Southern Poverty Law Center a Hate Group

What a great strategy. Set up a phony organization that collects millions of dollars by labeling any effective voices dissenting from the far-left agenda as a "hate group". Lump the legitimate conservative organizations  in with true hate groups (neo-Nazis, Fred Phelps -- assuming they're even "real" and not SPLC or Anti-Defamation League creations). Voila`: another bludgeon to hit us with.

That's all the Southern Poverty Law Center is. An empty shell filled with useful idiots, giving ammo to those who wish to bring this country down. The Left has used this smear tactic against us.

Their latest target is Lou Dobbs at CNN, whose sins are opposing illegal immigration and suggesting that Obama's birth status should be looked into... And now, Dobbs's very life is being threatened. WorldNetDaily reports today:

CNN's Lou Dobbs: Shot fired into my home
'We'd had threatening phone calls ... it's now become a way of life'
Opponents of Dobbs include the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Anti Defamation League, the National Council of La Raza, Internet media watchdog Media Matters and Fox News host Geraldo Rivera.

SPLC has called on CNN to fire Dobbs. We say that SPLC is inciting hate crimes, and should be taken to court.

For more background, see MassResistance's post from March 2009. Excerpt:

It's a common theme of the left, going back to the Saul Alinsky tactics in the 1930s, to demonize your enemies if they become effective. This was adopted by the homosexual movement. In their classic manifesto After the Ball, Marshall Kirk & Hunter Masden advised activists to compare people with traditional values to the Ku Klux Klan (which lynched blacks).

For the second year in a row, the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center(SPLC) has declared MassResistance, along with other pro-family / Christian / traditional values groups around the country, as "hate groups". In most cases, the "crime" is publicly disagreeing with the homosexual agenda. There are no specific reasons given, besides a general label.

Other groups include the Illinois Family Institute (IFI), Traditional Values Coalition (TVC), Scott Lively's Abiding Truth Ministries, the Family Research Institute, and the Chalcedon Foundation. Along with MassResistance, SPLC's reason for declaring them hate groups is that they're "Anti-Gay".

(Actually, SPLC is angry because they're effective. MassResistance, IFI, Traditional Values Coalition, and the Chalcedon Foundation expose the homosexual agenda to a national audience. Family Research Institute does studies on the dangers of homosexual behavior. SPLC particularly despises Scott Lively's book, The Pink Swastika, which documents homosexuality in Nazi Germany.) 

A number of other Christian ministries are listed, labeled as "General Hate". Several Catholic groups are labeled "Radical Traditionalist Catholic" and thus declared hate groups.

SPLC is also big in promoting and defending illegal immigration. Thus, illegal immigrant watchdog groups around the country are listed, labeled as "Anti-Immigrant." One of those is Concerned Citizens and Friends of Illegal Immigration Law Enforcement (CCFILE) located in Framingham. It's run by Jim and Joe Rizoli. We know them. They're decent guys, and it's a legitimate community group -- which liberals happen to dislike. For SPLC to do this is the worst type of slander.

Young Americans for Freedom at Michigan State University is listed under "General Hate", apparently because they hosted Rep.Tom Tancredo for a speech on illegal immigration. But as reported on The O'Reilly Factor and Hannity & Colmes, it was the fascist left that disrupted the event and assaulted participants. But none of the attacking groups apparently qualifies as a "hate group"....

What constitutes a "hate group"?  We couldn't find it on the SPLC website. But in the MetroWest Daily News article referenced above, the SPLC spokesman told the reporter:

[A] hate group is one that "in its platforms or statements says that a whole other group of people is less by virtue . . . These are people who attack other groups of people based on their group characteristics." 

But that's a rather exotic definition of "hate", certainly not found in any dictionary. This absurd use of the word "hate" makes the word essentially meaningless.

Suppose Republicans say that Democrats are "less by virtue" because of their liberal characteristics.  Or smoking advocates who demean smokers. Or alcohol safety groups that demean drunk drivers. Does that make them "hate" groups? Don't people have the right to demean others who do bad or destructive things?...

Read more...

