Boston Globe and Emerson College Pushing Propaganda Play “Laramie Project”

Back in 2007, we assembled background info on the horrid propaganda play, “The Laramie Project.” Performed at high schools and colleges around the country, it uses raw emotion and lies to draw youth into the sexual-radical “rights” cause. The recruitment efforts never let up.  

So we’re not surprised to see “Laramie” being pushed again by Arts Emerson and the Boston Globe this week. They’re even exploiting the Governor’s daughter as a “panelist”. Emerson faculty are working with the sexual-radical groups GLAD, GLAAD, PFLAG, GLSEN, Matthew Shepard Foundation, Human Rights Campaign, and Boston’s “Theater Offensive” (“ambitious programming [on] the cutting edge of queer culture and politics”) to promote their ideology and sense of victimhood, and encourage everyone to “take action against hate”:

The moderator will be former ABC news anchor and current Leader-in-Residence in Emerson College’s Journalism Department Carole Simpson. "It is my pleasure to moderate a panel exploring the plight of the LBGT communities," said Simpson.  "Their problems of discrimination, physical abuse and exclusion have been overlooked too long.  The issues need to come 'out of the closet' into the light of public understanding. I hope I can facilitate that.  I lost a close relative to AIDS.  Through him I learned firsthand the difficulties he had by being 'different.'"

From the Boston Globe:

ArtsEmerson’s “The Laramie Residency’’ includes panel discussions and Tectonic Theater Project’s “The Laramie Project’’ and “The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later.’’ Tonight’s discussion, “The Struggle for GLBT Rights and Protections,’’ focuses on the Shepard/Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act, civil rights, and the impact on awareness because of “The Laramie Project.’’ Panelists include activist Katherine Patrick (Governor Deval Patrick’s daughter).

See our background study on “The Laramie Project” here.

New Year's Resolutions for Concerned Parents

Linda Harvey at Mission America has a good piece for all of us concerned parents. Here are some of her resolutions:

The Top 10 Ways to Make Kids Truly Safe in 2010

By Linda Harvey

[Excerpts:]

7. Children should not be endangered personally by sexually transmitted diseases allowed to rage unchecked through our under-30 population because of political correctness. They should no longer be told the outright lies that life-threatening and/or debilitating infections can be managed through either latex or life-long, expensive drug therapy. Let’s not leave them with rampant infertility due to “everyone’s” reproductive damage. We need to establish a public health system that deals with reality.


4. We must pledge to overhaul the schools we are paying for. Let’s start sending our children to Christian schools, conservative charter schools, or begin home schooling them, while we simultaneously evict our local NEA-backed public school boards and replace them with smart soccer moms and dads who have true family values. Let’s get the radicals out of our taxpayer- funded classrooms, and refuse to vote for one more levy guaranteeing the same old anti-Christian, socialist, Darwinist, hyper-sexualized, and phony “green” school curricula.

3. As responsible stewards, we must continue to demand that U.S. Department of Education ‘safe schools’ czar Kevin Jennings be fired for his lack of experience plus his known radical, sexually corrupt ideology. Let’s also eject Obama’s Chicago crony, DOE Secretary Arne Duncan, and all public officials whose track records attest to “poor education as usual” policies. Where’s the commitment to genuine child safety? Let’s make plans to fire Barack Obama at least by 2012, too, while we are at it, before he does any more damage to the next generation.

2. Get all pro-homosexual and pro-promiscuity programs, literature, teachers, and counselors out of every school now. Remove “gay” clubs, Planned Parenthood at health fairs, and GLSEN- PFLAG- SIECUS activists. Cease all condom demonstrations, abortion referrals, on-site birth control dispensing, sexual orientation affirmation, and messing with children’s hearts, minds and bodies. Demand that schools uphold the traditional value of heterosexual identities, teach abstinence- until- marriage, and celebrate male/ female gender differences.

Inside a Transsexual’s Head

What will “transgender rights” laws foster? What will government be protecting and promoting? What will employer benefits and health insurance have to cover? The writings by transsexuals themselves give us a pretty good idea what will be let loose if Bill H1722 is passed here in Massachusetts.

