Congratulations Wendy and Mary!

Because they can now have their partnership legally recognized! This is such terrific news. Of course, the Mass Family Institute has already started their campaign of fear with emails but that won´t put a dent into the wonderful news about Rhode Island. The corks are POPPING!

It is also wonderful news that Att. General Reilly will not appeal this ruling stating that it is ¨a waste of time and money.¨

Cheers Everyone!

Don't Call Her Tranny!

One of the people I met at the Out & Equal Workplace Summit was Joanne Herman. I've been reading her columns regulary in the Advocate and was pleasantly surprised to get the chance to meet her at the Friday night Award's dinner. Her columns on transgender issues (Transgender 101 Series) have been quite interesting and educational.

Unfortunately, Joanne's columns are coming to an end since she only had a commitment for 12 articles (she just posted number 12). It would truly be a shame to lose this wonderful writer and I hope that the Advocate picks her up for at least 52 more!

Herman is the first transgender member of the boards of The Point Foundation, the national LGBT scholarship fund, and of Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, the New England-based LGBT legal rights organization that filed and argued the court case that brought same-sex marriage to Massachusetts. She is also a member of the advisory board of the National Center for Transgender Equality.

If you enjoy her columns I suggest you contact the Advocate and let them know!

Rewriting History

Massresistance/Article 8/Parent's Rights Coalition is trying to rewrite history once again. In their lastest email they are trying to stay relevant even though that ship left port years ago. The email has their analysis of the primary election. Here is their analysis with my comments:

There were some great wins, and some disappointing losses.

However, the victories they list only appeared to be anti-gay incumbents (and a few anti-gay candidates who also ran against anti-gay candidates): Rep. Joyce Spilotis, Rep. John Fresolo, John Magovern (whose actual name is Robert Magovern but we didn't expect Massresistance to even get their candidate's name correct), David Singer (who ran against another anti-gay candidate) and Bob Thomas (who also ran against all anti-gay candidates). Strangely, they only list 3 defeats they list as "tough races": Rep. Marie Parente (who lost 41% to 59%), Sean Grant (40% to 60%) and Rob Marquis (16% to the winner who got 38%).

** The homosexual lobby's campaign NEVER mentioned their issue at all -- in their mailings, literature, or anywhere.

Hmm...check out my post from a couple of days ago, did you see Massresistance or Article 8 anywhere on the postcard they sent out? Who's being deceptive and secret?

** Pro-family candidates were also reluctant to talk about the same-sex marriage issue.

Why is that? Did they know that they would lose by an even bigger margin? Could it be that Massachusetts voters are WAY over this issue?

** Rep. Marie Parente's tough loss was NOT a result of the gay lobby's intervention!

Yeah, right! Can you imagine what they would have written if Parente had won? It probably would be the lead story on their monotone radio show on Saturday. "Oh man, Parente really showed those homo activists" And I thought it was VERY difficult to beat an incumbent! Read Brian Camenker's Letter to the Editor in the Boston Globe. (addition:) In the letter, Brian fails to state that he is the head of the anit-gay Parent's Rights Coalition, Massresistance and Article 8. Had they won a majority of the races I'm sure they would be singing a different tune.

** Challenger Sean Grant's loss to ultra-pro-gay Rep. Mark Falzone showed how desperate they get.

Yet in their "analysis" they say that Sean Grant didn't expose them (Equal Marriage supporters) or point out the differences between him and Mark Falzone. Sounds like like Sean Grant was a poor candidate if he couldn't even get his message out, correct that, it's the "homo activists" fault.

What have we learned? We believe that the homosexual lobby can be beaten even when they throw a huge amount of money at an election -- as long as the people find out the truth about where the candidates stand, and where the big money's coming from! (Remember the Joyce Spiliotis race last year? -- A huge win against the big money!) Secrecy and deception is their best weapon. The truth is our best defense!

First of all, the Joyce Spiliotis race was two years ago, not one. Second of all, THIS IS ALL THEY LEARNED? Secrecy and deception is our best weapon?! Who was being secret or deceptive? If you went to the MassEquality website anyone could have seen who they were supporting. Truth IS our best defense, that's why so many anti-gay candidates didn't make it. I suggest Massresistance start using it.

Oh, yeah. All their write-ins lost too. If you recall the last election, (correction and hat tip to Chris)Tom Sanicandro, ran a sticker campaign and won over another anti-gay Representative. Tom has no opponent this time. It sounds like his district is happy with the work he's done. Our candidates are well rounded and not just 1 note (anti-gay) candidates.

All the Results Are Almost In!