Jennings "Sought Out" by Porn Publisher Alyson Publications

Kevin Jennings surely must have known that the publisher of his first three books, Alyson Publications, published pro-pedophilia and pornographic works. He said he was "sought out" by Alyson. In the Acknowledgements of his first book, Becoming Visible (1994), he wrote:


Writing this part of the book has caused me more anxiety than any other. It simply is not possible to express my gratitude to the many people who have helped make this book possible ... With apologies to anyone omitted, here we go!


The obvious place to begin is with Alyson Publications. First, Sasha Alyson had the vision to conceive of this project, and I had the good luck to be the person he sought out to complete it. I am deeply appreciative of being afforded this opportunity.

We've pointed out Alyson's promotion of pornography. Americans for Truth (www.AFTAH.org) has exposed Alyson's history of pro-pedophilia publications. From AFTAH's earlier research, first published in the Lambda Report (1993):


Alyson Publications of Boston, which created Daddy’s Roommate, Heather Has Two Mommies, and other pro-homosexual children’s books, also publishes such works as:

• Macho Sluts, a collection of short stories including one in which a lesbian has sadomasochistic sex with her own 13-year-old daughter;
• The Age Taboo, an anthology of arguments for pedophilia; and
• Pedophilia: The Radical Case;  and a range of other books.

“It’s outrageous that the same company that markets books that condition children to accept homosexuality also peddles instructions on how pedophiles can have sex with children without getting caught,” said Lambda Report editor Peter LaBarbera.  “We hope to balance the debate in school districts across the country that are considering these books in their curriculum.”
When questioned by Lambda Report about the pro-pedophile views in his adult books, publisher Sasha Alyson said, “I think it’s something that is a legitimate area for exploration.”  He declined to discuss further his views on pedophilia.


Surely Jennings would have been aware of Alyson's portfolio before he decided to partner with the company.

In his Acknoweldgements, Jennings also thanks his homosexual activist partner at the time, Bob Parlin:


Bob, I simply have no words to say how I feel. "Thanks" will have to suffice.

And he dedicated Becoming Visible to his mother -- and to "Bob, who taught me how to love." 


Bob was at that time, and is now, a teacher at Newton South High School in Massachusetts, and has been a major force pushing homosexuality on the student body there. He had the support of the Principal, Van Seasholes, an early supporter of Jennings' GLSEN (then GLSTN). Newton South was the first public high school that we know of to have a "gay straight alliance" club (GSA).

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.

Kevin Jennings’ GLSEN Promotes Pornography to Children

Obama’s “Safe Schools” czar, Kevin Jennings, founded and led GLSEN for 18 years. A current GLSEN lesson plan for “LGBT History” -- intended for schoolchildren – celebrates gay and lesbian activists from the 1950s and ’60s. It recommends the film “Gay Pioneers” which profiles several practitioners and promoters of pornography.

GLSEN recommends “Gay Pioneers” for classroom use, for showing at a Gay-Straight Alliance club meeting (invite other clubs!), for a school assembly, or for donation to the school library. 

(In the past, GLSEN’s website has recommended readings for children describing -- and implicitly endorsing -- adult-child sex and sexual experimentation at early ages. See Linda Harvey's research here and here.) 

Imagine teenagers hearing about these sex-obsessed “gay pioneers” (who are portrayed as heroic “civil rights” leaders), then doing a web search as they answer their homework questions. They’d quickly turn up the following fun facts on four of those profiled:

Franklin Kameny: 

Recently honored by Obama at the White House, Kameny is founder and president of National Consumers Association for the Advancement and Protection of Pornography, Inc. “Let us have more and better enjoyment of more and better and harder-core pornography by those to whom such viewing provides happiness.” 

Kameny does not deny he spoke at a NAMBLA convention in 1981 and says that as a “First Amendment absolutist … I support NAMBLA’s right to advocate whatever they wish, including advocacy of changes of law to legalize their preferences…” 

Kameny even wrote: “Bestiality is not my thing … But it seems to be a harmless foible or idiosyncrasy of some people. So, as long as the animal doesn’t mind (and the animal rarely does), I don’t mind, and I don’t see why anyone else should.” Kameny is “revered by homosexual activists for his role in pressuring the American Psychiatric Association to effectively reclassify homosexuals as normal.” 