Matt Kailey (above), a female-to-male transsexual, speaks all over the country about her experience “transitioning.” Her book is a must read: Just Add Hormones: An Insider's Guide to the Transsexual Experience (Beacon Press, 2005). She recently led workshops at the PFLAG/Transcending Boundaries Conference (Worcester 2006) on “Redefining Masculinity: How and Why Transmen are Changing the Definitions of Manhood” and “Exploring Trans Sexuality: How Transition Affects Sexual Identity for Trans People and Their Partners.”

Just to get you started, here are two excerpts from her book, Just Add Hormones:

1. From Chapter "Flat busted":
Chest reconstruction is often the second major step in a female-to-male transition and it's a welcome subtraction to the household. One of the problems with transition, as in furnishing a home, is that you think you'll be satisfied once you get that male haircut/choose a new name/change your driver's license/start hormones, but each progression only leaves you longing for more. ... Chest, or "top," surgery is one of the most fulfilling accomplishments of transition. You can finally abandon painful and artery-constructing binders. You can wear the flimsiest of T-shirts with no telltale binder or bra lines. You can even take your shirt off in public....Breasts are a significant identifier of females in our culture and, therefore, something that transmen usually want to get rid of as soon as possible....

2. From Chapter "Dickless in Denver":
Penises are a very big deal (or very little deal, depending on how you look at it) in the transmale community. Testosterone makes the clitoris grow, but usually only enough to be visible to the naked eye. Some guys have better luck than others, depending on genetics ... The competition among transmen is fierce. Bragging about two inches, unheard of in nontransmale society, is often standard fare at nouveau transman get-togethers. And those lucky enough to be able to afford phalloplastic surgery are definitely at the top of the food chain. For those of us whose goals (and incomes) are more modest, there exists an array of prosthetics that can give the impression of a living organ inside tight jeans.... I could have invested $300 or so for a realistically shaped and molded penis and balls, one fashioned with veins and a carefully shaped head, all in a shade to match my own skin tone. This penis glued on with special medical glue and stayed on for several days ... Was this what it meant to be a man? ...

Boston GLBT Newspaper InNewsWeekly Fires Convicted Sex Offender & Others

Bill Berggren, convicted sex offender, makes the news again. Last spring, the GLBT community feigned outrage when it was revealed that Berggren was on the board of Boston Pride. But we've noticed that Berggren continued to be on the staff of In NewsWeekly, in fact was its Associate Publisher, and we often found photos online Berggren had taken of events involving youth.

Now Bay Windows is reporting that In NewsWeekly, its competition in Boston's GLBT news world, has just fired Berggren and four contributors have quit. No mention in Bay Windows' story of Berggren's recent difficulties at Pride. Hmm, what's really going on here?










Photos by Bill Berggren for In NewsWeekly, from a PFLAG event. It's possible that the young men on the right are "gay" or "bisexual" or "questioning" since they're at an event supporting those behaviors.

In Newsweekly assoc. publisher fired, four contributors quit (1-3-08)
Matthew Bank, CEO of HX Media, which owns IN Newsweekly, fired the paper’s associate publisher, Bill Berggren, Jan. 2. Berggren’s termination comes less than a month after four of the paper’s longtime freelancers, including former editor Fred Kuhr and religion columnist Rev. Irene Monroe, left the paper, claiming that the paper has lost editorial focus and that they have waited months for HX Media to pay them for their work. HX Media, a New York-based company that publishes both the New York Blade and HX magazine, purchased IN Newsweekly last year.
Berggren, an eight-year veteran of IN Newsweekly, told Bay Windows that he was fired because of claims that he was selling advertising for another publication." ... While denying that he sold ads for another publication, he did say he is considering starting up a new publication....
Berggren said since HX Media bought the paper IN Newsweekly has increasingly lost its focus on local news."They just want to put all New York and Philly fluff in the paper, and they don’t care about New England anymore," said Berggren....
"In this instance it looks like Boston is losing one of its gay media options, and whenever that happens that is a sad day for the readers and the community that the newspaper purports to serve," said Kuhr.

"Laramie Project" in Acton-Boxborough Connects Kids to Dangerous Depravity

These images are on the "Friends" page of the Massachusetts Youth Pride Committee MySpace. This is where Acton & Boxborough parents supporting the high school play, "The Laramie Project," are sending their kids -- knowingly or not.

