Mass. Safe Schools Program Directors Admitted Explicit Queer Sex Ed Needed for Kids

The question continues to be asked: Would “Safe Schools Czar” Kevin Jennings have expected the explicit content in the GLSEN Fistgate fisting workshop?

The DOE employees who led that GLSEN-Boston workshop in 2000 worked for Jeff Perrotti and Kim Westheimer, the program directors and coordinators for the “Safe Schools” program in the Massachusetts DOE since its inception in 1993. Perrotti and Westheimer published a book in 2001, When the Drama Club Is Not Enough; Lessons from the Safe Schools Program for Gay and Lesbian Students. They tell about the early days of the program.

In 1993, shortly after Kevin Jennings’ Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth education committee report was released, and the state Board of Education unanimously adopted four out of five of his recommendations, the Commission:

… lobbied government officials to fund the Safe Schools Program for Gay and Lesbian students at the Massachusetts DOE. In its first year, the program provided teacher trainings, resource materials, and grant money to schools to help them implement the Board of Education Recommendations. …

The Massachusetts Safe Schools Program attracted a group of innovative, committed activists and educators. We were given a unique opportunity to develop a landmark program, and there were no models to follow. We started by asking, “What do you think this program should be about?” “Whom should we talk to?” “How do we start?” And people told us.

We spoke to DOE staff who had dealt with other controversial school change initiatives and who had developed statewide programs. We talked to students to find out what they thought their schools needed. We called our activist friends and asked them for help – people from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) and Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD). The Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth gave us parameters to follow, and we relied on the expertise of school administrators and teachers in the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). Many of the people with whom we spoke had already been tirelessly working to create supports for gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth and to make schools, communities, and government institutions more accountable. The fledgling Safe Schools Program benefited from their wisdom and experience.  [Perrotti and Westheimer, pp. 3-5]

One of the tireless activists Perrotti and Westheimer called on to help set up their program was Bob Parlin, Jennings’ lover, according to Jennings’ own memoir (Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son, p. 201):

… [in 1993] a line item was put in the education budget to create a program to implement the new policy [Jennings’ Commission recommendations, adopted by the State Board of Education]. The program – Safe Schools for Gay and Lesbian Students – would be the first of its kind in the nation. Having no idea how to design such a program, the department turned to us [GLSEN] for guidance, and a series of meetings ensued that were actually quite comical…. After several fruitless meetings, they [the DOE bureaucrats] realized they had no expertise or ability in this arena and decided to bring my partner, Bob, on to develop and implement the program.

Bob Parlin (R), Kevin Jennings' former partner and designer 
of Mass. "Safe Schools" program, with post-Jennings 
partner -"husband" in 2004.  [photo: Harvard Crimson]

Perrotti and Westheimer continue (pp. 138-139):

When the Governor’s Commission and the Department of Education (DOE) initially created the parameters of the program [1993], there was a conscious decision not to address sex directly. It was thought that raising the topic of sexual orientation in schools would be controversial enough without combining it with sexuality education.

There are limitations, however, in setting this narrow a focus when designing program for gay lesbian, and bisexual students. The safety and well-being of gay, lesbian, and bisexual students can’t be separated from sexuality and AIDS/HIV prevention. Obviously, safety refers to physical safety—the ability to attend school without being threatened or being attacked. For young people, it also means being safe to express and explore their identities, including their sexuality.

Currently [2001] most gay, lesbian, and bisexual adolescents do not have this kind of emotional safety. Many do not see themselves or their sexuality reflected in their families, schools, or culture. They do not have the opportunity to go through the typical dating, breakups, and other rites of passage that help young people develop a sense of themselves. In this absence, they may not feel empowered to make choices about whether or not to be sexually active and may not know how to engage in healthy relationships. They may not have relevant information about HIV prevention. Because of these factors, they may explore their sexuality secretly and be vulnerable to abuse.

The impact of this lack of safety is reflected in the epidemiology regarding sexually active young gay men. As a group they are at increased risk for AIDS/HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. The Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior data show that gay, lesbian, and bisexual students are less likely than their heterosexual peers to use condoms. …

To be effective, any HIV prevention program needs to include explicit discussions about sex. If adolescents can’t talk about sex, it is unlikely that they will be able to negotiate safe sex. The AIDS/HIV prevention program at the Massachusetts DOE has been at the forefront of addressing these issues. 