And it looks like the candidates that Massresistance (or is it the Parent's Rights Coalition? They use so many different names!) endorsed didn't fare too well. The following is from Massresistance's analysis of the primary races in Massachusetts:

For the Senate (6 races):

None of Massresistance's favorites, who had someone running against them, won.

For the House (23 races):

Only 4 of Massresistance's favorites made it to the November 7th election.

Interesting enough, Sean Grant, who Massresistance/Article 8/Parent's Rights Coalition sent out anti-gay postcards for, lost to Mark Falzone who got 60% of the vote. Chalk it up to another politician who was "helped" by Brian Camenker's group. Can we also attribute Rep. Parente's loss to them too?

Additionally, Tim Murray, the mayor from Worcester, won a stunning victory even though he released this statement during the Mr. Hetero contest in Worcester earlier this year:

A statement released by Mayor Timothy P. Murray said the city he knows respects diversity, but also free speech. At the same time, "we must also vigorously exercise our own right to speak out and speak up and say we don't condone or support events which unfairly and unjustly target a group of people because of their sexual orientation," the statement said.

Good choice Massachusetts! We prefer people who are against discrimination! Here's hoping Massresistance supports more candidates in the Nov. 7th election!

A Skunk By Any Other Name Still Stinks

Massresistance/Article 8/Parent's Right Coalition is at it again and Chris over at Take Mass Action has caught them red handed. Massresistance/Article 8 et al sent out a mailer to Saugus voters in favor of candidate Sean Grant (click on the picture for a larger view):

However, they put the Parent's Rights Coalition name on the mailer instead of Massresistance or Article 8. I think Take Mass Action is dead on with his guess as to why they didn't use the Massresistance name:

I wonder why they decided to use the name "Parents Rights Coalition" on the mail piece attacking Representative Falzone. Is it because they know MassResistance is not taken seriously and is considered a fringe group by Massachusetts voters? Is that why they didn't want their name on the mail piece?

This from the same people that are accusing the candidates for Governor of not wanting to be seen in BayWindows.

This photo is all you need to know about Democrat Governor candidates Chris Gabrieli and Deval Patrick! Which is probably why they don't want you to see it... It appeared briefly on Bay Windows' online frontpage, with an article short on details of what the two men said at the GLBT forum held at Harvard Law School on Sept. 12.(Candidate Tom Reilly was unable to make the forum.) Then the article and photo disappeared from Bay Windows' online edition during the day today. Another article in Bay Windows, under "Pressing the Flesh," gives some more details of the discussion. (We guess that one of those campaigns demanded the photo and front pager be taken down immediately!

Of course the candidates were in a public forum and any news outlet could have covered it, besides the fact that none of the candidates for Governor have ever hid the fact they support GLBT civil rights. However we are supposed to believe the duo at Massresistance who hide in the darkness and who go on the radio and still refuse to give their full names. Yeah, they're trustworthy.

Putting the Chic in Chicago

Hi All, I haven't posted in a week because I was at the Out and Equal Workplace Summit held at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago, Il. Let me just say that it was another wonderful experience. There were over 1500 people there representing a load of different public and private companies (Who knew Walmart was so progressive?)

I took lots of notes and I hope to share some of my experience with you all. I also met some fabulous and interesting people from all over the country. The whole event could be described as a diversity dream or homophobic's nightmare.

To top it off, the City of Chicago (who recently hosted the Gay Games) welcomed the conference with open arms. I had never been to Chicago so I never knew how beautiful the city is and how friendly the people are.

The Workplace Summit is being held in Washington D.C. next year. I highly recommend attending!

Get Your Fat-Free Snacks Ready

An "Ex-gay" TV show is debuting on September 18th on two christian networks (Christian Television Network & Sky Angel Satellite Network) and is being hosted by a former prostitute and self-confessed thief. The Advocate reports:

The show, produced by Mastering Life Ministries, will be hosted by former prostitute David Kyle Foster and Alan Chambers, a onetime criminal and current president of the "ex-gay" group Exodus International, according to a press release issued by Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out, a nonprofit that counters so-called conversion therapy. Joining Foster and Chambers as part of the show will be singer Sy Rogers and "ex-lesbian" activist Christine Sneeringer.

I'm hoping we'll be able to catch this show. It's got to be more entertaining than Massresistance's radio show. Read Truth Wins Out's press release.

The Propaganda Wheels Are Turning

Massresistance is up to its old tricks. Like Chris from Take Mass Action said in one of the comments to a post on this blog:

The thing to remember here is that the day after the primary election Brian and Amy are going to be claiming victory over the "homosexual lobby". They will send out emails boasting that their anti-equality incumbents like Spiliotis, Parente, and Kujawski all beat their pro-gay opponents. They will call these races their victories; when in fact, the pro-gay candidates in these races don't stand a chance.

