Alaska rights commission limits LGBTQ discrimination cases

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska’s human rights commission has reversed an earlier policy and now is only investigating LGBTQ discrimination complaints related to workplace discrimination and not for other categories like housing and financing. The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica report the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights deleted language from the state website promising equal protections for transgender and gay Alaskans against most categories of discrimination. It also began refusing to investigate complaints. The body quietly made the move last year, just one year after it published new guidelines in 2021 saying Alaska’s LGBTQ protections extended beyond the workplace to housing, government practices, finance and “public accommodation.”