[Thanks to Americans for Truth about Homosexuality for this research on Kameny. See here, here, here and here.] 

Jack Nichols:

 

Nichols was a Mattachine Society member who edited and wrote for the pioneering pornographic magazine Screw. A sample of his writing:

“Prior to SCREW and [its publisher] Al Goldstein, such [porn and sex toy] stores and their hardcore merchandise were unknowns. SCREW was the world's first publisher of newspaper nude frontals, both male and female. It was also the world's first newspaper to publish nude photos of males making love. I was one of those two males.... 

"My re-start [at SCREW] began in 1987 when I sought a place to vomit uncensored onto Ronald Reagan's AIDS-phobic lap. Now, eleven years later, I continue to grind this column out under the heading: ‘Homosexual Anarchist.’  In 1992, when Clinton ran for president, I suggested SCREW's readers support him. ‘Hillary and Bill,’ I exulted, 'are probably the closest thing we'll ever get to swingers in the White House.' The photo that accompanied that column was a composite. The heads of the candidates had been chopped and placed on other bodies. Clinton was blowing Bush while Perot, seated next to Clinton, his arm over Clinton's leg, masturbated….” [Source: Gay Today, 1997-98 archive.]

Nancy Tucker:

“… created the Gay Blade in the fall of 1969 Having seen the need for a gay community newsletter in Washington, DC, the Mattachine Society of Washington asked Nancy Tucker and Bart Wenger (known by the pseudonym Art Stone) to co-edit the planned periodical. …Nancy turned GWA [Gay Women’s Alternative] programming towards 'sex and shrinks', as she puts it, and as a result membership and revenues turned around.  The most popular event was an evening discussion and showing of lesbian pornography.” [Source: Rainbow History.]

Randolfe Wicker:

 

“GayToday's staff writer and pioneer cloning rights champion, Randolfe Wicker, whose counterculture button shop on St. Mark's Place became the first store to sell copies of SCREW, wrote an trailblazing article at the request of Goldstein explaining how best to violate New York state's now-defunct sodomy laws. Titling it ‘Up the ass is a Gas!’ Wicker began by saying: ‘Now listen, sports fans, if you're ever going to be proficient at fucking, you've got to be fucked.’ ”  [Source: Gay Today, 1997-98 archive.]

These are the “civil rights” leaders Kevin Jennings and his organization GLSEN hold up to children as worthy of emulation.

Kevin Jennings, Harry Hay, and Pornography

We recently revealed that “Safe Schools” czar Kevin Jennings’ activism involved membership in the extremist group Act Up. Here, we will look at his early “intellectual” profile. Kevin Jennings:

·       Idolized NAMBLA supporter Harry Hay, devoting a whole chapter to him in his gay and lesbian reader.  

·       Published his first books with Alyson Publications -- known for its pornography. Alyson also published books PROMOTING PEDOPHILIA. See Americans for Truth for more detail. 

·       Includes propagandistic and sexually-charged teaching materials in his gay history reader (for high school students), Becoming Visible.

The zombietime blog has done a great service here and here, posing questions Jennings' defenders don't want to deal with concerning his unrepentant praise of pioneering gay activist and NAMBLA supporter, Harry Hay. Zombietime has made an airtight case that Jennings would have known all about Hay’s love of “man-boy love” when he praised him in 1997. Jennings was editor of a sourcebook in gay and lesbian history for high school and college students, Becoming Visible, which portrays Hay as the ultimate hero fighting against the “oppression” of gays. (Despite all the evidence zombietime compiled damning Jennings, they still want to help him salvage his career!)

Harry Hay, NAMBLA supporter, praised by Jennings

Addendum 10-20-09: Also see this video on Breitbart TV reviewing the NAMBLA/Hay/Jennings connection:
"Obama Czar's Textbook Points Teens to Pro-NAMBLA 'Incident'" (10-8-09).