The first two images come from a "friend" called "Unwanted" -- who in turn sends kids on to a "friend" called "Professor Hackinshlash" whose profile states: "Female, 26, New Bedford. I ask for so little. Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave."

Another typical "friend" on Mass. Youth Pride MySpace is "Syphillis", a drag queen who writes:
About me: What happened? Well a lot happened prior to the coming of Syphillis. There were a lot of drugs, a lot of sex, a lot of disease and yes, even a couple of unsuccessful drag attempts. I was once a club kid called "Bubbavicious" and I was a drag queen for a night by the name of Vagina Walls. In 1997 [we...] were bored and higher than f**king kites and decided to go to a new club called Trannyshack...."

(For more information on Mass. Youth Pride, see MassResistance's report on the 2007 event.)

"The Laramie Project" encourages kids to check out their gay club Common Ground ("GSA"), the MatthewShepard.org and Matthew's Place sites, and local "GLBT youth groups" including GLSEN Boston, Greater Boston PFLAG, BAGLY, and Mass. Youth Pride. All of these run events and conferences with unknown adult homosexuals and "transgenders" mingling with and "instructing" kids. Note that GLSEN Boston's MySpace friends include Transcending Boundaries (promoting transgenderism, sadomasochism, polyamory), and connects kids with the adults at Boston Pride. (Until recently, GLSEN Boston's MySpace included a friend called "Rev. Cockvomit" which posted hideous pornographic and Satanic images.)

So -- those 400+ parents who supposedly signed a petition to support the "Laramie Project" play know all about this? And still want their kids exposed? Shame on them.

Tranny-PFLAG Conference "Transcending Boundaries" -- Gone Underground?

Left: Raven Kaldera, "female-to-male" tranny porn producer and "shaman", author of Pagan Polyamory and Dark Moon Rising: Pagan Bdsm & the Ordeal Path, and former keynote speaker at Transcending Boundaries Conference.
[Photo: ForgeForward.org]


We're disappointed to learn from DCU Center in Worcester that the transgender-PFLAG conference, "Transcending Boundaries," is not being held there again this year. This weekend is announced on their award-winning MySpace as the 2007 conference dates, but no location is given. Interesting how after our revelations of the past year, the Transcending Boundaries web site is no longer updated, and the conference (if it's being held at all) is being kept quiet. Too bad -- our brave undercover agents were all set to go out to Worcester! (They were just not sure yet which gender and outfit to choose.)

"Transcending Boundaries" -- It's just what the name says: There are no boundaries, no limits on behaviors. No such thing as male or female in their world, unless they say so. No such thing as "normal". Anything goes: little children identified as "transgender"; bisexuality; pansexuality; BDSM; polyamory, drag kings, drag queens, fetish, etc. The only thing missing (give them time) was bestiality. (But wait -- does "pansexuality" include bestiality???).

Last year's fascinating workshops included:

• Dr. Norman Spack (Children's Hospital, Boston) on "Coming out as a child or adolescent as transgendered or transsexual and the parents’ process of acceptance." (Spack promotes puberty blocking treatments for pre-pubescent "transgender children" -- followed by opposite-sex hormones.)
• Supporting Gender Variant Youth in Today’s Schools
• Legal Issues and Being Kinky -- How to Talk About BDSM/Leather/Fetish (New England Leather Alliance)
• Redefining Masculinity: How and Why Transmen [female-to-male transsexuals] are Changing the Definitions of Manhood
• Queer Spirituality
• FEMME-ininity: GenderQueer Femme Identity and Misogyny within the Queer Women’s Community

