Welcome to Call to Decision
To: micknm@valornet.com
Subject: Mass. Senate unanimously approves huge funding for gay school programs.
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align="right">May 23, 2008
MassResistance Update
Pro-family activism
"In a time of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
- George Orwell
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1. Mass. Senate spits on parents - unanimously approves huge funding
increases for homosexual programs in schools. Even "good" senators caved in.
Leadership used sleazy maneuver to avoid debate. Homosexual lobby triumphs.
2. National TV: FoxNews interviews MassResistance on outrage over
sex-change clinic for children at Boston Children's Hospital!
3. Memorial Day message.
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1.
Mass. Senate spits on parents - unanimously approves huge funding increases
for homosexual programs in schools. Even "good" senators caved in. Leadership
used sleazy maneuver to avoid debate. Homosexual lobby triumphs.
Yesterday the Massachusetts Senate unanimously caved in to the homosexual
lobby. Using a particularly sleazy maneuver they increased the funding for
homosexual programs in the schools by $300,000 -- to $850,000 in the 2009
budget.
This money will go (either directly or indirectly) to the hideous
Massachusetts Commission on Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Youth, which
(among other things) recently organized the disgusting
Youth Pride Day on the Boston Common. They had also announced that
"parents are the problem" because they teach traditional values.
Earlier this month the full
Mass.
House of Representatives had voted overwhelmingly (including many
"pro-family reps) to increase this funding from $500,000 to $750,000. But then
after getting a flood of phone calls from angry parents and citizens, the
Senate committee cut it down to $550,000.
But the homosexual lobby wasn't giving up. As we reported last week
Sen. Dianne Wilkerson (D-Boston) who has become a huge pro-homosexual ally since
they helped her in her recent election fight, filed two amendments to raise it
up to $850,000 (which was MORE than the homosexual lobby has asked for):
Amendment #466: Increase budget item 7010-0005 from $200,000 to
$300,000
Amendment #654: Increase budget item 4590-0250 from $350,000 to
$550,000
Fighting back
We got right to work. We got a as many people as possible to call and
email Sen. Wilkerson, and also the entire 40-person Senate. It apparently
got so intense that Wilkerson disconnected her email for a period of time.
We also sent each Senate office the descriptions of the
bigoted, anti-Catholic / anti-Christian pamphlets given out to kids, and
the links to the pamphlets. Several Senators' staffers also get these regular
emails, so they know what we're talking about.
But the leadership of the Senate made the decision to give the
homosexual activists everything they asked for and the members unanimously
approved. And the homosexual lobby, in tandem, used their usual tactic of
disingenuously describing these destructive and offensive programs as "violence
and suicide prevention". Of course, we've exposed and disproved that lie over
and over to these politicians. But it plays on their basic cowardice and their
fear of standing up against this vicious lobby. So they all caved in and
supported it, rather than doing the right thing.
And Senate President Therese Murray, like her counterpart in the
House, Sal DiMasi, sold you're your children and carried the water for this
bizarre special-interest group.
Last night homosexual lobby MassEquality sent out the following email
to their supporters, bragging about their victory:
From MassEquality:
Today was another great day for equality in the Commonwealth!
The Massachusetts Senate has just approved several budget amendments to increase
funding for programs supporting LGBT youth, seniors . . . In all cases, these
amendments meet or exceed the funding MassEquality helped secure for these
programs in the House budget.
· Department of Public Health funding for school health and community-based
services for LGBT youth was increased by $200,000 to $550,000, which is $100,000
more than what was allocated in the House.
· Department of Education funding for school safety and suicide prevention
programs for LGBT youth was increased by $100,000 to $300,000, matching the same
level allocated in the House. . .
It's a strong testament to the power that comes in working together, and what
we can achieve when we put all of our voices together.
Once again, you came through, with over 500 members contacting their legislators
in just the past two weeks alone. This is what can happen when you make your
voice heard.
We also owe great thanks to our allies in the Senate, including Senate President
Therese Murray, Senator Ed Augustus and in particular Senator Dianne Wilkerson,
who took the lead on many of our budget priorities and succeeded in delivering
increased funding to all of these critical programs.
We'll be in touch with more information as the budget makes its way through
conference and to the Governor's desk.
But in the meantime, thank you, as always, for all you do.
Marc Solomon
Campaign Director
Here's what actually happened.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee decided on their version of the budget last
Wednesday. Over the next two days, individual senators filed 897 amendments,
including #466 and #654 by Wilkerson. On Wednesday and Thursday of this week the
full Senate met to "vote" on all of them.
During these sessions the senate went through the
list of
amendments in numerical order very quickly, reading the title and taking a
"voice vote." In fact, there was no voice votes taken. None of the members
actually said "yea" or "nay". The president would call for a vote and then
immediately announce that it passed or failed. (It was very strange and actually
quite offensive to see. We have some video of this we'll post in our next
email.)
Through that method, most of the amendments took only seconds to deal with. A
few amendments were announced to have been withdrawn by the sponsor.
Occasionally a member raised his hand to make a comment or ask a question about
the amendment at hand. And a few times someone actually spoke up and called for
a roll call vote on an amendment. But that was very rare.
But as they went through the list, some of the amendments -- including #466 and
#654 - were simply skipped. (These seem to be controversial amendments that the
leadership wanted to push through in a way comfortable for the senators, and
without having to actually read the titles publicly.) Then at the very end of
the day the Senate President lumped those skipped amendments into two "bundles"
- a "yes" bundle and a "no" bundle. Amendments #466 and #654 were in the "yes"
bundle. , A quick phony "voice vote" was taken. And that was that. Nobody raised
any objection nor made any comment about those amendments being in the bundle
and not dealt with normally. They just followed the leadership's direction.
Then the senators voted on the entire amended budget, passed it unanimously,
congratulated themselves, and went home.
Everyone knew what was going on
A senate insider later told us that every senator knew full well what was
in each amendment, and what was in the "bundles." According to the rules, we
were told, any senator could have asked for an amendment to be taken out of
the bundle and dealt with separately. But they didn't want to. For the
"pro-family" senators it was easier to just sit there and not risk getting into
a confrontation with their colleagues or with the gay lobby.
The next step is that the House and Senate versions go