Fistgate: Original Audio Cassettes Still Available!

The original cassettes distributed in 2000 by Massachusetts News,

and later by Parents' Rights Coalition (now MassResistance).

Collector's item. Limited quantity still available! Get yours for a donation of $100! Makes a great Christmas gift for the liberals in your family! 

Send your order to PO Box 1612, Waltham, MA 02454 today!

Why Did MassResistance/PRC Tape "Fistgate"?

Why did the Parents’ Rights Coalition (now MassResistance) decide to tape the 2000 GLSEN-Boston workshop, AKA “Fistgate”?

Below is then-director Scott Whiteman’s December 1999 testimony before the Massachusetts State Board of Education – just months before the March 2000 GLSEN event. State education officials ignored it as not credible.  Read this testimony with the hindsight offered by our Fistgate audio tapes.

Whiteman refers to BAGLY (Boston Alliance of Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Youth) – whose director was a founding member of the Governor’s Commission, a close working ally of Kevin Jennings, and has run the GLBT youth prom for decades. 

At this same Board of Education meeting, the Chairman of the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth (David LaFontaine) even admitted that “he [did] not have statistics showing the number of gay and lesbian students harassed or attacked in schools each year." Yet he went on to say, "We feel it's the responsibility of the state to stop the antigay violence in so many school systems." And so the “Safe Schools” program proceeded, despite the fact that there was no proof of antigay violence. (Boston Globe, “Students urge state to clarify gay rights,” 12-21-99.)

Testimony by Scott Whiteman 

Massachusetts State Board of Education Meeting

December 21, 1999
[See original document here as pdf.]

“We shall sodomize your sons, emblems of your feeble masculinity, of your shallow dreams and vulgar lies. We shall seduce them in your schools.” - Michael Swift, Gay Community News, Feb. 15, 1987.

On February 10, 1992, the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth was created by William Weld's having signed and authorized Executive Order 325, stating as his predominant reason for the institution of this Commission that 30% of completed youth suicides annually are by gay and lesbian youth; and . . . that suicide is the leading cause of death for gay and lesbian youth.

It is not my purpose to extrapolate fully on why the use of a 1989 Health and Human Services report on Youth Suicide was erroneous, rather to merely point out that the report was speculation then and has since been proven false by the Centers for Disease Control. I point this out for two reasons, which I call the Double Lie:

1. that there is a high percentage of youth suicide in the gay community

2. that the Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth is in the schools to prevent youth suicide

The Governor's Commission was founded on false premises with misrepresentation and disregard of the facts about the homosexual lifestyle. The facts were, and remain, that it is not determinable how many of the 5,000 annual youth suicides are by gays or lesbians. The intent of instituting the Commission on these premises was, and still is, to deceive you as to the nature of homosexuality. The Governor's Commission would have you believe that gay youths are beaten or harassed on a daily basis to the point that they contemplate suicide to escape this terrible lifestyle which they were born into. Fiction is fun, but the reality is that all teens, gays and lesbians alike, are resilient to attacks if they occur. However, where are they occurring? In Massachusetts, how many gays are beaten on a daily basis? How many are killed for being gay? These are the real numbers we need to see before the Governor's Commission should be allowed to continue with its supposed agenda, since the foundational 1989 study on Youth Suicide has been declared inconclusive.

What then, since the suicide rate is not so prevalent [as] the agents of the Commission [say], does the Commission, through the Gay Straight Alliances, do? According to the Recommendations in Prevention of Health Problems Among Gay & Lesbian Youth given to the Governor in 1994, the Commission has provided "trainings" on "Sexual Orientation and [the] Coming Out Process." Additionally, when dealing with STDs, information about safer sex should be given "as it relates to gay, lesbian and bisexual youth," with the understanding that "[g]ay, lesbian and bisexual youth may not be able to practice skills crucial to developing [a healthy homosexual relationship]."(1) Exactly what skills ought we be teaching children to practice? Should it be how to keep their fingernails trimmed so they don't tear their lover's rectum while "fisting" him, as the Color Me Healthy brochure from The Fenway instructs? Maybe they ought to be "practicing" on a New Hampshire lakeside weekend retreat and be paid $25 to do it at events sponsored by the Boston Area Gay and Lesbian Youth (BAGLY)? BAGLY itself recognizes that their age ranges from 14 to 22 at its meetings. Have we decided that youths who question their sexuality aren't protected from pederasts simply because they think they might be gay?