Jennings’ first three books -- Becoming Visible, One Teacher in Ten, and Telling Tales Out of School -- were all published by Alyson Publications. Alyson is a publisher of gay and lesbian pornography – and the famous indoctrination picture books for the Kindergarten set, Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy’s Roommate. “Some of the Alyson publications, including One Teenager in Ten [1983] … encourage teens to, among other things, go to gay bars and have sex with adults to see if they like it.” One Teenager in Ten “contains a lesbian teen's explicit account of her affair with a teacher.” Alyson’s later Two Teenagers in 20 (1995) “glamorizes raunchy sex between young teens and their ‘lovers,’ and casual sex between youths and older adults” and gives “advice on getting into gay bars illegally.” 


Sex between adults and youths? That's PEDOPHILIA. See Peter LaBarbera's report at Americans for Truth.

Back to Alyson Publications' pornography. It seems odd that a high official in the Obama Education Department would be published by the same company that put out titles including:

·       Dorm Porn: Raunchy Tales Of Boys On Campus

·       Lesbian Sadomasochism Safety Manual

·       Doing It for Daddy: Short Sexy Fiction About a Very Forbidden Fantasy

·       Secret Slaves: Erotic stories of bondage

·       Hu$tler$: Erotic stories of sex for hire

·       My First Time  (“men… describing their first consensual [hmm…] same-sex experience”)

·       First Timers: True stories of lesbian awakening (“first-time strap-ons, spankings, and role-playing”)

So when we examine Jennings’ gay and lesbian history teaching aids for high school and college classes, we shouldn’t be surprised that he focuses those young minds (as early as 13 years old!) on Harry Hay’s campaign against “police brutality” and “oppression” of homosexuals in “entrapments.” (See Becoming Visible, Chapter 11, “Harry Hay and the Beginnings of the Homophile Movement.”).  A 1952 California “entrapment” case (where coincidentally the accused was named Jennings) became a focus for the new gay activist movement, and is held out to children (along with the Stonewall riots) as a heroic moment in American history. Having anonymous sodomy in restrooms is a “right” to be fought for, according to Hay – and Jennings -- and any attempt by society to enforce traditional norms is called “oppression”.

 

Harry Hay (center) at "Spirit of Stonewall" demonstration, New York, 1994 (the same year Kevin Jennings published Becoming Visible). Note NAMBLA banner in background. 
(Photo on NAMBLA web site.)

In his introduction to the unit on Hay, Jennings generates sympathy with the young readers, excusing Hay’s “idealist” membership in the Communist Party as “driven by a desire to better things for disadvantaged Americans.” Gays were victims, and Hay’s genius was to see an opportunity for a political movement fighting for his “oppressed minority”. “Growing oppression often creates growing resistance,” wrote Jennings.

Jennings’ student discussion topics on Hay include the police “entrapment” of a gay man involved in "cruising" for sex -- gay men engaging in anonymous sodomy in public bathrooms or public parks.  Students are told that such arrests amount to “financial and emotional lynching” of gays. Imagine what this topic would actually mean in a classroom discussion with children as young as 13.

When Jennings taught in Concord Academy (just prior to his editing this book), “no stories were forbidden.” His organization GLSEN held Boston conferences where children discussed fisting and tribadism (“Fistgate” in 2000) and handed out the pornographic Little Black Book (2005) to minor children. His Seattle GLSEN chapter linked children directly with pornography on their web site. So Jennings' pattern of leading children to age-inappropriate, hard-core sexual subject matter is clear.

What were Jennings’ suggested discussions for high school students in his chapter on Harry Hay? Here are the terms they needed to know, and some of the suggested topics (pp. 178-180):

·       Harry Hay

·       Daughters of Bilitis

·       Mattachine Society

·       Kinsey Report

·       Police entrapment

·       1. Recreate the scene in the apartment the night Harry Hay first gets the idea for a gay-rights organization. This can be done by: writing a “sales pitch” that Hay delivers to prospective members; role-playing the parts of Hay and the partygoers; or writing diary entries from the point of view of Hay and others, as if you have just gotten home from the party.

·       5. Hay’s most important contribution in the eyes of many was his notion that gays were a “cultural minority.” What does this mean? Why would it be important? (You may want to look at the life of Ulrichs in Chapter 7 for a comparison.)

·       9. The key argument Hay came up with in the groundbreaking [Dale] Jennings [entrapment] case was that Jennings had been homosexual but not “lewd or dissolute.” What made this a dramatic new argument at the time?

