Complaint filed against LGBT youth commission

Joseph Rizoli, a Framingham activist known in his hometown for his crusade against illegal immigrants (and who sent a letter to Bay Windows June 28 claiming that now that marriage rights have been secured, LGBT activists would next seek the legal right to have sex with children), filed a complaint with Attorney General Martha Coakley's office against the Massachusetts Commission for GLBT Youth, claiming the commission violated his rights by forbidding him from videotaping its May 21 meeting.

While Rizoli cites the state's Open Meeting Law in his complaint, a copy of which he forwarded to Bay Windows, the text of the law itself does not appear to support his claim. The law allows citizens the right to record the meetings of government bodies "by means of a tape recorder or any other means of sonic reproduction," but it does not explicitly permit the use of video recording. At the May meeting, held in the State House, commission chair Jason Smith told attendees that they were welcome to make audio recordings of the meeting but not video recordings.

Rizoli and his twin brother, Jim, attended the May meeting and tried to record the meeting on video. A third attendee, Janet Aldrich of Hamilton, also tried to record the meeting. When Smith informed attendees of the commission's policy on recording and cited the Open Meeting Law as its basis, the Rizoli brothers got into a brief argument with him and then left the building. Aldrich covered her camera lens and continued recording audio from the meeting.

In his complaint to Coakley's office, Rizoli said that his own understanding of the Open Meeting Law was that it permitted video recording, and he wrote, "I would like an explanation with this above procedural information whether Mr. Smith is correct in his assumptions or a little confused what Country [sic] he thinks he is living in. This situation isn't new to freedom of speech. Open knowledgeable people concerned with getting to know their Government [sic] can sense when Government [sic] goes a little bit to [sic] far with its power, then it is time to fight back."

Harry Pierre, a spokesperson for Coakley, confirmed that her office had received the complaint and that it is under review. When asked about the substance of the complaint he pointed Bay Windows to the text of the Open Meeting Law and declined to comment further.

Smith declined to discuss the complaint but told Bay Windows, "We run the meetings well within the parameters of the Open Meeting Law. We don't permit photography or video taping at our meetings by anyone."

Rizoli and his brother are organizers of Concerned Citizens and Friends of Illegal Immigration Law Enforcement (CCFIILE), and they have garnered attention for their anti-immigrant activism in the Framingham Tab and the Boston Globe, among other media outlets. They have also posted videos of their immigration-themed public access show on Google Video. More recently the two have been making public forays into anti-gay activism. In May Jim Rizoli accompanied MassResistance activist Amy Contrada to record the Youth Pride festival, and last month the brothers recorded the Boston Pride festival and parade and the June 14 constitutional convention (ConCon). They posted video footage from Boston Pride and the ConCon, as well as a video of their argument with Smith at the commission meeting, on Google Video.