Who's welcome at the conference? "All bisexual, pansexual, trans/genderqueer, and intersex people and [their] allies!" What are their "interests" listed on their MySpace?
Activism, Activist, Bi, Bi Culture, Bi Curious, Bi Friendly, Bi Inclusive, Bi Men, Bi Network, Bi Women, Bisexual, Bisexual Community, Bisexual Culture, Bisexual Erasure, Bisexual Groups, Bisexual Meetings, Bisexual Men, Bisexual Network, Bisexual Pride, Bisexual Support Groups, Bisexual Women, Bisexuality, BDSM, Celebrate Bisexuality Day, Children, Cisgender, Coming Out, Community Building, Cross-dressing, DL, Down Low, Drag, Drag King, Drag Queens, Families, Fathers, Fetish, Fluid, FTM, Gay, Gay Straight Alliance, Genderfuck, Genderqueer, GLBT, GLBTIQ, Grandparents, GSA, Hetroflexable, Intersex, Lesbian, Leather, LGBT, Marrige, MTF, Mothers, on the DL, on the Down Low, Pansexual, Parenting, PFLAG, Poly, Polyamorous, Polyamory, Poly Pride Day, Post Queer, Same Gender Loving, SGL, Straight But Not Narrow, Transgender, Transsexual, Queer, Questioning

Boston Doctor Behind Puberty-Blocking Drugs for "Transgender Children" Is Allied with Dangerous Groups

Can you judge people by the company they keep?

Our post on ABC's 20/20 on "transgender children" led us to check out the doctor they quoted as recommending early hormonal intervention for children. Dr. Norman Spack is head of the new Gender Management Service Clinic at Children's Hospital Boston, unique in the country. Dr. Spack is also a trustee of Hebrew College in Newton. But look at the other company he keeps:

Dr. Spack presented a workshop at a radical conference promoting total sexual freedom and dangerous perversions, "Transcending Boundaries", last November in Worcester. It was organized by transgender radicals and PFLAG* and co-sponsored by the New England Leather Alliance* (NELA = the BDSM crowd)! How many physicians would be part of a conference where they also held workshops entitled:

*SM101 (Not a “How To” but a “What! Huh?”): How to Talk About BDSM/Leather/Fetish – For Allies, Families, and Professionals [i.e., Bondage & Discipline, Sadomasochism, whips, chains, ropes]
*Polyamory 101 [group sex, multiple partners]
*Legal Issues and Being Kinky: Oil and Water! New England Leather Alliance [how to avoid law enforcement & legal problems when engaging in torture, etc.]
*Bi Men: Coming Out Every Which Way
*Queercrips: We Do Exist, We Do Have Sex, and We Can Be Really Hot [still looking for definition of "queercrips"]

Here's a seminar Dr. Spack gave in Feb. 2007 (co-sponsored by the radical GLBT Stonewall Center at UMass Amherst). He seems to consider it ethical to offer treatment for "relief" from "socially imposed or psychological/physical distress", including "puberty delaying interventions."
Dr. Norman Spack, (Senior Endocrinologist, Children's Hospital & Harvard Med School, Boston, MA):
Ethical and Treatment Dilemmas in Intersex or Gender-Variant Children and Adolescents Children and adolescents struggling with gender identity issues present to their families and health care providers wanting relief from socially imposed or psychological/physical distress. Medical interventions must take into account the child’s physical, emotional and gender identity developmental needs. Families and their providers often struggle to determine the right course of treatment for children exhibiting gender variance as well as those who present with intersex conditions (disorders of sex development). Dr. Spack will share his perspective and answer questions on what it means to initiate medical treatment, such as puberty delaying interventions, for children and adolescents.

We first encountered Dr. Spack back in 2005, when he stood up for a "transitioning" elementary school student in Methuen. In more recent news, the highly respectable Children's Hospital web site (April 2007) posts this:

New clinic addresses intersex and gender issues ... Unique in the Western hemisphere, the clinic will also care for children and young adults who present as transgendered—those who have no known anatomic or biochemical disorder, yet feel like a member of the opposite sex. Such feelings can emerge early, even in the preschool years, and can cause considerable psychological distress. For that reason, transgendered young people are often assumed to have a psychiatric disorder and are placed on psychotropic medications. By late adolescence, a high percentage have attempted suicide. "This will be the first major program in the country that is not only treating DSDs [disorders of sexual differentiation -- actual physical abnormalities at birth, or "intersex"], but also welcoming young people who appear to be transgendered and are considering medical protocols that might help them," says Dr. Spack.

