayor Sullivan, and his master Jerry Prevo, what REAL diversity is all about.

I hope to see you there!