Dr. Prevo's Friday Anchorage Daily News Letter to the Editor

There are a few remarkable things that caught my eye last Friday, reading through Rev. Jerry Prevo's letter to the editor of the Anchorage Daily News, in which he recommended that the Anchorage Assembly reject the equal rights ordinance in their upcoming deliberations. The two most notable features were these:

1. The letter was composed of one demonstrably false argument after another.

2. The letter solicited money for his church.

Gryph, at the Immoral Minority has composed the best takedown of Provo's letter's lies, one after another:

Here is a recent letter to the editor received from Jerry Prevo, our local Moral Majority assclown, concerning the idea of introducing an ordinance (which you can read for yourself here) that protects Alaskans from discrimination based on their sexuality.
Here are just some of the reasons I am against the homosexual ordinance. (Believe me, he did not call it the "homosexual ordinance" by accident. Your homophobia is already showing Jerry.)

It would allow any man to dress like a woman and use any public women's restroom. Ladies, do you want that to happen? If not then you should contact the Anchorage Assembly and show up at the June 9 public hearing. (This is false and has NOTHING to do with the ordinance. It is just an attempt to define people with a different sexual orientation as deviants and is nothing more than fear mongering.)

A man in a highly visible sales job could come to work dressed like a woman. (Also not true. Employers can insist on a certain type of uniform or dress code as part of their guidelines for ALL of their employees. All this ordinance says is that they may not discriminate against an employee because of his/her sexual orientation.)

A person of either sex who indulges a taste for extreme sexual promiscuity and pornography during working hours could not be stopped or fired even though it damages the company's image. (This is so ignorant that I almost cannot believe that a thinking person wrote it. Using work computers to watch porn is against the rules at probably every single business in Alaska, as is using work computers for online gambling, downloading illegal movies files, and sending spam to other computers. Nothing in this ordinance would force anybody to allow their workers to use the company internet access for non-work related activities, such as these. Once again Prevo is trying to tie sexual orientation with his idea of deviant behaviors.)

Maybe, worst of all, this ordinance would allow a man who teaches a second grade class or any grade to show up as a woman in the classroom and the School District could do nothing because of this ordinance. (The school district already has a non-sexual discrimination policy which can be found here: And which says the following: It is prohibited to harass, discriminate against, or grant a discriminatory advantage based on race, creed, gender, national origin, age, marital status, political or religious beliefs, physical or mental conditions, family, social, or cultural background, or sexual orientation. As far as I am aware, though this policy was adopted back in 2003, it has NEVER resulted in a male teacher coming to school dressed as a woman, with the possible exception of a Halloween party.)
This is a poorly written ordinance. For more of my explanation can be found at www.SOSanchorage.org

Gryph goes on to observe that:

Jerry Prevo is an especially disagreeable human being who spends much of his time dabbling in politics, and telling his congregation what to think, which movies to watch, how to vote, and that the devil will snatch them up if they don't listen to his every word.

Blogger and Alaska's most meteoric independent commentator, Shannyn Moore, merely posted Dr. Prevo's screed, knowing that just reading it and following the links was damning enough to post as an essay. She did ask readers to comment, though.

They did! BuffaloGal said it well:

Hey – I’m gay but didn’t get this memo about an ordinance update to our massive gay agenda. I was told to just quietly wait , watching old Ellen reruns and putting rainbow stickers around the neighborhood until the word came down from the higher ups in the gay army. Does this mean our long awaited glorious gay revolution started without me ??

Damn….that’s what I get for having been busy raising my kids, cleaning my house, paying my bills and working my normal non-gay job.

Ah well – I suppose I’ll have to be happy just living a regular life like the heteros. (and really – I’ve got nothing against them. Some of my best friends are straight. )

Enjoy your holiday weekend bbqs with your families everyone!

A third thing that bothered me was that the ADN, when it published his letter. published it without informing its readers that Prevo is now a very active prominent Republican, and has recently served on standing committees, and as an officer of that party.

Prevo was honest enough to sign off as the pastor of the Anchorage Baptist Temple though. After all, his letter to the editor links to a paypal page that will help pay the bill on the next oil change on his immodest car.

Having watched Alaska media handle Prevo coming back on this equal rights issue again now, for the third time (the 80s, with the devil costume debacle, the 90s with the Loussac windshield breakage, and now), they don't appear to have gotten very far, if anywhere. This is sad, because the rest of the country's media seems to often be leaders in promoting rational debate. Instead, the ADN seems to be giving Rev. Prevo another undeserved free pass.


image - Palin & Prevo - PA