Homophobic hate group, MassResistance, is the source of conservative attacks on Kevin Jennings

[ck4829]

Right-wing media outlets have relied on false or misleading claims by MassResistance, a Massachusetts-based anti-gay group, in advancing several recent attacks on Department of Education official Kevin Jennings. The founder of MassResistance -- a group the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled a "hate group" -- reportedly denied that gays and lesbians were a target of the Holocaust (CK asks: Isn't this basically Holocaust denial?) and has compared the gay rights movement to the Nazis. The organization has also called on parents to keep their children home from school during an event promoting awareness of, and opposition to, anti-gay bullying and has stated that suicide prevention programs for gay and lesbian youth have no "legitimate medical or psychological basis."

MassResistance falsely claimed "hundreds of kids (middle school age and up)" were given explicit safe-sex booklet. A MassResistance Web page asserted that an explicit safe-sex booklet "was distributed to hundreds of kids (middle school age and up) at Brookline High School, Brookline, MA, on April 30, 2005," at a conference sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), which Jennings headed at the time . Gateway Pundit and BigGovernment.com are among the websites that have cited MassResistance in repeating the claim. In fact, a community health group -- not GLSEN itself -- reportedly said that it had mistakenly "left about 10 copies" of the booklet on an informational table it rented at the conference; the group reportedly apologized for doing so; GLSEN stated that if it had known the booklets had been at the conference, it would have demanded they be removed; and the Brookline school superintendent reportedly said he believed no students had actually taken any of the books.

Smear that Jennings is "linked to shocking sex talk" based on MassResistance video. In 2000, MassResistance videotaped a workshop for students at a GLSEN-sponsored conference that included explicit discussions of sex. While MassResistance did not claim that Jennings participated in the controversial session, some right-wing bloggers, including from Gateway Pundit and Accuracy in Media, have nevertheless used the MassResistance video to falsely claim Jennings was directly involved in the session or even made the presentation himself. In fact, Jennings reportedly criticized the content of the session after he became aware of it, and the Massachusetts Department of Education employees who led the session in question either resigned or were fired.

MassResistance makes unsupported assertion that Jennings knew of session's content beforehand. In a December 8 blog post -- repeated by Gateway Pundit, BigGovernment, and WorldNetDaily.com -- MassResistance asserted: "Of course Jennings and the Massachusetts Department of Education knew beforehand what the 'sexuality educators' would discuss with children at the 'fisting' workshop". But as Media Matters for America has noted, the statements MassResistance cites instructor Margot Abels of reportedly making indicate only that her immediate supervisors in the Department of Education were aware of her work -- not Jennings or other GLSEN officials. Moreover, while MassResistance claims that Jennings "worked hand in hand with the Mass. Department of Education from the beginning, as co-chair of the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth education committee," Jennings left that commission years before the 2000 workshop took place.

The Southern Poverty Law Center named MassResistance among "anti-gay" groups on its list of "Active U.S. Hate Groups in 2008." The SPLC continued: "Anti-gay groups are organizations that go beyond mere disagreement with homosexuality by subjecting gays and lesbians to campaigns of personal vilification." Even conservative commentator Dean Barnett has stated that the organization "verges on being a hate group."

http://mediamatters.org/research/200912100059

Hey cons, I hear that the KKK is also opposed to Obama and his administration, I guess that makes them valid as well, right?

[BrklynLiberal]

1. There has to be a way to get the truth out there about these "groups"....

that are actually fronts for hate groups and corporate dogma.

If one really cares, one can find the truth, but most people do not have the time, inclination or the ambition to bother.

There are so many lies being told....:mad:

and so many ignorant people buying into them!!!

[StarfarerBill]

2. The SPLC does amazing work exposing myriad hate groups...and has suffered for it.

A friend and I went to Montgomery, Alabama several years ago to visit the SPLC's office building...it was like a fortress, as they've had an attack by the Klan on another building they'd previously occupied. But after we cleared their security, they showed us around. For only a few people, they do an amazing amount of work and have closed down more than a few criminal hate organizations.

Morris Dees and the SPLC should get national recognition as fighters of intolerance.

[MH1]

3. SPLC is a great org

I've had a monthly contribution going to them for awhile, one of just a few orgs I do that for.