Massachusetts "Commission on Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Youth" outlines 2008 assault on public schools at meeting in Brockton

"It was frightening how organized these people are. I guess I was naïve. They're targeting K-12. They're trying to get them young. It sickens me. And it's all state funded."
-Brockton resident who attended.

"This is a relatively good political climate for us right now".
- Jason Smith, Commission Chairman.

BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS (MONDAY, DEC. 17, 2007) The state-funded Massachusetts Commission on Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender ("GLBT") Youth met in Brockton and outlined their bold plans for pushing homosexuality and transgenderism further into Massachusetts schools in 2008. They described how they are intimidating local school officials who resist, holding training sessions for school-based homosexual activists, and organizing the GSA clubs to "normalize" these behaviors throughout the school. They held a special "closed" meeting earlier in the day to discuss this with student "leaders" from several local schools.

The "Massachusetts Commission on Gay Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth" at their Brockton meeting, at the Brockton Holiday Inn.

The movers and shakers: At far right is Chairman Jason Smith. At the left are Gunner Scott (a woman dressing as a man) talking to Grace Sterling Stowell (a man dressing as a woman. For more on them, see the MassResistance blog.

(The first thing people noticed was a uniformed police officer standing at the door. They started to do this last spring. It's unusual for normal state bodies. The main purpose seems to intimidate citizens who come to observe.)

Some of the general topics discussed:

Their "High School Committee" chairman emphasized what we've been seeing ourselves: They're pushing hard to put homosexual and transgender programs in the lower grades, not only in high school. There seems to be an obsession with normalizing homosexuality to kids as young as possible.
They are also conducting "Youth bisexual talks" at some colleges and universities - apparently through "religious communities" on campus.
They discussed their plans to put huge efforts into lobbying for the "Transgender rights and hate crimes bill" (H1722) coming up early next year in the Legislature. They have a special committee to focus on individual lawmakers. This seems to be a big priority. Most likely, they will make extensive use of kids.
The homosexual group MassEquality made a presentation at the meeting. The Commission plans to work with them (and presumably get kids involved) to expand homosexual "marriage" throughout the New England states.
They want a better distribution of state money for homosexual programs in schools. Not enough of it is getting into the schools, they complained. A representative from the Mass. Dept. of Education gave a presentation of how they've been working with the Commission to more efficiently give out the "grant" money to GSA clubs in the schools.
The "Human Services Committee" chairman reported that they are now targeting state agencies to make sure they're homosexual and transgender friendly. They are sending letters to introduce work of Commission and lining up families of LGBT youth to "dialogue" with agency employees. They especially want to target DSS Youth Services.
One of the committee leaders started a huge discussion on making sure that the Commission includes enough bisexual committee members. "Bisexuals were being left out of this whole process," members were told. So there was a big debate back and forth. If finally came down to the difficulty of asking people what their "orientation" is. But still, there was concern of several members of lack of bisexual representation. (Don't get us started . . .)
The chairman, Jason Smith, told the Commission that there is no Massachusetts residency requirement to be a member.
Very weird new Commission members were voted in.

New Commission members voted in - VERY weird and frightening

They voted in a slate of new Commissioners to replace several who left over the past year. This was particularly disturbing. We received a copy of their biographies. Many of these new Commissioners are obviously extremely disturbed (emotionally and otherwise) and politically radical individuals who have no business being on any public body, especially one that works with schoolchildren.

Read biographies of the new Commission members here - VERY disturbing.

Huge lobbying effort for increased state funding next year!

They are planning a huge lobbying effort - with cooperation from the Governor's office - to get the Legislature to fund them a record amount of money for the upcoming fiscal year!

As the homosexual newspaper "Bay Windows" reported:

During the business meeting the commission also discussed plans to lobby for increased Safe Schools funding in Fiscal Year 2009 (FY09). Eleni Carr, chair of the commission's government relations committee, said that her committee drafted a detailed funding request for Patrick describing specific LGBT youth programming initiatives and their expected cost, and the committee hopes to see a significant increase in LGBT youth funding for the coming year.

Following the meeting Carr told Bay Windows that she could not divulge the details of their funding request until after Patrick releases his budget proposal early next year, for fear of tipping off opponents of LGBT youth funding. But she said the request goes beyond the scope of state LGBT programming of previous years, focusing not only on the familiar topics of schools and suicide prevention but also on issues like homelessness, dating violence, sexual health and substance abuse. She said the request exceeds the state's $1.6 million high watermark for LGBT youth program funding in FY02.

"It's ambitious and it's more money than we have ever received," said Carr.

They added that Governor's Budget goes directly to the House. They're building up groups of people to call representatives and senators and demand that the funding be passed. They feel they have an inside lane with the Governor's office, however.

Meeting with kids in local "gay" school club (run by cross-dressing adult)

Private meetings with student activists are the major reason for the Commission to hold their meetings in regional towns. Commission members held a special "closed" meeting earlier in the day to discuss this with student "leaders" and adults from several local schools in Brockton, Weymouth, East Bridgewater, and Holbrook.

Commission member Gunner Scott, a female who dresses like a man, has a beard and sideburns, and apparently has had her breasts removed, reported to the Commission on the meeting. She said that she had wanted to "get the experiences" of students, and that she is "excited about the progress" she saw.

They described how they are intimidating local school officials who resist the homosexual agenda in the schools. They are also holding training sessions for school-based homosexual activists and organizing the GSA clubs to "normalize" homosexual behavior throughout the schools.