On Dr. Spack, from an international conference on "endocrinological intervention in the gender identity development treatment of adolescents":

The USA: Three eminent American clinicians have made comments on the early suspension of puberty: ... 3 - Dr Norman Spack, at the Children's Hospital Boston has stated ... that "Children's Hospital Boston has just assembled an Interdisciplinary Gender Team which I am co-chairing along with Paed Urologist Dr. David Diamond (Endocrinology, Urology, Genetics, Ethics, Psychology, Neonatology, Gynaecology) that will soon see patients jointly and collaborate in evaluation and research on appropriate patients, from DSD (Disorders of Sex Development) to Transgenderism. It was not I but the entire group that insisted that Gender Identity Disorders be included in the clinical program. We are awaiting approval from our Institutional Review Board and the FDA to acquire already-offered free GnRH analogue for clinical use in carefully selected Tanner 2 transgendered teens."

So there's apparently a group of transgender advocates at Children's Hospital. And what role exactly does the FDA play in approving these drug treatments for "transgender teens"?

++++++++++++++++++++++

*NOTE on PFLAG and NELA:
Remember that PFLAG is the group with the largest representation on the new state "Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth." PFLAG is really pushing hard on "transgender children". The BDSM advocates at PFLAG's conference, New England Leather Alliance (NELA), recently held a convention at the Sheraton Danvers which we reported on. NELA recently held this lecture:
"LAYERED PAIN: EXTREME TORTURE -- This presentation will explore and discuss various types of layered pain. This type of edge play requires using extreme safety precautions and seasoned bottoms. Often this type of play involves body fluids such as lymph and blood. It goes beyond the uni-sensation scene and explodes the possibilities...."
NELA has new classes on "Vaginal Fisting 101" and "Japanese Inspired Rope Bondage". On the "fisting" class:
Want to get a 'hand' in? Ever thought about 'human hand puppets'? Well, join us to learn about vaginal fisting. With a hands IN approach! There will be a demo and handOUTs too! SUSIEQ is a bisexual switch from NY, who has been in the scene for over 10 years. She is active in TES, Lesbian Sex Mafia (LSM), NYSMA, Leather Pride Night (LPN), Leather Leadership Conference (LLC), DefendersNY, and the swing scene.

Radical Gill Foundation Funds Mass. Groups

We've noted before the Gill Foundation's funding of the most radical homosexual/transgender madness in Massachusetts (and around the country). "The Gill Foundation, established in 1994 by software entrepreneur Tim Gill, seeks to secure equal opportunity for all people regardless of sexual orientation or gender expression. The Gill Foundation is the nation's largest funder focusing primarily on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights." (See our past postings on its activities in Massachusetts here and here.)

Here's Gill's list of groups it's openly supporting in Massachusetts. (Add to this legislative campaigns, and very possibly other groups not named!) --

ACLU Foundation - Massachusetts
AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts
Bisexual Resource Center
CIGSYA
Common Cause Massachusetts
CPPAX Education Fund
Family Diversity Projects
Fenway Community Health
Freedom to Marry Foundation
Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders
Gay & Lesbian Athletics Foundation
Greater Boston PFLAG
Institute for Gay & Lesbian Strategic Studies
International Foundation for Gender Education
Jewish Alliance for Law & Social Action
Massachusetts NOW Foundation
MassEquality Education Fund
Men's Resource Center of Western Mass.
NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts Foundation
National Gay & Lesbian Task Force
Network/La Red, The
Northeast Action
Pride Zone
Project 10 East, Inc.
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice of Massachusetts
Roxbury Community Technology Center
Tapestry Health
Theater Offensive, The
Unitarian Universalist Association
United Teen Equality Center (UTEC)
Victory Programs, Inc.

Child Abuse in Germany -- and Massachusetts

Everyone's talking about the young German boy undergoing "sex-change" procedures. Today, it's in Germany; tomorrow, it will be in Massachusetts. In fact, it's already underway.

This blog and the MassResistance organization have been exposing "trans" propaganda already inundating our public schools for several years now. Organizations including Planned Parenthood, PFLAG, GLSEN and the transgender activists are gearing up, pushing young people, their parents, and school personnel into this brave new world. Kathleen Henry, director of the Mass. Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, has stated they will make a big effort to "protect" bisexual and transgender youth.