·       12. Every minority group has debated the “assimilation or resistance” question. Put yourself in the late 1950s and imagine you are a member of Mattachine or DOB [Daughters of Bilitis]. Justify your group’s political strategies. Others can represent a more “resistance” point of view. [Act Up for example?] After a debate, vote on which argument would be more convincing, given the conditions in the United States for gays of that period.

Note the technique of drawing the student -- whether “gay” or straight -- into a gay or lesbian identity in these exercises. And clearly, students are forced to engage in vivid thinking and discussion about gay sex practices. What, after all, was the accused doing when the policeman arrested him? Further, extremist political activism is held up as worthy of emulation, and students are directed to think along those lines.

Jennings never really answers his own question (in his Introduction to Becoming Visible), “Why teach gay history?” He does say, “it is intellectually dishonest not to do so” (whatever that means), and it will “help our students create a better society.” He equates gay history with African-American history and women’s history, totally ignoring the fact that homosexuality is not an innate characteristic (as are race and sex), and that the subject deals with the morally sensitive issue of sexual behavior.

Perhaps the honest answer to his question was that Jennings was “filled with rage.” From his introduction:

“I thought back over my twelve years in North Carolina public schools and my four years at Harvard University, sixteen years when I never once learned anything in a classroom about gay people or gay history, and I was filled with rage. Denying me that history had nearly cost me my life, for gay invisibility had helped create the feelings of isolation that had made me want to end it all.”

Jennings refers to himself as an “historian” (in his introduction). It appears he’s more of a propagandist for a sorry cause: the moral perversion of youth, and the spreading of a myth that our “heterosexist” culture is to blame for all the psychological, emotional and physical sufferings of gays and lesbians.

Harvard University's Act Up Exhibit includes "Fierce Pussy"

Where's the outrage?
"Fierce Pussy" are now "Artists in Residence" at Harvard University. 
Don't miss this new low achieved by Harvard, allowing Fierce Pussy's "installations" at Carpenter Center and Gund Hall. Part of the Act Up retrospective exhibit through December 23, 2009. 

Harvard's Motto: "TRUTH"

Example of Fierce Pussy's "art" (1993)

DPH Commissioner Auerbach WANTS All to Be Vaccinated ...

... but he is hesitating because of "ethical, legal and practical issues." Under new "emergency" regulations passed in August by the Public Health Council (under Auerbach's leadership), all health facility employees in Massachusetts are being told to get both the H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccines, but will be allowed to opt out:


"Mandatory programs raise serious ethical, legal and practical issues because of the coercive nature of such programs, potential liability concerns, and the potential damage to workplace relationships when cooperation is most needed to address a possible pandemic."   

-- this from Commissioner Auerbach's letter dated August 12. (See letter here).

While the Department of Public Health is now making an effort to appear respectful of individual rights, it could always revise its regulations at any time regarding whether a vaccine is recommended or mandated. Auerbach's letter makes it clear that he thinks the Public Health Council has the authority to debate and decide this issue. The agency's ability to call on emergency powers is worrisome.  And there is an open-ended statute already on the books in Massachusetts authorizing local health boards to mandate vaccinations (for unnamed disease). The DPH is in charge of local health boards.

So for now, the DPH is ordering health facility workers to be vaccinated for both H1N1 and seasonal flu, but allowing them to sign a refusal -- which goes into their personnel file. (If the DPH has the power to grant the right to opt out, it can also take it away!) How long until either the state or the facility goes to the next level of control: A person can’t work there unless he’s taken the vaccine? Health facilities now are required to report to the DPH how many of their employees get the vaccine (and will be ranked accordingly by the state bureaucrats), increasing pressure ("incentive") on the facility to mandate vaccination for employees. So how long will it be until the Dept. of Public Health orders hospitals to bar anyone who refuses a recommended/required vaccine, as they now do in schools, universities and the military?




There are many well informed medical professionals who will opt out of this mass vaccination for H1N1. (One report suggests as many as half may refuse the shot.) So the DPH is probably not so much sensitive to civil rights issues as concerned that they’d have a rebellion on their hands among health professionals if they try to enforce a mandatory vaccination program (the "legal and practical issues" noted by Auerbach).

