Mass. Senate ignores parents - unanimously approves huge funding increases for homosexual programs in schools. Even "good" senators caved in.

Leadership used sleazy maneuver to avoid debate.  Homosexual lobby triumphs.

May 23, 2008

Thursday, May 22, the Massachusetts Senate unanimously caved in to the homosexual lobby. Using a particularly sleazy maneuver they increased the funding for homosexual programs in the schools by $300,000 -- to $850,000 in the 2009 budget.

This money will go (either directly or indirectly) to the hideous Massachusetts Commission on Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Youth, which (among other things) recently organized the disgusting Youth Pride Day on the Boston Common. They had also announced that "parents are the problem" because they teach traditional values.

Earlier this month the full Mass. House of Representatives had voted overwhelmingly (including many "pro-family reps) to increase this funding from $500,000 to $750,000. But then after getting a flood of phone calls from angry parents and citizens, the Senate committee cut it down to $550,000.

But the homosexual lobby wasn't giving up. As we reported last week Sen. Dianne Wilkerson (D-Boston) who has become a huge pro-homosexual ally since they helped her in her recent election fight, filed two amendments to raise it up to $850,000 (which was MORE than the homosexual lobby has asked for):

Amendment #466: Increase budget item 7010-0005 from $200,000 to $300,000

Amendment #654: Increase budget item 4590-0250 from $350,000 to $550,000

Fighting back

We got right to work. We got a as many people as possible to call and email Sen. Wilkerson, and also the entire 40-person Senate. It apparently got so intense that Wilkerson disconnected her email for a period of time.

We also sent each Senate office the descriptions of the bigoted, anti-Catholic / anti-Christian pamphlets given out to kids, and the links to the pamphlets. Several Senators' staffers also get these regular emails, so they know what we're talking about.

But the leadership of the Senate made the decision to give the homosexual activists everything they asked for and the members unanimously approved. And the homosexual lobby, in tandem, used their usual tactic of disingenuously describing these destructive and offensive programs as "violence and suicide prevention". Of course, we've exposed and disproved that lie over and over to these politicians. But it plays on their basic cowardice and their fear of standing up against this vicious lobby. So they all caved in and supported it, rather than doing the right thing.

And Senate President Therese Murray, like her counterpart in the House, Sal DiMasi, sold you're your children and carried the water for this bizarre special-interest group.

Last night homosexual lobby MassEquality sent out the following email to their supporters, bragging about their victory:

Email from MassEquality to its supporters:

Today was another great day for equality in the Commonwealth!

The Massachusetts Senate has just approved several budget amendments to increase funding for programs supporting LGBT youth, seniors . . . In all cases, these amendments meet or exceed the funding MassEquality helped secure for these programs in the House budget.

· Department of Public Health funding for school health and community-based services for LGBT youth was increased by $200,000 to $550,000, which is $100,000 more than what was allocated in the House.

· Department of Education funding for school safety and suicide prevention programs for LGBT youth was increased by $100,000 to $300,000, matching the same level allocated in the House. . .

It's a strong testament to the power that comes in working together, and what we can achieve when we put all of our voices together.

Once again, you came through, with over 500 members contacting their legislators in just the past two weeks alone. This is what can happen when you make your voice heard.

We also owe great thanks to our allies in the Senate, including Senate President Therese Murray, Senator Ed Augustus and in particular Senator Dianne Wilkerson, who took the lead on many of our budget priorities and succeeded in delivering increased funding to all of these critical programs.

We'll be in touch with more information as the budget makes its way through conference and to the Governor's desk.

But in the meantime, thank you, as always, for all you do.

Marc Solomon
Campaign Director

Here's what actually happened.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee decided on their version of the budget last Wednesday. Over the next two days, individual senators filed 897 amendments, including #466 and #654 by Wilkerson. On Wednesday and Thursday of this week the full Senate met to "vote" on all of them.

During these sessions the senate went through the list of amendments in numerical order very quickly, reading the title and taking a "voice vote." In fact, there was no voice votes taken. None of the members actually said "yea" or "nay". The president would call for a vote and then immediately announce that it passed or failed. (It was very strange and actually quite offensive to see. We have some video of this we'll be posting soon.)

Here's the list of Senate amendments and how they were dealt with.

Through that method, most of the amendments took only seconds to deal with. A few amendments were announced to have been withdrawn by the sponsor. Occasionally a member raised his hand to make a comment or ask a question about the amendment at hand. And a few times someone actually spoke up and called for a roll call vote on an amendment. But that was very rare.

But as they went through the list, some of the amendments -- including #466 and #654 - were simply skipped. (These seem to be controversial amendments that the leadership wanted to push through in a way comfortable for the senators, and without having to actually read the titles publicly.) Then at the very end of the day the Senate President lumped those skipped amendments into two "bundles" - a "yes" bundle and a "no" bundle. Amendments #466 and #654 were in the "yes" bundle. , A quick phony "voice vote" was taken. And that was that. Nobody raised any objection nor made any comment about those amendments being in the bundle and not dealt with normally. They just followed the leadership's direction.

Then the senators voted on the entire amended budget, passed it unanimously, congratulated themselves, and went home.

All the senators knew what was going on

A senate insider later told us that every senator knew full well what was in each amendment, and what was in the "bundles." According to the rules, we were told, any senator could have asked for an amendment to be taken out of the bundle and dealt with separately. But they didn't want to. For the "pro-family" senators it was easier to just sit there and not risk getting into a confrontation with their colleagues or with the gay lobby.

The next step is that the House and Senate versions go before a conference committee to iron out the differences - which in our case are minor, both situations being very bad - and then it goes before the extremely pro-homosexual Governor to be signed (or vetoed).

 

What an example of outstanding cowardice and treachery! It will be hard to look any of these disgraceful politicians again. But we will. If they think this will make us go away, they're wrong. Some of these senators will want the support of pro-family activists in the November elections. We'll see what happens then. If this is how they act when things are on the line, what's the use of having them here?