Episode #14
Jay Brause & Gene Dugan: Anchorage LGBTQ Rights Icons
Send us Fan Mail Jay Brause and Gene Dugan met at the Alaska Gay Community Center in Anchorage in 1978. In 1979 Jay's father, a Lutheran minister, presided over their holy union at Joy Lutheran Church in Eagle River. In 1994 they attempted to register their marriage and were denied. This led to litigation that ultimately was decided in Jay and Gene's favor in 1996, but Alaska changed its constitution in 1998 to only recognize marriages between a man and a woman. They were legally married in Portland in 2004, but that marriage was nullified by Oregon shortly afterwards. In 2006, they got married in South Africa; in 2007 in the Yukon Territory; and finally, in 2015 they were legally married in Anchorage. Jay & Gene were instrumental in the LGBTQ rights movement in Anchorage for decades. Jay was responsible for changing the name of the Gay and Lesbian Center to Identity, the organization he served as the director of for many years. He was a researcher on the 1985 "One In Ten" study of LGB issues in Alaska and the 1989 "Identity Reports" discrimination study. Gene founded Out North in 1985 which is an award-winning progressive multidisciplinary arts organization that still has a footprint in Alaska. Jakob Dugan-Brause and Eugene Dugan-Brause (their names today) moved to the UK in 2006. This interview took place via Zoom from their home in Northern Ireland. Listen to previous episode with Jim Obergefell here .
