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Dr. Marci Bowers is a pelvic and gynecologic surgeon with more than 32 years’ experience. She is the president of WPATH – the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. Her gender diverse work has been highlighted through appearances on Oprah, CBS Sunday Morning, Discovery Health and the TLC reality series, “I am Jazz." She was interviewed in 2021 by Leslie Stahl for “60 Minutes.” Dr. Bowers is recognized as one of the 100 most influential LGBT people on the Guardian’s World Pride Power List. She has performed more than 2250 primary Male-to-Female Vaginoplasties and 3900 Gender Affirming Surgeries overall.

This episode is part of a series on trans rights. The impulse for these interviews is three bills currently moving through the Alaska State House: HB 183 which bans trans girls from playing girls sports; HB 105 which requires kids to get signed permission slips approving their preferred name and pronouns; and HB 338 which allows doctors to be sued up to 20 years after performing gender affirming procedures on trans youth.

Alaska has many big problems. The pressing need to increase the funding of our public school system and finding a solution for an imminent energy crisis, for example. But instead of working on these very real, very substantial problems, we are spending the last weeks of session debating whether trans youth exist and have rights. They do exist; they do have rights.

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Dr. Joshua Safer  is the executive director of the Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery in New York. He is the founding medical director of the Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery at Boston University School of Medicine, and he was the inaugural president of the United States Professional Association for Transgender Health (USPATH).  He serves on the Global Education Initiative for the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). Dr. Safer was a co-author of the Endocrine Society Guidelines for the medical care of transgender patients.

This episode is part of a series on trans rights. The inspiration for these interviews is three bills currently moving through the Alaska State House: HB 183 which bans trans girls from playing girls sports; HB 105 which requires kids to get signed permission slips approving their preferred name and pronouns; and HB 338 which allows doctors to be sued up to 20 years after performing gender affirming procedures on trans youth.

Alaska has many big problems. The pressing need to increase the funding of our public school system and finding a solution for an imminent energy crisis, for example. But instead of working on these very real, very substantial problems, we are spending the last weeks of session debating whether trans youth exist and have rights. They do exist; they do have rights.

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Becca Bernard is a former environmental lawyer and a Unitarian Universalist community minister based in Anchorage. She is also mom to two children, one of whom is trans.

This episode is part of a series on trans rights. The inspiration for these interviews is three bills currently moving through the Alaska State House: HB 183 which bans trans girls from playing girls sports; HB 105 which requires kids to get signed permission slips approving their preferred name and pronouns; and HB 338 which allows doctors to be sued up to 20 years after performing gender affirming procedures on trans youth.

Alaska has many big problems. The pressing need to increase the funding of our public school system and finding a solution for an imminent energy crisis, for example. But instead of working on these very real, very substantial problems, we are spending the last weeks of session debating whether trans youth exist and have rights. They do exist; they do have rights.

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David Leslie is an Inupiaq Sipiniq (Two-Spirit) living in Fairbanks. He is a frequent testifier against the anti-trans bills moving through the Alaska State House. We discuss his specific perspective as a queer Alaska Native man.

To check out the book recommended by our guest, Yuuyaraq: The Way of The Human Being, by Harold Napoleon, Click here.

This episode is part of a series on trans rights. The inspiration for these interviews is three bills currently moving through the Alaska State House: HB 183 which bans trans girls from playing girls sports; HB 105 which requires kids to get signed permission slips approving their preferred name and pronouns; and HB 338 which allows doctors to be sued up to 20 years after performing gender affirming procedures on trans youth.

Alaska has many big problems. The pressing need to increase the funding of our public school system and finding a solution for an imminent energy crisis, for example. But instead of working on these very real, very substantial problems, we are spending the last weeks of session debating whether trans youth exist and have rights. They do exist; they do have rights.

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Henry is a 15 year old trans boy. He and his mother are the guests today discussing their experience in Alaska. No last names will be given in the interest of their safety.

This episode is part of a series on trans rights. The inspiration for these interviews is three bills currently moving through the Alaska State House: HB 183 which bans trans girls from playing girls sports; HB 105 which requires kids to get signed permission slips approving their preferred name and pronouns; and HB 338 which allows doctors to be sued up to 20 years after performing gender affirming procedures on trans youth.

