It's back
Library may have to foot city's legal bill

By Zaz Hollander, Anchorage Daily News

A gay pride exhibit returned Thursday to the Z.J. Loussac Public Library, as ordered by a federal judge.

But another potential controversy is brewing behind the scenes:Money to pay Alaska Civil Liberties Union attorneys who sued to get the exhibit restored may come not from the mayor, who made the decision to remove the exhibit, but from the library's limited budget.

That possibility rankles Jim Posey, director of the city's Department of Cultural and Recreational Services.

Through its membership in the Alaska Library Association, the library already "gave" to the lawsuit once, Posey said, if only a minimal amount. The association recently donated $1,000 to the AkCLU to help defray the lawsuit costs, according to association president Patience Frederiksen.

Anchorage municipal libraries including Loussac pay $360 a year in dues. "Now we're having to pay attorney fees on the other side," Posey said. "So the library is going to get bit not once but twice."

Mayor George Wuerch ordered the exhibit -- "Celebrating Diversity Under the Midnight Sun" -- removed on June 5. The civil liberties union sued the city on June 13. U.S. District Judge James Singleton on July 3 ordered the exhibit reinstalled, ruling that the city's vague library policy left room for personal bias.

Singleton also ordered the city to pay AkCLU's legal fees. As of Thursday, the group had not submitted a bill.

"The amount isn't resolved yet," said Paul Grant, an AkCLU board member from Juneau. Grant checked out the exhibit Thursday while in Anchorage for a series of board meetings.

City attorney Bill Greene said it's too early to tell how the money will be paid out.

"You're ahead of us on legal fees because I don't even know what they're going to be," Greene said.

The Anchorage Assembly would have no say in how the money is paid as long as it comes out of Posey's budget, Greene said. If that money isn't all there and the mayor must transfer funds from another department, he would need Assembly approval.

Wuerch's decision kicked off a backlash that many say galvanized the gay and lesbian community and brought crowds to the PrideFest parade June 23. But the mayor's order also resonated with some Anchorage residents; a poll of nearly 400 showed 54 percent backed Wuerch's decision.

The public never saw the original because it went up the night of June 4 and came down before the library opened the next day.

Singleton required the city to put the exhibit back up by Thursday after municipal and AkCLU officials failed to agree on when and how to restore it. As required by the judge, sponsors removed part of the exhibit that incorporated third-floor elevators, decorated to resemble closets that visitors came out of.

A library staffer said he'd received no complaints about the exhibit Thursday.

Anchorage resident Barbara Ward brought her parents -- visiting from upstate New York -- to the library Thursday specifically to see what all the fuss was about. They left scratching their heads, more excited about fishing the Kenai River later in the day.

Topped with a rainbow banner and glittery sun, the exhibit includes T-shirts and diversity-oriented placards tacked on walls to either side of the third-floor elevators. A poster entitled "Shades of Gay" features pictures of gays and lesbians in different roles including mothers and professionals. "I don't see anything that's objectionable," Ward said. "It seems like it's an educational exhibit."

Reporter Zaz Hollander can be reached at zhollander@adn.com or 907 257-4591.

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