Auerbach noted after his emergency regulations passed that he really wants everyone to be vaccinated:

New England Cable News Video: Dept of Public Health planning ‘mass vaccinations’ (8-12-09, our transcript)

NECN reporter Brad Puffer: The state Department of Public Health is hoping to vaccinate twice as many people as they did  last year; they’re hoping to vaccinate half the population for the H1N1 virus. And that will be a huge task, one that will require new regulations. The Mass Public Health Council approved emergency regulations weds that will require all health care workers across the state to be vaccinated for both H1N1 and seasonal flu. In addition, all health care workers would be permitted to administer the vaccine, including pharmacists, dentists, and paramedics. [school clinics may be opened.] ... The state is preparing to administer up to 9 million doses this year. Schoolchildren will be targeted... But each H1N1 vaccine will require two shots. Seasonal flu would be yet another shot. ... The risks have been minimal, especially for healthy children. But they will be watching it closely, especially as both seasonal flu and H1N1 spread at the same time, making some in the population more vulnerable to complications. 

Auerbach: “We can avoid that if people are vaccinated, both for seasonal flu and for H1N1, and we really want to try to do that.”

So don't worry. It's only a rumor that our government is moving towards mandatory vaccinations.

DPH commissioner seeks to dispel mandatory vaccination rumors (9-2-09) 

Public Health Commissioner John Auerbach issued a statement today to dispel rumors about mandatory vaccination for the so-called swine flu virus.

“The Department of Public Health will not call for or authorize mandatory vaccination against the pandemic flu,” Auerbach wrote in a memo sent to legislators and local officials. “There are no public health officials on the state, national, or global level calling for forced vaccination for H1N1.... The Department of Public Health has been functioning in a transparent manner and actively communicating about H1N1 planning, holding dozens of hours of conference calls with key stakeholders and engaging the media to keep the residents of Massachusetts informed. We are eager to offer the H1N1 vaccine to those most at risk who choose to be vaccinated when it becomes available in mid-October. Mandatory vaccination is not and has never been part of the plan or discussion in Massachusetts’ pandemic response.” 





Note that in 2007, Auerbach testified for a bill mandating children be vaccinated for “all recommended vaccines” -- the list of which grows and grows, despite the strong evidence that autism, ADD, and other health problems are directly linked to the mercury and aluminum containing vaccines. 

WHO IS JOHN AUERBACH? Is he qualified to be Commissioner of Public Health?

The Massachusetts Commissioner of the Department of Public Health would hold enormous power if Bill S2028 (pandemic disaster preparation) is passed. He already has the power to define what diseases are a danger to public health and subject to vaccination requirements, isolation and quarantine orders. One would think that someone with a medical degree (preferably along with a public health expertise) would have the job of Commissioner.

Well, this is Massachusetts. Our Commissioner has a BA from Clark University and an MBA (with a concentration in health care administration) from Boston University School of Management. But no medical background. But he's been a factory worker, a labor organizer, and head of the DPH HIV/AIDS office. 

(An example of Auerbach's contribution to public health is The Little Black Book: Queer in the 21st Century, a homo-erotic how-to for young men, including a directory of gay bars in Boston. Published by the AIDS Action Committee of Mass., it thanked two governmental groups he ran or worked with for their help: The Boston Public Health Commission and the DPH.)


Auerbach has pledged his support for the homosexual and transgender propaganda in the Massachusetts public schools. MassResistance reported in December 2008:
Commissioner Auerbach replied that he wants to advance "transgender health" while they have the opportunity. He applauded the commission's [on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth] attention to trans health and said "We will listen to your recommendations." Gunner Scott (a woman GLBT Commissioner with a beard and sideburns) stated that she wants the DPH to consider trans people for leadership roles within DPH. Auerbach agreed.... Gunner added that she wants the terms "gender identification" and "gender expression" used in the DPH policies. Auerbach agreed, and said they'll make sure that this happens. 

