The Williams Institute

Alaska’s anti-discrimination statute provides no protection against employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The state university system has rebuffed repeated attempts to add sexual orientation to the list of protected characteristics in its anti-discrimination policy. In addition, there are currently no municipal laws offering protection for local government workers (a 1993 Anchorage law was enacted and then repealed in the same year). In 2002, the governor issued an administrative order declaring that the “goal” of state officials is to prohibit and prevent job discrimination against state employees based on, inter alia, sexual orientation; gender identity is not included in the administrative order. However, there appear to be no remedies available under the order, beyond the possibility of filing a complaint.