Anchorage votes down removal of nondiscrimination ordinance for transgender people

LGBT advocates declared victory on Friday as residents of Anchorage, Alaska, voted against a ballot measure that would have removed parts of the city’s transgender protections.

Voters shot down the initiative known as Proposition 1, aimed at revising the city’s municipal code in order to restrict bathroom access on the basis of biological sex, with around 53 percent of the vote, according to the city’s municipal clerk.

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The proposition, attached to Anchorage’s mayoral race, received votes from over 76,000 people, or roughly 35 percent of the city’s registered voters. The final results will be certified next Friday. 

Fair Anchorage, an LGBT advocacy group that opposed the measure, called it a “dangerous” initiative that would infringe on the rights of transgender individuals. 

“This historic vote showed that voters in our city rejected fear and intimidation to affirm that transgender people, like everyone else, should be afforded the same dignity and respect as everyone else,” the group said in a Friday statement.