Last summer, State House homosexual lobbyist Bill Conley (right at Youth Pride 2005 parade) was arrested for soliciting
college boys at UMass Amherst.
The Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth is supported by a "Friends" group, whose purpose is to raise money to support the gay/straight alliance clubs in high schools around the state, and put on the "Youth Pride" event each year. The "Friends of the Governor's Commission" allowed a convicted sex offender on its fundraising committee. Bill Berggren, (currently employed at the radical GLBT newspaper In Newsweekly, and recently resigned from Boston Pride's committee after his conviction was revealed) was listed on the Third Annual [2005] "Sunnyside Up Brunch Committee" as both a Table Captain and a Volunteer.
How many young people did he get to rub shoulders with there? Mind you, this was not a group of adults running Boston Pride. This was an organization that works with high school kids, "mentoring" and supporting their Gay/Straight Alliance clubs, etc. (See the "Friends" 2006 list of volunteering possibilities for adults who want to work with children.) We even asked in an old posting if such groups were doing the legally required background checks on their adult volunteers ... long before we heard about Mr. Berggren. Since then, MassResistance has continued to document these continuing dangerous liaisons, such as Youth Pride 2007, and the BAGLY prom.
Here's the list of 2005 committee members for the "Friends of the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth" fundraiser [web page no longer posted]:
Third Annual Sunnyside Up Brunch Committee (2005)
Joblin C. Younger, Chair
Joblin C. Younger, Chair
Vincent McCarthy, Honorary Chair
TABLE CAPTAINS: Cheryl A. Giles, Gerald James, Tim Fink, Kathleen Henry & Kim Marrkand, Jean Chapin Smith, Pierce Durkin & Rob Lowell, Jane Cotter & Barb Cocci, Project 10 East (Ashlee Reed, Executive Director), Mitch Adams & Kevin Smith, Grace Sterling Stowell, Trevor Wright, Bill Berggren, Nick Dennis, Gary Cohen, Michael Motzkin, Paul Hempel, Russ Aims, Sydney Mason-Barrett, AIDS Action Committee (Rebecca Haag, Executive Director).
VOLUNTEERS: Kathleen Henry, Ian J. Snape, Kelly Lydon, Michael Kerkorian, Nick Dennis, Mark Taggart, Jean Chapin Smith, Gerald James, Peter Baker, Rod Ferguson, John Acres, Paige Kruza, Bernie Gardella, James Bryant, Michael Motzkin, Jason Smith, Bill Berggren, Alex Morash, Robert Lowell, Tim Fink, Sylvain Bruni, Trevor Wright, William Rojas, Keri Aulita, Patricia Curran, Derrick Cheeseboro-Weaver.
