URGENT! Call for over-ride of Romney's veto of school gay rights programs

[Ian David]

Cross-posted in LGBT
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=221&topic_id=13764&mesg_id=13764


The anti-gay hategroup Article 8 Alliance sent out an alert today.

It seems Romney vetoed money for gay rights protections for public school students.

The Mass. legislature is set to over-ride Romney's veto, and the anti-gay hate group doesn't want to see that happen.

So, thanking them for the heads-up, let's all call the Mass. legislature and ask them to over-turn Romney's veto.

Protect the rights of gay and lesbian children in Mass. public schools.


EVERY ONE OF YOU NEEDS TO MAKE A PHONE CALL RIGHT NOW!


Rep. Robert DeLeo, Chairman of House Ways and Means Committee

edit: Article 8 Alliance gave an incorrect phone number. The correct number is listed below:

Office: 617-722-2990
Home: 617-846-3612



Tell him to override the Governor's veto of the money for these important gay-rights and student protection programs

Budget items 4590-0250 and 7010-0005.



Related news:

Mass. Gov. Vetoes Gay Commission Raise
Gov. Romney votoed a proposed 40 percent raise for a publicly funded gay and lesbian program. Christian leaders say all funding should be cut.

Monday, Jul. 4, 2005 Posted: 8:08:29AM EST

Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney vetoed a proposal to raise 40 percent of public funding allocated for gay and lesbian youth programs Thursday. However, some Christian educators are saying that is not enough.

“I’m disappointed that the governor wasn’t willing to stop the funding completely,” said Fin Laursen, Executive Director of Christian Educators Assoc. In'tl. (CEAI).

The funds are earmarked by the Massachusetts Departments of Health and Education for the Governor's Commission for Gay and Lesbian Youth (GCGLY).

GCGLY was created in 1992 in response to a slew of suicide among gay and lesbian youth. Its main role is to create school and community-based programs focusing on suicide prevention, violence intervention, and the promotion of zero-tolerance policies regarding harassment and discrimination against gay and lesbian youth.

More:
http://www.christianpost.com/article/education/877/section/mass.gov.vetoes.gay.commission.raise/1.htm

[terrya]

1. A suggestion, please.

You might also post this in the GLBT forum. This is an important issue...the folks in GLBT might be very interested in participating in this.

Terry

[Ian David]

2. Already done. Also forwarded it along to a really huge list. n/t

[Totally Committed]

3. Done...

Thanks for the heads-up!

TC

[Ian David]

4. Call your Representatives ASAP. Vote could be as soon as tomorrow

I called Rep. Christine Canavan's office and left a message.

I called Creedon's office (I always call him Cretin... heh heh) and his staffer told me that the Senate can't over-ride anything until the House does.

He also told me that Cretin (I mean, Creedon) voted to fund this in the first place and could be counted on to over-ride any veto of something he already voted for.

Enter ZIP code +4 and choose federal state or local:

http://capwiz.com/hrc/dbq/officials/

[TayTay]

6. I will call my Rep

Garry, Colleen M..

Also, here is a list of every House Rep and some e-mail and phone numbers.

http://www.mass.gov/legis/memmenuh.htm

Done! Sent an e-mail (I have gotten snail mail back from Geary beofre to submitted e-mails.)

I mentioned that I didn't want to see some of these compassionate, sound and fiscally responsible programs sacrificed on the altar of Mitt Romney's Presidential ambitions. And I mentioned that I am not gay, but that I don't think that matters much. There are children at risk who are helped by these programs. That should transcend all esle.

Hope this was good.

[Ian David]

5. Here is what Article 8 Alliance says about the program

It hardly ever gets much uglier than this!

<snip>

This budget item, among funding for the Department of Education, gives the GCGLY an additional $75,000. Note that it's even more insidious: it legally instructs them to create "suicide prevention" and "anti-violence" programs. These are the code-words for forcing pro-homosexual programs into schools against the will of administrators. If school officials resist, they're "helping kids kill themselves." In fact, these so-called suicide prevention programs have no legitimate medical or psychological basis; they are simply put together by homosexual activists to normalize homosexuality in the minds of kids. A few years back, gay activists pressured the State Board of Education into adopting these "recommendations" for schools.

More:
http://www.article8.org/docs/news_events/budget_2006/budget_items.htm


<snip>

“The gay movement publicly portrays these programs as ‘suicide prevention’ and ‘violence prevention’ in order to intimidate critics,” said Camenker. “Tragically, it’s often exactly the opposite. They lead vulnerable children into a life of disease, violence, and self-destruction. These so-called suicide prevention programs have no legitimate medical or psychological basis; they’re simply put together by gay activists to normalize homosexuality in the minds of kids.”

