ALCOHOL WAS A FACTOR: Weekly Newspapering in Rural Alaska

The Feltist Speaks

The Feltist and I were wolfing down sandwiches at a local coffeehouse as the winter skies dumped sleet and misery onto the streets of Haines.

The Feltist was worked up about a few things. For one, he hated the idea that the weather sent borough workers home like a bunch of schoolkids running for yellow buses — this in freaking Alaska.

Joe also has an issue with local police, who have decided to withhold officer-call reports that are the staple of a small-town newspaper’s police blotter.

Things can get complicated in Haines. Tom Morphet, who owns the newspaper and sits on the town council, wants to reduce the department’s size. And the new chief, a recent Washington D.C. transplant who guarded federal statues, isn’t happy.

So the chief won’t play ball with his blotter gems. Because he knows Morphet wants them.

Joe has a strong sense of justice. He grew up in Ohio to working-class parents and graduated at the top of his high school class. He’s brilliant but scattered and quickly wandered outside life’s commuter traffic lanes. He lived in Mexico for a few years.

He’s been an Alaskan character for years.

As Joe discussed the FOIA request he’d just dumped on the department, my eyes wandered. I spotted a tall young woman with her hair pulled back into a ponytail. She had high cheekbones and a quiet demeanor.

She smiled at me.

“Wow,” I said. “Who’s that?”

Joe looked at me. He didn’t sneer or laugh.

He just said it: She was transgender.

Nicknamed Ice, the sandwich shop worker was a native of Thailand, one of two people in a town of just 2,200 residents who switched their gender identifications. The other, Max, was a young girl who prefers to be male.

And few people here seem to be all that upset about it.

In Haines, a small Alaska town that many people might say sits at the end of the world, complex social issues are playing out in an almost genteel way.

The paper even did a story about Ice, headlined “Transgender Student Sets Own Path.”

The story referred to Ice as a her, not a him.

Ice said fellow students and teachers were friendly and respectful and even open-minded. The cheerleading squad even let Ice hang out with them. Ice also joined the girls’ basketball, track and volleyball teams.

The school worked with her. Ice uses a single-occupancy bathroom and showers when other stalls aren’t in use.

It seemed a refreshing approach to the issue, much more than vitriolic North Carolina.

Joe and I dropped the issue. Neither of us cared how Ice wanted to identify herself.

That was her choice. I guess we both have a strong sense of personal justice.

But the Feltist isn’t getting too touchy-feely about his northern haunts. He says it’s going to be awhile before Haines hold a Gay Pride parade.

And another local wag had an observation about Ice: He said it was fitting for Haines that the high school’s best-looking girl was a guy.

Anyway, on this day, Joe was too worked up over the police department; and those lazy school-ditching local government workers.

Heading home early?

Where’s the justice in that?