MassResistance has already started by saying that MassEquality is going door to door for the candidate challenging Rep Spiliotis - this is untrue. But by saying this, MassResistance will claim that they were able to beat the "homosexual lobby" in these races. The truth is that the gay lobby isn't even getting involved in these races.

Yes, they are setting themselves up to be the "David against the Goliath" when it comes to the Massachusetts political scene. But that's not all...

Massresistance is now doing it with this lawsuit that David Parker et al have against practically everyone in the Town of Lexington. They were ranting about a lawsuit even before it was filed. Lately they've been posting the "Lastest" scoop about the Lexington School Officials' 57 page motion to dismiss. Oh and do they rant and rave:

"Orwellian" is the only word we could think of to describe this. Is this actually happening in the United States of America? They re-define the process of pushing homosexuality on young children and attempting to normalize it in their young minds, despite the strong objections of their parents, in a kind of Alice-in-Wonderland language that brings to mind something like a North Korean re-education camp.

and also:

It is due around Labor day(a formal rebuttal from Parker's lawyers). After that, the next step is for federal Judge Mark Wolf to decide whether to (a) dismiss the case -- and thus the Parkers (and parents across the country) would lose everything -- or (b) allow it to stand trial. This is an incredibly important decision, obviously. We think it will come reasonably quickly after Labor Day. Our bet is that the trial will be allowed to take place, but that's just an intelligent guess. We have a lot of confidence in Denner & Associates, Parker's legal team, that they can successfully carry this through, if it's allowed to go to trial. Pretty scary stuff.

Of course it is VERY unlikely that the judge will dismiss the case. I believe a Motion to Dismiss is practically always submitted by the defendants to the court as part of the legal process but the threshold of getting a judge to dismiss a case is very high. I don't know all the legal mumbo jumbo but I think in ruling on a motion to dismiss, courts must accept as true all "material allegations of the complaint and construe the complaint in favor of the complaining party (Parkers et al)." Additionally, "courts have a predilection for allowing civil rights cases to proceed until a record is available to either support or negate the facts alleged. "

Needless to say the lawsuit will probably go forward because the court will want to hear all the facts displayed. I'm guessing that Massresistance will try and spin the court's decision as a victory against "homosexuality in schools" if the court does deny the Lexington school officials' motion to dismiss. We'll also see if Massresistance posts the real reasons for the denial but don't hold your breath!

Will History Repeat Itself?

Take Mass Action has good coverage of Massresistance's latest email and their analysis of the political races in Massachusetts.

The best part of the post is where Chris talks about the election victory of Carl Sciortino and how Article 8/Massresistance contributed to his victory:

For 14 hours straight I stood in front of a polling place in Medford. The Ciampa campaign workers were handing out Ciampa stickers to voters. They were telling voters to place the sticker on the ballot to re-elect Ciampa and mentioning that "Carl is a fag". At one point a Ciampa poll worker started yelling at me. He called me a fag and asked me, "does Carl give it to you in the ass?" All of this took place in front of ordinary people going in to vote. It was the most contentious election day of my life.

I was handing out a pamphlet for Carl and telling people that they didn't need to use the stickers to vote for the Democrat because he was already on the ballot. The truth is that many people said to me that they had planned on voting for Vinnie Ciampa until they got the MassResistance mailing. Voters found the mailing offensive and hateful.

Offensive and hateful, hmmm...isn't that what Brian and Amy are always accusing others of being when they disagree with them.

It's Back to School With Massresistance

Things I've learned from listening to Massresistance's radio show:

• When same sex couples want equal marriage rights it's called "special rights" but when heterosexual couples receive benefits from the government's recognition of their sexual preferences it's "natural".
• They don't know the definition of diversity but can define transgender perfectly.
• While the whole country is talking about the Republicans losing their majority status in the Congress because of their ties to President Bush, a write-in Republican canidate who stands by everything the President has done (tax cuts, Iraq, etc...) and is challenging U.S. Rep. Barney Frank is the "hottest" race in the country.
• Amy reads Bay Windows even on vacation.
• One of the canidates vying for Rep. Phil Travis's seat in the Massachusetts legislature believes in "Personal Freedom" except when it comes to same sex marriage.
• Children in elementary school shouldn't be taught that you can get HIV by picking up used needles on the ground.
• It's clear who wears the pants among the hosts of the show.
• If you play "Massresistance: The Drinking Game" and take a drink every time Brian utters the phrase "Oh Man", you'll be drunk in about 10 minutes. (and seriously, that's the only way to get through that show)