The Harvard Medical School's Office for Diversity and Community Partnership gave him a "social justice" award in 2008 and noted:

As Commissioner, he heads a Department with 3,100 employees that includes four public health hospitals, the State Laboratory, several regulatory bodies, and numerous programmatic units addressing chronic and infectious disease, substance abuse, environmental health, tobacco control, children and adolescent health, and emergency preparedness. He is the Chair of the Public Health Council, the State’s Health Policy Board, and a member of the Governor’s Anti-Crime Council. 

The Boston Globe reported: 

He had gained national prominence in public health circles by championing sometimes-controversial causes such as banning smoking in bars and restaurants and, more recently, reviewing whether the city should ban trans-fats from restaurants and bakeries. Auerbach also directed a groundbreaking campaign to address ethnic and racial disparities in healthcare, which his boss, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, declared as the most pressing medical issue in the city.
Auerbach's appointment arrives a week after Patrick announced a $72 million increase in public health spending, with the money being used to expand childhood vaccinations and disease-prevention campaigns.

From the DPH web site:

Commissioner John Auerbach, DPH
How did you get into this field?
My first job in public health was working in the community health center in my neighborhood in Dorchester. I was so impressed with the incredible work that was being done at the center that I wanted to stay in the field.


Who would you consider to be your mentor and why?
I have had a few wonderful mentors. I am most indebted to David Mulligan, the former commissioner of Public Health in Massachusetts, for whom I worked in one capacity or another for almost 20 years. I had the benefit of observing firsthand his brilliant strategic thinking and his skillful, compassionate leadership style. Another invaluable mentor was Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, with his unique combination of first-rate political acumen, heart-felt concern for the most vulnerable and very effective leadership ability.

What quote do you live by?

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. (Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963)

What has been the most memorable moment of your career?

Certainly one of the most memorable occurred when I was the Executive Director of the Boston Public Health Commission. After many months of collaborative planning, a coalition unveiled the set of action steps to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health. Initially it seemed unrealistic to think that a city health department could have an impact on such a major problem — which involved many other factors outside of the control of our department such as jobs, housing and schools. Yet many people and organizations were prepared to contribute to taking concerted action — redirecting millions of dollars, supporting scores of contracts and training thouands of people. It was inspiring to see the support for such a worthwhile effort.

Can you share an interesting fact about yourself that your colleagues wouldn’t necessarily know?

My first job after college was as a labor organizer in a shoe factory in the Boston area. As such, I worked on an assembly line for years and came to understand first hand the unsafe working conditions and low salaries that the workers endured — as well as the positive results that were possible under the right set of circumstances. The lessons and skills that I learned from these years have been invaluable in my work in public health.

Is there anything you’d like people to know about your agency?

Much of the work of the Department is unheralded because it involves prevention and the minimization of health risk — something that is difficult to quantify. The work of our dedicated staff results in the avoidance of disease and premature death and the guarantee that air, water and food are safe. The Department has hundreds of unsung heroes.

HIV/AIDS Epidemic Calling Out for Action by Dept. of Public Health

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Mandatory Vaccination in Massachusetts? Connect the Dots

Many citizens are rightly worried about S2028, the "pandemic disaster preparation" bill. We also need to be worried about the vaccination law now on the books in Massachusetts:

MGL Chapter 111, Section 181: 

Boards of health, if in their opinion it is necessary for public health or safety, shall require and enforce the vaccination and revaccination of all the inhabitants of their towns, and shall provide them with the means of free vaccination. Whoever refuses or neglects to comply with such requirement shall forfeit five dollars.

Vaccination for what is unspecified. Granted, the fine is only five dollars, but the mandate is disturbing.

Pending bill S2028 would actually remove the "require and enforce" language, but mandate isolation or quarantine for a refuser: 

An individual who is unable or unwilling to submit to vaccination or treatment shall not be required to submit to such procedures but may be isolated or quarantined... (Line 409)

But nothing in S2028 specifically overturns Ch. 111, sec. 181. Where does that leave us?
Further, Ch. 111, Section 6 gives total authority to the Commissioner of Public Health to determine what disease is "deemed dangerous to public health" and thus warranting vaccination. 
MGL, Ch. 111, Section 6: 
The department shall have the power to define, and shall from time to time define, what diseases shall be deemed to be dangerous to the public health, and shall make such rules and regulations consistent with law for the control and prevention of such diseases as it deems advisable for the protection of the public health....