I am 25. If I were to approach any of your 14 or 15 year old daughter or granddaughter to "discuss sex" and give her a chance to "really get to know [me] ... on a much deeper level,"' you would rightly come against me and prevent me from meeting your daughter in this, or any, atmosphere. You might even seek to punish me criminally. Yet, we allow our young boys to be preyed upon by older men and call it "diversity." Pedophilia is still a crime in Massachusetts, and consensual sex is still rape when it occurs between a child under the age of 16 and an adult above the age of 18. Who will be to blame when an older man and a young boy lie together, facilitated by the GSAs? [gay/straight alliance clubs in the schools, mandated by the DOE “Safe Schools” program] Keep in mind that homosexuals are too ready to admit that "only" 30% of the pedophilia crimes are committed by homosexuals; stated differently, by 3% of the population.

I have come today not to give you questions to ponder before you allow the Governor's Commission to influence the schools with their call to diversity. Rather, I have come to reveal to you that they are in your schools under the guise of "safety." They have lied to you to get into the schools, lie to parents while in the schools, and you must pray that they are not lying with boys who statutorily cannot consent to sex. If you provide the in-road for these criminal pedophiles, you ought to be held accountable as well for their crimes. I leave you with this thought:

“How many gay men, I wonder, would have missed out on a valuable, liberating experience -- one that initiated them into their sexuality -- if it weren't for so-called molestation?”   - Carl Maves, "Getting Over It," The Advocate, May 5, 1992, p. 85.

This was in a 1992 edition of The Advocate, a "mainstream" gay magazine. According to the gays, you don't have to fear that they are pedophiles, you should thank them.

___________

(1) Prevention of Health Problems Among Gay & Lesbian Youth, p. 21

(2) BAGLY pamphlet announcing meetings and a $25 stipend for those who attend a lakeside weekend retreat.

Kevin Jennings: Pied Piper of the Homosexual-Transgender Movement

Kevin Jennings' GLSEN-Boston transported kids to "Fistgate II" in taxpayer-funded school buses in 2001:
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
[Massachusetts News, May 2001]

Jennings was a founding member of the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, and as co-chair of the education committee, he masterminded the DOE's "Safe Schools" program. He (and GLSEN) have had a long partnership with BAGLY, the Boston Alliance of Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Youth.

BAGLY was prominently included and recommended in the founding document of the Governor's Commission (1993). BAGLY's long-time director, Sterling Stowell (who later "transitioned" to become "Grace"), was a founding member of the Governor's Commission and co-chair of the its human services committee. At the time of the GLSEN Fistgate conference (2000), Stowell was a GLSEN-Boston board member and made sure a transsexual workshop was included in the conference. Stowell is now Vice Chair of the Massachusetts Commission on Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Youth. A very important player in Jennings' dream of GLBT-supportive schools.

Jennings' GLSEN funnels kids through its GSAs (gay straight alliance clubs) to GLSEN's conferences -- and to the BAGLY prom.

 
Entrance to BAGLY prom at Boston City Hall, 2007.

BAGLY holds its GLBT prom every May at Boston City Hall, wrapping up the festivities of Massachusetts Youth Pride day (which from the beginning has been sponsored by the Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth).

 
Kids waiting to enter the BAGLY prom (2007).



In a 2007 photo (above), Grace Sterling Stowell, the "male-to-female" transsexual director of BAGLY, greets kids at the prom, and keeps reporters (and MassResistance) out. The kids get warmed up before entering:

     

By 2009, BDSM (bondage and sadomasochism) had become an open theme of the BAGLY prom. (We're sure Jennings would approve of this legacy.) Mr. Boston Leather was all smiles as he greeted the kids on the dance floor:



Dance floor at BAGLY prom (2005):



The transgender message is a big focus at BAGLY events (2009):

 

At the national level, Kevin Jennings' GLSEN continues to draw kids in with dreams of revolutionary activism, for example their "JUMP START" program  (encouraging students to start GSAs at their schools). Eventually, many of the high school activists will join up with the dangerous crowd at the BAGLY prom.

  
Strange adults (above and below) mingle with kids at the 2009 event.