They seem to be using a common tactic to "normalize" homosexuality in a school setting. Activists encourage kids to "act out" overtly as homosexuals or lesbians. They push it in everyone's faces as much as possible by holding hands, kissing, or otherwise acting "gay". When other kids (or staff members) react negatively (i.e., the natural reaction of disgust) this is taken as "proof" of rampant homophobia in the school. They force the "offenders" to be publicly reprimanded, and teachers and administrators are warned or even threatened. But more importantly, the homosexual lobby uses these "incidents" to demand more money from the Legislature.

(The phrase "sexual minority youth" was used quite a bit, for effect. They also mix this with phony terms such as "suicide prevention.")

The Commission doesn't just catalog these stories, though. They use their state power to threaten and intimidate schools and individual officials into submission on the spot.

For example Gunner reported that in Brockton some teachers "were not intervening in homophobic situations." So the Commission is apparently writing a letter to the superintendent demanding change.

There was discussion of a situation in Milton where the child of lesbian was made to feel uncomfortable.. The Commission sent letter to Superintendent regarding that, and is organizing a "community meeting" at pro-gay Milton church to organize a pressure campaign. There was also a letter sent to superintendent of Foxboro, although they already have School Committee support there.

It was announced with some excitement that there was a situation where local parents were not supportive of the son's homosexuality. So Commission members found a homosexual family for him to leave his home and live with.

Commission members described a strategy of going after the superintendents and then approaching the School Committees. Also, they want to have a pro-homosexual teacher in every district, preferably in every school, to be their point person.

Although the public wasn't invited to the earlier meeting with schoolchildren, the Commission did allow a reporter from the homosexual newspaper "Bay Windows" to attend. Here are some excerpts from their article (notice the spin - this is how the Legislators will be hearing it):

About 35 high schoolers from Brockton, East Bridgewater, Fall River and Weymouth met with members of the Massachusetts Commission on GLBT Youth Dec. 17 at Brockton High School to give them a glimpse of life inside the region's public schools. The bottom line? They said that in many classrooms homophobic bullies seem to be running the show. They told commissioners that their fellow students frequently make anti-gay comments in the classroom and that their teachers often seem powerless to stop them. One Brockton sophomore said that for the past two years students have targeted him in class, calling him a fruitcake and a fag, and in many cases teachers declined to intervene.

"They're always saying their opinions, how gays are going to hell, and the teacher is just sitting there. ... I felt very alone and by myself," said the Brockton sophomore. (Bay Windows was permitted to cover the meeting, which was closed to the public, under the condition that the young people attending the event would not be identified by name, to preserve their confidentiality.)

A student from Durfee High School in Fall River said that last year he participated in the GLSEN Day of Silence event, where students pledged to remain silent during the school day to highlight the silencing of LGBT youth. Students in his English class teased him relentlessly to goad him into breaking his silence.

"They taunted and teased me to the point where tears were coming out of my eyes," said the student.

Eventually his teacher decided to have the class debate the Day of Silence and gay rights, but his fellow students used the opportunity to declare their anti-gay beliefs, making the student feel even more isolated.

In some cases students said teachers were actually afraid of discussing LGBT issues in the classroom, for fear that any discussion would prompt some of the students to let loose a torrent of anti-gay slurs and comments. One member of Brockton High's gay-straight alliance (GSA) said that a health teacher extended an invitation to her and another GSA member to come into one of her classes to talk about LGBT issues. Yet before the GSA members had a chance to address the class the health teacher rescinded the invitation.

"Then she changed her mind because she was afraid about how rowdy the class would be in response. That was pretty disappointing," said the GSA member.

Not all teachers described by the students were poor at handling discussion of LGBT issues in the classroom. Another Brockton student said her health teacher brought up the subject during class and led a respectful discussion.

"There were people who were making jokes, but a lot of us got into the discussion seriously," said the student.

During the student forum, students from Brockton High said that while there are few out transgender students at the school, in at least one instance the administration, and particularly principal Susan Szachowicz, took steps to accommodate a trans student. One student said her ex-boyfriend was a female-to-male transman, and when he graduated last year Szachowicz allowed him to wear black robes along with the rest of the male graduates (females wore red robes) and to use his male name on his diploma. But she said there was a desperate need to educate the student body. Before her ex-boyfriend graduated she said students used to approach her and friends of the trans student and ask them, "Who is this freak?"

Commissioners also asked students about the issues they faced as LGBT students outside of school. The Brockton sophomore quoted above told the commissioners that his family refused to accept his homosexuality after he came out, and their reaction turned hostile after he started dating boys. He left home recently, and a lesbian couple agreed to take him in and welcome him into their family. He said if they had not offered him a home he would likely be living on the street.

"It's really nice to finally be in an accepting environment," said the student.

Upcoming events & training sessions:

The Commission has been meeting in different parts of the state, to let schools know that they intend to have a "presence" in their area. They not only "bond" with the local activists and kids, but it also has an intimidating effect on school officials. So far, they've met in Were in Boston, Hyannis, Worcester, and Brockton. The next Commission meeting will be in Springfield on March 17, 2008

Also discussed at the meeting:

Jan 5. - Meeting in church in Quincy. Parents & Friends meeting.

May 19 - Workshop (in Quincy, we believe) on linking criticism of transsexuality and cross-dressing to racism. (This is the latest madness!) A group will be there that specializes in race relations.

Mon. May 19. 10-4. and Mon. July 21 10-4 -- sessions in negotiations, in Boston.

Other Commission training sessions in May & July 2008. Mandatory, they said, and closed to the public.

July - Executive Committee meeting. Meets every 2 weeks.

Re-election of Chairman Jason. Finally, near the end of the meeting the chairman of the Commission, Jason Smith was also re-elected using an interesting communist party-style printed ballot.

We've never seen anything like this. It seems to reflect their general sense of entitlement.