The Anchorage Assembly has declared September 20, 2026, “LGBTQ Veterans Day.” Assemblymember Janice Park moved the resolution. Vice Chair Daniel Volland seconded it. Chair Anna Brawley, Assemblymember Yarrow Silvers, and Mayor Suzanne LaFrance supported it. Read that again. Not Veterans Day, but a special veterans day for one particular group based on sexuality.
Veterans already have a day. November 11. It was built that way on purpose. After two world wars and Korea, Congress took Armistice Day and made it Veterans Day so the country would honor every man and woman who wore the uniform. One day. One standard. One united Service.
This resolution does the opposite. It takes the honor and slices it.
Nobody drafted you for your bedroom. Nobody pinned a medal on your orientation. In a firefight the question is not who you sleep with. The question is whether you hold the line, carry your weight, and bring your people home. That is the whole job. The military is not a parade for your private life.
And no, Christians are not out here asking City Hall for Straight Veterans Day so we can advertise our sex lives. You see a Christian marriage in public because children show up. The Anchorage government is putting sexual identity on the official calendar and calling it patriotism.
If a gay Alaskan served honorably, he already has Veterans Day. Same flag. Same cemetery. Same thank you. That is equality. A separate city day says the original day was not enough, and that the important part of the veteran is the identity label. That is not honor. That is branding.
Ask the simple questions the Assembly will not:
How does this make Anchorage safer?
How does this house anybody?
How does this fix the schools?
How does this help the veteran sleeping in his truck?
How does this make a rifle squad better?
It does not. It gives politicians a press clip. It trains kids that government sorts people by sex and feelings. It tells every other veteran their service is the generic version.
Alaska is packed with veterans. One in ten statewide. Higher than that in this town if you count the bases and the retirees. Most of them did not ask for this. A small political class is using their uniform as a billboard. You can respect a gay veteran without turning City Hall into a lifestyle committee. You can oppose “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” theater without pretending combat cares about pronouns. You can be decent to a neighbor and still say the municipality has no business consecrating sexual preference as a civic holiday.
Honor the service. Leave the sex out of the proclamation. One flag. One day. That is the American version. “LGBTQ Veterans Day” is the leftist version.
If they want to thank veterans, pass the tax exemption paperwork faster, fix the VA wait, and show up on November 11 without a subtitle.
Check out the latest in Must Read Alaska’s “Service to My Country” series, a special series for Alaskan veterans to share their story. Must Read Alaska thanks all Alaskan veterans for their service.