Kevin Jennings' Associate David LaFontaine's Attack on Boston Cathedral

More on "Safe Schools Czar" Kevin Jennings and the company he keeps:

We've pointed out that former Act Up member Kevin Jennings, along with homosexual activist David LaFontaine, were the two powers behind the hideous Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, as well as the Massachusetts law banning discrimination on the basis of  "sexual orientation" in the Massachusetts public schools. Jennings worked closely with LaFontaine, so must have been on the same wave length regarding goals and strategies. Jennings was still living in the Boston area at the time of two notorious incidents involving LaFontaine:

LaFontaine was arrested on July 31, 1990 for "disturbing a public assembly" at the Massachusetts State House. There, at a press conference critical of an exhibit of pornographic homoerotic and anti-Catholic photos by Robert Mapplethorpe, LaFontaine shouted down the Rev. Earl Jackson, a Protestant minister and leader of Boston's African-American community.

A little over a month earlier, LaFontaine had participated in the attack on the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston on June 16, 1990. The demonstration involved members of Act Up. LaFontaine was quoted in the Boston Globe, identified as lobbying director of the Coalition of Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights, a "co-organizer" of the demonstration. At the time, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights described the incident, which LaFontaine acknowledged he had helped organize:

On that day, militants sought to physically disrupt the ordinations [of new priests] by entering the Cathedral. Prevented from doing so [by police], they then attempted to acoustically disrupt them by blowing horns and whistles, and by showering clergy and congregants with a torrent of insults, taunts, blasphemies, obscenities and invectives. Lesbians paraded in costumed mockery of the Catholic priesthood, lewd parodies of the Catholic liturgy were conducted within sight and sound of worshipers and sexually explicit signs were displayed . . . When the ceremony ended, priests and their parents, some of them elderly, who left by the side door of the Cathedral were surrounded and menaced by parts of the mob, struck with condoms, while others shouting, jumped up and down and pounded upon parked cars.
[Source: Press Release from Conservative Campaign Fund dated 9-14-94, in our possession, written by Peter T. Flaherty, CCF Chairman.]

Conservative Campaign Fund Chairman at the time, Peter T. Flaherty, wrote:

The Catholic League account only hints at the true vulgarity of the protest. Participants, some of whom were dressed in episcopal garb, engaged in simulations of oral and anal sex. The chants included, "You say No F---, we say F--- you." ... LaFontaine's involvement in this demonstration cannot be explained away. He has acknowledged taking part. He was a leader (and still is) of one of the three sponsoring organizations, the Massachusetts Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights. Another sponsor, ACT UP, was already well-known for its illegal and anti-democratic tactics. The infamous disruption of Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1989 occurred just months previous to the Boston incident. LaFontaine knew he was associating with anti-Catholic extremists and was aware of the probability of violence. [Source: Ibid.]

Since Kevin Jennings was living in Boston at the time, and "palling around" with LaFontaine, someone should ask him if he took part in the disruption at the Boston Cathedral (perhaps as a veteran of the St. Patrick's riot?).

Four years later in 1994, Mitt Romney was running against John Lakian for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate candidate (vs. Ted Kennedy). In September '94, LaFontaine again drew a scolding, and was called out for "religious bigotry" targeting Romney for his Mormon religion. Lakian, who had received support from the organized homosexual movement, had included an inflammatory letter by LaFontaine attacking Romney in a fundraiser sent to 14,000 people. Candidate Romney was outraged, and the Conservative Campaign Fund called on Governor Weld to fire LaFontaine (who was still then Chairman of the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth). [Sources: Flaherty press release; Boston Globe, "Romney blasts Lakian mailing," 9-2-94; Boston Herald, "Mitt rips Lakian on religion attack," 9-2-94.]

(Ironically, Romney has continued to court activist homosexuals throughout his political career, not understanding that LaFontaine was just a little more exhibitionist of his true thoughts.)

In the aftermath of the 2000 Fistgate incident, where GLSEN-Boston educators were caught on tape teaching young teens about fisting and other perverted sex practices, LaFontaine continued his vicious and twisted statements about those trying to preserve traditional values. Of Brian Camenker, head of Parents' Rights Coalition (now MassResistance), LaFontaine said that he promulgates "precisely the attitudes that make gay teens think that they might as well kill themselves."

Hateful actions, hateful speech. The legacy of homofascist groups such as Act Up.