More:
http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_8606.shtml






Gay Male and Lesbian Suicide
By Paul Gibson L.C.S.W., Therapist and Program Consultant, San Francisco, California
Reprinted from WeAreFamily

Contents:


SUMMARY

Gay and lesbian youth belong to two groups at high risk of suicide: youth and homosexuals. A majority of suicide attempts by homosexuals occur during their youth, and gay youth are 2 to 3 times more likely to attempt suicide than other young people. They may comprise up to 30 percent of completed youth suicides annually. The earlier youth are aware of their orientation and identify themselves as gay, the greater the conflicts they have. Gay youth face problems in accepting themselves due to internalization of a negative self image and the lack of accurate information about homosexuality during adolescence. Gay youth face extreme physical and verbal abuse, rejection and isolation from family and peers. They often feel totally alone and socially withdrawn out of fear of adverse consequences. As a result of these pressures, lesbian and gay youth are more vulnerable than other youth to psychosocial problems including substance abuse, chronic depression, school failure, early relationship conflicts, being forced to leave their families, and having to survive on their own prematurely. Each of these problems presents a risk factor for suicidal feelings and behavior among gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual youth.


<snip>

Statistical Profile

There is a high rate of suicidality among lesbians and gay men. Jay and Young found that 40 percent of gay males and 39 percent of lesbians surveyed had either attempted or seriously contemplated suicide (1). Bell and Weinberg similarly found that 35 percent of gay males and 38 percent of lesbians in their study had either seriously considered or attempted suicide (2). Homosexuals are far more likely to attempt suicide than are heterosexuals. A majority of these attempts take place in their youth. Bell and Weinberg found that 25 percent of lesbians and 20 percent of gay men had actually attempted suicide. Gay males were 6 times more likely to make an attempt then heterosexual males. Lesbians were more than twice as likely to try committing suicide than the heterosexual women in the study. A majority of the suicide attempts by homosexuals took place at age 20 or younger with nearly one-third occurring before age 17.

<snip>

Gay and lesbian youth have been a hidden population within the adolescent and young adult age group. Those programs and studies able to document suicidality in gay youth have found they have a high rate of suicidal feelings and behavior that places them at substantially greater risk of taking their own lives compared to other youth (See Appendix A). Statistics from the Institute for the Protection of Gay and Lesbian Youth in New York, the University of Minnesota Adolescent Health Program in Minneapolis, Roesler and Deisher in Seattle, and the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center consistently show that 20-35 percent of gay youth interviewed have made suicide attempts (4,5,6,7). Statistics from Minneapolis, Los Angeles and San Francisco find that more than 50 percent of gay youth experience suicidality including serious depression and suicidal feelings (5,7,8). The Larkin Street Youth Center in San Francisco found that among their client population of homeless youth, 65 percent of homosexual/bisexual youth compared to 19 percent of heterosexual youth reported ever being suicidal, and that gay youth had a rate of suicidality nearly 3.5 times greater than other youth (8). The Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center in preliminary data from an unpublished study, found that the suicide attempt rate for gay youth is more than 3 times higher than that of heterosexual youth; their rate of suicidality is more than twice that of other youth (7).


More:
http://www.lambda.org/youth_suicide.htm

[TaleWgnDg]

7. If MA House Ways and Mean Cmte chairman DeLeo is . . .

.

If DeLeo is attempting to fund the Massachusetts Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth with at least $100,000 from the many 100s thousand dollars cut from its original funding, then three cheers for Massachusetts House Ways and Means Committee Chairman, (state) Representative Robert A. DeLeo (Democrat, Winthrop)!!

However, this may be due to political pressure from our new Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi (Democrat, Boston), and not from the political heart of DeLeo. After all, it's with DiMasi's approval that DeLeo sits as chair of the powerful Massachusetts House Ways and Means Committee.

Take note that DeLeo is on record in the 2004 Massachusetts Constitutional Convention for voting AGAINST same-sex marriage. That is, DeLeo is for tossing out the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's (SJC's) opinion allowing same-sex marriage in the Goodridge opinion.

And that's not all.

DeLeo also has a very poor record on a women's right to choose (abortion related issues), a so-so labor record, a zero record on campaign finance reform, a warm-to-cold record on other women's issues, a so-so record on social services, and is a strong proponent of the death penalty. See, e.g., vote-smart (dot) org's voting record on DeLeo. In other words, DeLeo is a social conservative and not a true proponent of labor, although a Democrat.

All that being said, please do contact Chairman DeLeo and tell him to re-instate at least $100,000 to the Massachusetts Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth in all the great work that the Committee is doing throughout Massachusetts public schools to prevent LGBT youth discrimination and to prevent LGBT youth suicide, and to disseminate preventative health issues regarding our LGBT Massachusetts youth.

Massachusetts (state) Rep. Robert A. DeLeo
Chairman, House Ways & Means Committee
Room 243, State House, Boston

Office Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

And, oh, yeah, this writer has eternal hope that people such as Brian Camenker (enter "Camenker" as last name in "search by an individual" and "type of search" select "exact match" then check box "search by an individual" and hit enter) will stop their hate, discontent and lies in attempts to destroy others as well as their attempts to make a living off the backs of others with homophobia. If you do look-up Camenker's many corporations, take note that merely b/c a corporation is listed as "non-profit" does not then mean that alleged "corporate purpose" costs including salaries etc cannot be "deducted."






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edited to add: And, thanks IanDB1 for a heads-up on this one!

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