Proof of where this movement is going: PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People) joined with assorted GLBTIQ activists just this past October in their regional conference in Worcester, called "Transcending Boundaries" (for "bisexual/pansexual, trans/genderqueer, and intersex people and our allies"). Sponsors included MassEquality's education fund, Planned Parenthood, New England Leather Alliance (whips & chains; they gave a workshop, "SM 101"), GlaxoSmithKline (sex-change drugs?). One workshop was called "PFLAG and Transgender – Sharing a Future."

Bad enough there are doctors willing to perform such mutilations on their young (or adult) patients -- fiendish medical experiments reminiscent of the Nazis. What's more surprising is this young German boy's abuse at the hands of his own parents, who've bought into the hideous concepts of "transgenderism" and "gender identity"! Here in Massachusetts, PFLAG and Planned Parenthood jumped on that bandwagon quite a while ago. These groups have, after all, transcended all boundaries. Killing babies? No problem. Homosexual marriage? A civil right. So how can they say no to sadomasochism, polyamory, or sex changes for children?

Right now, PFLAG and Planned Parenthood are busy holding seminars across Massachusetts (like those below), encouraging parents to accept and help their "trans" children, and schools to support "trans" students. And how scary is this: PFLAG has the largest representation of any group on the new Mass. Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth. Here are five workshops given at PFLAG's Transcending Boundaries conference last October:

Raising A Transgender Child/Compassionate Parenting
Using a combination of personal stories and exploring raising children through the lens of gender development, this workshop will provide a safe space in which to explore the myriad of emotions, beliefs, and ideas parents and other caregivers go through as children express their gender identification(s). A combination of presentation and discussion, the presenters will use their own experiences plus invite participants to share their journeys in the ongoing efforts to accept and nurture our children....

Supporting Gender Variant Youth in Today’s Schools
Is this child a boy or a girl or does it matter? Youth in today’s schools are increasingly fluid in their expression of gender, sometimes confusing adults and challenging those around them to think again about boy vs. girl. The workshop is designed to uncover the overlapping aspects of sexuality and clarify terminology related to gender expression and identity. Participants will also be provided with resources for transgender youth, transgender civil rights issues, recent school assessments, and available curriculum supplements for classroom use....

Coming out as a child or adolescent as transgendered or transsexual and the parents’ process of acceptance
This will be a panel presentation including parents and their transgendered children and teenagers. ... an experienced gender specialist will moderate this panel. The discussion will explore issues of coming out as a young transgendered individual to parents and their parents’ emotional process that led to eventual full acceptance. Crossgender expression at home, at school and in the community will be discussed. Non-medical and medical treatment of children and adolescents who are transgendered/transsexual will be discussed as well as other topics.

Lifelines for Trans Youth: Helping Transgender and Transsexual Youth Make Successful Transitions to Adulthood
This presentation examines the institutional resources and policies needed for transgender/transsexual youth to make successful transitions to adulthood. The formal talk segment combines clinical literature review with personal stories from trans youth and input from adult providers. This presentation offers cohesive strategies and guidelines to increase the cultural competency of educators, parents, physicians, therapists, administrators, policy makers, and other providers who may encounter trans youth. The interactive component of this workshop includes facilitated exercises to enable adult providers from diverse professions to serve as "lifelines" for transgender/transsexual youth....

Taking a Stand: Creating Safe Schools for All Students
This introductory workshop, designed for all school personnel, uses video clips and hands-on activities to examine the obvious and subtle ways that bias plays out in schools, and offers resources for creating schools that are safe for all students, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Sadomasochism Celebrated at Sheraton Danvers Hotel

This weekend just witnessed a celebration of sadomasochism and assorted perversions at the New England Leather Alliance's "Fetish Fair Fleamarket". The host hotel was the Sheraton Ferncroft Resort in Danvers. How could the hotel management allow this event? And where are the town fathers who let this occur? Mansfield refused to let this event dirty their town. Salem News jauntily reported:

Having met resistance elsewhere, the New England Leather Alliance is bringing its "Fetish Fair Fleamarket" to the North Shore.The fair, featuring more than 100 exhibitors selling erotic merchandise, everything from "corsets and boots to dungeon furniture and restraints," is scheduled for three days - Jan. 26 through 28 - at the Sheraton Ferncroft. Organizers made a last-minute move here from Mansfield because of a dispute over a permit requirement.

