ADN covers the True Diversity Dinner and Mayor Sullivan's ham handed approach to diversity and unions.

First the unions:

The annual event is meant to wrap up diversity month in the city but comes on the heels of a bitter debate over a failed anti-discrimination proposal. This year it's being held at the Hilton Anchorage downtown, which is where the union's beef comes in.

Locked in a labor dispute with owners, Hilton workers in Anchorage voted in May to urge a boycott of the hotel. The statewide teachers union is on board, agreeing to cancel six events this year and next. The Alaska Federation of Filipino Americans canceled a banquet too.

The union of roughly 1,000 Anchorage hotel and restaurant workers this month asked new Mayor Dan Sullivan to move the dinner to another venue.

Sullivan declined, and the union, which is seeking a better offer on wages and benefits from the hotel's Kentucky-based owner, now plans to protest the event.

Oh yeah that is exactly the group you want to piss off as mayor, the unions. Isn't there like a handbook that comes with this job or something?

Now the LGBT supporters:

John and Heather Aronno, married college students in their 20s, helped organize the evening's other protest.

The couple supported a proposal before the Assembly this summer that sought to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Sullivan vetoed the ordinance Aug. 17, saying he hadn't seen clear evidence that discrimination exists and that majority of people who contacted him opposed the change.

"As elected officials, we are charged with reflecting the will of the community in our decisions, particularly in the absence of compelling data that would supersede that will," Sullivan said in a written statement at the time.

That veto, combined with Sullivan changing the name of the annual "diversity" dinner to the "unity" dinner, prompted the Aronnos and fellow political bloggers to plan a dinner of their own.

It looks like the only demographic that Sullivan is interested in reaching out to is the attractive young female voter demographic. (It is either grabbing ass or kissing ass with you isn't it Mayor Sullivan?)

(H/T to Shannyn Moore for the photo)

The True Diversity Dinner will be held at the Snow Goose Restaurant tonight starting at 7:30. All of the cool people will be there!

(By the way, please click the title to read the entire ADN article. It was written by Kyle Hopkins who is one of the few GOOD reporters the ADN has left.)