Alaska has many big problems. The pressing need to increase the funding of our public school system and finding a solution for an imminent energy crisis, for example. But instead of working on these very real, very substantial problems, we are spending the last weeks of session debating whether trans youth exist and have rights. They do exist; they do have rights.

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Jessica Kalarchik was an Army First Sergeant who deployed with me and the Alaska Army National Guard’s 1-297th infantry battalion to Kosovo 2019-2020. 1st Sergeant Kalarchik presented as a very masculine man, and I never suspected that she was a trans woman. She was medically retired after 31 years in the military during her next deployment to Poland. Leaving the military gave her the freedom to begin her life as a openly trans woman, with the support of her wife, her daughters, and her grandchildren. She is the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit brought by the ACLU against her birth state of Montana over the right to amend the gender on her birth certificate.

To read more about the lawsuit, click here.

This episode is part of a series on trans rights. The inspiration for these interviews is three bills currently moving through the Alaska State House: HB 183 which bans trans girls from playing girls sports; HB 105 which requires kids to get signed permission slips approving their preferred name and pronouns; and HB 338 which allows doctors to be sued up to 20 years after performing gender affirming procedures on trans youth.

Alaska has many big problems. The pressing need to increase the funding of our public school system and finding a solution for an imminent energy crisis, for example. But instead of working on these very real, very substantial problems, we are spending the last weeks of session debating whether trans youth exist and have rights. They do exist; they do have rights.

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The Banning family consists of:

• Lindsey, clinical psychologist, mom
• Charlie, age 15, non-binary trans masculine
• Ezzy, age 12, sister
• Earl, neuropsychologist in the Air Force at Elmendorf, dad

This episode is part of a series on trans rights. The inspiration for these interviews is three bills currently moving through the Alaska State House: HB 183 which bans trans girls from playing girls sports; HB 105 which requires kids to get signed permission slips approving their preferred name and pronouns; and HB 338 which allows doctors to be sued up to 20 years after performing gender affirming procedures on trans youth.

Alaska has many big problems. The pressing need to increase the funding of our public school system and finding a solution for an imminent energy crisis, for example. But instead of working on these very real, very substantial problems, we are spending the last weeks of session debating whether trans youth exist and have rights. They do exist; they do have rights.

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Aaron Poe has been a wildlife biologist in Alaska since 1998. He is the father of a trans daughter in the Anchorage School District, and today we discuss that experience.

This episode is the first in a series on trans rights. The inspiration for these interviews is three bills currently moving through the Alaska State House: HB 183 which bans trans girls from playing girls sports; HB 105 which requires kids to get signed permission slips approving their preferred name and pronouns; and HB 338 which allows doctors to be sued up to 20 years after performing gender affirming procedures on trans youth.

Alaska has many big problems. The pressing need to increase the funding of our public school system and finding a solution for an imminent energy crisis, for example. But instead of working on these very real, very substantial problems, we are spending the last weeks of session debating whether trans youth exist and have rights. They do exist; they do have rights; and over the next few days we will be hearing from them and their families.

Aaron Poe recommends the following Ted Talk, "What it means to be intersex," by Susannah Temko. Click here to watch.

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Alaska State Senator James Kaufman represents the Abbott Loop and Hillside areas of Anchorage. Although in his teens and 20s he was a guitar player & song writer for several successful rock bands, James began earning real money as an aircraft mechanic in Houston, Texas. He quickly found himself taking on bigger and bigger management positions which ultimately led to him transitioning to the oil and gas field which eventually brought him to Alaska with BP.  He was elected to the state house in 2020 where he served in the Republican minority, and then to the Senate in 2022 where he now serves in the  bipartisan supermajority.

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Reggie Joule of Kotzebue is a former Alaska State House Representative and the former Northwest Arctic Borough Mayor. He is listed in the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame as: “the greatest practitioner of the blanket toss in the long history of the World Eskimo Indian Olympics.” His skill in that Alaska Native sport led to his appearance on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson twice. He ran for the Alaska State House the first time in 1988, but it he lost. Eight years later he ran and won and represented the North Slope in the state house for 15 years before running for mayor.