A lucky geographical break - the Sheraton Ferncroft is in both Danvers and Middleton - could spare the New England Leather Alliance from similar headaches on the North Shore. Vendors will be setting up shop in the hotel's grand ballroom, which is in Middleton. And unlike Danvers, Middleton hasn't designated a section of town for adult businesses to operate. Building Commissioner Bob Camacho said yesterday he would take a closer look, but he didn't recall anything in Middleton's zoning regulations that would prevent the flea market. Danvers, on the other hand, has an adult zone bylaw restricting this type of activity to an area off Route 1 near the Peabody line....

In its 28th year, the event has previously been held at the Park Plaza and the Sheraton in Boston, as well as the Ramada in Andover - and would probably still be held there if the Andover hotel hadn't closed.... Flea market patrons have booked nearly all of the Sheraton Ferncroft's 350 rooms, and organizers have reserved all of the hotel's function rooms and meeting space. "We're going to accommodate them as we do all the groups that come into the hotel," said Edward Carey, director of sales and marketing for the Sheraton Ferncroft.

Consider the hotel taxes, the overflow of people staying at other area hotels and the business generated at local restaurants and shops, and [NELA] estimates the weekend-long event will pump at least $1 million into the local economy....

Numerous classes and demonstrations that address whips, role playing, bondage and other subjects will be offered on Saturday and Sunday.

The reporter doesn't tell you about the classes on fisting; canes and caning; flogging; BDSM and the law; etc. (See their listing.) And here's a description from NELA's webpage on an upcoming "lecture":

LAYERED PAIN: EXTREME TORTURE -- This presentation will explore and discuss various types of layered pain. This type of edge play requires using extreme safety precautions and seasoned bottoms. Often this type of play involves body fluids such as lymph and blood. It goes beyond the uni-sensation scene and explodes the possibilities....

We first encountered the New England Leather Alliance (NELA) as a participant at Boston Pride, then we ran into them as participants at the PFLAG/Transgender conference in Worcester recently. (Remember that PFLAG is the group with the largest representation on the new state "Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth.") Part of the proceeds of last weekend's event were being donated to "National Coalition for Sexual Freedom" ("swingers" and perverts unite!).

Feedback opportunities:

Mr. Charlie Clist, General Manager; and Mr. Edward Carey, director of sales Sheraton Danvers, 50 Ferncroft Road, Danvers, MA 01923 http://www.sheratonferncroftresort.com/inforequest.html
978-777-2500

The Town of Danvers can be reached at:
Board of Selectmen (for names/contact info for individual selectmen)
Town Manager: Wayne P. Marquis, wmarquis@mail.danvers-ma.org 978-777-0001 Ext. 3069

The Town of Middleton can be reached at: http://www.townofmiddleton.org/contact.cfm
Board of Selectmen, Joseph Pascucci, Chairperson, 978-774-3589

Horror at the Mass. State House

[AP photo]
AP - Mon Jan 8, 7:37 PM ET -- Thai Nguyen, left front, 18, of Cambridge, Mass. and Aidan Rodriguez, right, front, 19, of Quincy, Mass., both of BAGLY (Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Youth), applaud after swearing in members of the Massachusetts Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth at the Grand Staircase in the Statehouse. Monday, Jan. 8, 2007, in Boston.

Yesterday at the State House, the new members of the dangerous independent "Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth" were sworn in. What have they sworn to do? Promote alternative, health-threatening, perverted sexuality to young people in our public schools. All of the members are selected "in consultation with gay and lesbian organizations." The Commission did plenty of damage before as the "Governor's Commission". Now, it's totally unaccountable. Here are the groups now represented by law on the Commission, as encoded in the statutes of Massachusetts:

GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) -- The inventers and promoters of the "Day of Silence" and the gay clubs in our high schools, they distributed the Little Black Book to children at their 2005 Boston conference and taught kids about "fisting" at their 2000 conference. They instruct teachers and administrators how to sneak GLBT materials into the public schools, K-12.

PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgenders) -- Gives what they call "safe schools" training and assemblies for students in public schools all over the state; and is allied with Mass. Transgender Political Coalition. They're big on pushing transgenderism/transsexuality in the schools. At their recent conference, they had workshops on How to Talk About BDSM/Leather/Fetish – For Allies, Families, and Professionals; Supporting Gender Variant Youth in Today’s Schools; Mixed-Orientation and TransGendered Marriage Journeys; PFLAG and Transgender – Sharing a Future; Getting the Sex You Want; GenderQueer Femme Identity and Misogyny within the Queer Women’s Community; Redefining Masculinity: How and Why Transmen are Changing the Definitions of Manhood; plus many other VERY interesting topics.

MassEquality -- Advocates for sodomy marriage, "love" making a family, and violating the Constitution to block the citizens' marriage referendum.

Mass. Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus -- Their chief lobbyist, Bill Conley (now on leave), was arrested last summer for sexual solicitation of college boys. It's a radical political advocacy group, now officially appointed to a Commission with great influence in our public schools. Their current chief lobbyist, Arline Isaacson, was architect of the recent outrageous maneuverings and constitutional violations by our Legislature over the marriage amendment.

Fenway Community Health (serving the GLBT community) -- Their representative handed out Little Black Book to children at GLSEN conference. They run ads in "gay" newspapers, soliciting "tops and bottoms" (men engaging in anal intercourse) for drug trials.

BAGLY (Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbiay, Bisexual and Transgender Youth) is represented as well, apparently through one of the free appointments. We notice its director in the photo -- a "male-to-female transwoman". BAGLY holds seminars for youth on the joys of transgenderism and transsexuality, and runs the GLBT prom at Boston City Hall each May. Its office manager runs "QueerToday" (both its radical street activism and its blog), the group behind the riot outside of the Tremont Temple Church in October 2005.

Miscellaneous members: high school student, college student, educational institution representative, parent of "gay or lesbian" person, teachers' union appointees, pediatric association appointees, social workers, suicide prevention, mental health and public health representatives, school administrator appointees. All chosen by the most radical "gays and lesbian organizations."

Gay & Lesbian Bar Association: "As Queer as It Gets"

[Warning: Lots of lavender links in this one!]

Try as we might, we keep missing gala events! First it was PFLAG's back-to-back fundraisers, then we missed the 26th anniversary celebration for BAGLY, honoring Rep. Alice Wolf of Cambridge (who recently tried to sneak by a bill requiring sex ed/homosex ed indoctrination from the earliest grades).

Now we find out too late that we could have attended the annual Mass. Gay & Lesbian Bar Association Dinner. ("MLGBA promotes the administration of justice throughout Massachusetts for all persons without regard to their sexual orientation or gender identity or expression." And that just about covers everything.) This was the group SJC Chief Justice Margaret Marshall promised to support back in 1999, appearing as their keynote speaker. She then went on to keep her promise. All highly unethical and contrary to the Code of Judicial Conduct, of course. (But this is Massachusetts...)

The keynote speaker at the MGLBA dinner, one Rachel Maddow, "is queer, very queer," according to our very queer source. She's apparently on MSNBC nightly at 11pm with Tucker Carlson (but who with a normal life can stay up that late?). Mark, at our very queer source, writes:

Rachel's keynote speech was important for the gay community of Massachusetts to hear. She spoke about our need to fight back against an administration that ignores the rule of law, rather than wasting our time responding to attacks from Rick Santorum. She said we should be proud to be different, proud to be a minority, and not obsess over assimilating. "We will never be normal," she yelled. [emphasis added]

After the event Rachel talked with Jenn ["a queer femme"] and I [sic] about how she agrees that if we look at all of our struggles through the singular lense of gay marriage it will hurt us as a community, we must broaded [sic] our scope and form coalitions.

Grace Sterling Stowell also gave an inspiring speech in which she encouraged the audience to think about the needs of LGBT Youth and the Trans Community who are so often forgotten by the mainstream gay community. [Check out "her" speech at last year's GLSEN conference!]

Larry Kessler also received an award. Larry has been an anti-war activist, founded organizations to feed the hunger and shelter the poor, and founded the Aids Action Committee of Massachusetts [publisher of the Little Black Book].

Overall the speeches and awardees were as queer as it gets.