Wing nuts turn out for anti-bullying hearing

Are anti-bullying laws one more tool of the gay agenda? That seemed to be anti-gay activist Brian Camenker's argument at a May 1 hearing before the legislature's Joint Committee on Education, which heard more than two hours of testimony on a series of bills focused on requiring school districts to develop plans to address bullying.

Camenker's argument that the backers of anti-bullying legislation have ulterior motives provoked a stern response from committee co-chair Sen. Robert Antonioni (D-Leominster), co-sponsor of one of the bills, who aggressively questioned Camenker and at times forced him to limit his answers to either "yes" or "no." Camenker became visibly angry during the exchange with Antonioni, shouting over the senator to be heard.

Camenker, who was one of the last to testify on the anti-bullying bills, said that the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), a frequent target of Camenker's anti-gay group MassResistance, was behind the push in several state legislatures to pass anti-bullying legislation, and he claimed the LGBT groups and teachers' unions were driving the local push for the legislation. There was a strong LGBT presence at the hearing. Representatives from the Massachusetts Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, Greater Boston Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), the Boston Alliance of Gay and Lesbian Youth (BAGLY) and the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project testified in support of the legislation. Yet the committee also heard testimony from middle and high school students from Everett and Haverhill, a father whose child was harassed and driven from school by bullies in Newton, school superintendents and academics, all of whom either supported the bills or felt there were ways to make the legislation more effective; none of them mentioned LGBT-related bullying in their testimony. That made no difference to Camenker, who told the committee that the legislation was being promoted as part of the gay agenda.

"This is a P.R. campaign and you see it today...This is about money. You have the gay groups here. You have the homosexual adult newspaper here [an apparent reference to this reporter's presence in the hearing room]. You've got the transgender lobby here. You have the teacher's union. Earlier this week you had a [Boston] Globe editorial, and then you have the letters to the editor on the same day you have the public hearing. You have the kids brought in, and who got these kids? Who did all the work? Who paid for all this? You have the PhDs, you have the facts and statistics," said Camenker. "I mean, somebody is orchestrating this thing today. It just didn't happen by itself, and it didn't happen all over the country by itself."

Antonioni pressed Camenker on his claim that the anti-bullying legislation was a front for pro-LGBT propaganda. He asked Camenker if he agreed with an action alert on the MassResistance website that states, "The 'anti-bullying' agenda has almost nothing to do with the actual welfare of children. It is a front for introducing more homosexual programs and other radical agendas into the public schools." Camenker boasted that he was the author of the alert.

Antonioni told Camenker he had a meeting last year with a group of parents with autistic children who urged him to pass the anti-bullying legislation because their own children had been targeted by bullies. He also pointed to a 2002 Secret Service report on school shootings, prompted by the Columbine shootings, which found that nearly three-quarters of the attackers in the cases studied had been bullied in school. When he asked Camenker if either of those examples convinced him that bullying was a serious problem, Camenker agreed. When Camenker tried to elaborate Antonioni cut him off, prompting Camenker to shout over him and say that he felt school anti-bullying plans tend to "exacerbate the problem."

Camenker was not the only opponent of LGBT rights to testify against the anti-bullying bills. Sally Naumann of Carlisle also argued that the anti-bullying bill was likely a cover for pro-LGBT propaganda.

"I feel like the bullying bills are often a cover for promoting activities I don't agree with. I believe the bills on safety have promoted homosexuality among the kids," Naumann said.

Naumann, like Camenker, has been active in efforts to oppose pro-LGBT messages in schools, although she has kept a comparatively low profile. She serves as treasurer for the Parents Education Foundation, a partner organization of MassResistance headed by Camenker. On March 31 she attended the GLSEN Boston conference, which has been targeted by Camenker in the past, and took copious notes throughout the day. When Bay Windows approached her at the time and asked if she was affiliated with MassResistance, she denied any ties to the group and said she was a member of a Unitarian Church. Her name tag at the conference identified her by an assumed name, Sarah Price. Bay Windows learned her true identity at the education committee hearing.

There were two other people who testified in opposition to the anti-bullying bills because of objections about the bills' alleged pro-LGBT biases, and at times their testimony entered the realm of the surreal. A man who identified himself as "Bruce from Quincy" tied his opposition to the anti-bullying bill to his own opposition to same-sex marriage, saying that any definition of bullying that included "hatred or intolerance" could be used to attack people exercising their right to free speech by opposing same-sex marriage. He also used his testimony to argue that gay men themselves are intolerant because they will not have relationships with women.

"That's exactly what people who disagree with homosexuality or gay marriage are called, because we're made to seem like we have hatred and intolerance, but however, a gay man will never allow a woman in his relationship in the name of love. So that could be looked at as a form of intolerance, gender-diversity intolerance," said Bruce.

Another opponent of the bill, Kim O'Sullivan, began her speech by sarcastically thanking the committee for "circumventing parental right ability to opt out their children from homosexual and transgender bullying bills in the children's classroom." She also told lawmakers, "Children need leadership, and leadership comes from within, something that money can't buy. No matter what side of the transgender homosexual education issue you're on, the tax payers and small businesses can't afford any more of it because we can barely afford English reading, English writing, and arithmetic."

Evelyn Reilly, director of public policy for the Massachusetts Family Institute, the lead organization in the VoteOnMarriage.org campaign to outlaw same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, observed part of the proceedings and briefly conferred with Camenker during the hearing, but she offered no testimony. In its lobbying efforts to lawmakers around the issue of same-sex marriage VoteOnMarriage.org has publicly distanced itself from MassResistance and the group's confrontational lobbying tactics.

While the anti-bullying bills brought the anti-gay forces out of the woodwork, there was also strong LGBT support for the bill. Grace Sterling Stowell, executive director of BAGLY and vice-chair of the Massachusetts Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, said that the commission supports the bills and argued that LGBT youth and those perceived to be LGBT are disproportionately targeted by bullies.

Stanley Griffith, president of the Greater Boston PFLAG board, spoke in support of the bills, saying that both through his work with PFLAG and his experience as a parent of four children who attended Lexington Public Schools he has seen the positive impact anti-bullying programs have in creating a welcoming environment for all students.

Don Gorton, head of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, spoke about working on an anti-bullying guide as a member of the defunct Governor's Task Force on Hate Crimes and his efforts to get it distributed. He urged the committee to make anti-bullying curricula available to schools at no charge.

But the most powerful LGBT-related testimony at the hearing came from Trevor Wright, coordinator of the BAGLY Prom. Wright, who is 22, explained that during his years at Weymouth High School he was repeatedly targeted for harassment and physical assaults because he is gay. He said when he would visit the men's room other students would taunt him and ask him to perform oral sex on them.
"They would call me a faggot, and the whole room would laugh at me," said Wright.

One student named Randall regularly targeted him, he said. Wright said Randall wrote the words "cock-sucking faggot" on his locker, and when Wright confronted him Randall punched him and threw him to the floor.

Wright said when he went to administrators for help, he was told to "tone it down a bit." To cope he said he would go home and cut his arms with razor blades.

"My wounds might have healed, but my scars are still visible," said Wright.