Bay State Activist Blasts Governor's Promotion of Homosexual Youth Event
by Jim Brown
May 11, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A Massachusetts pro-family group is denouncing a large homosexual and transgender youth event in Boston this weekend -- an event that is being promoted by Governor Mitt Romney's office.
This Saturday in Beantown, the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth will be holding a rally and march called "Youth Pride," which is billed as "the oldest and largest event for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer youth and their allies in the nation." Kelly Lydon of Massachusetts Youth Pride says the event, contrary to some critics' fears, does not promote teenage sexual activity.
"It's a safe space," Lydon asserts. "There's no alcohol, drugs, cigarettes or sex allowed. There will be police there, there will be adult chaperones that will be there, and there's usually no problem," she says. "It's a really safe space, and it's a great day for youth."
However, Brian Camenker with the pro-family group Article 8 Alliance contends otherwise, insisting that students at Youth Pride are encouraged to flaunt their homosexuality or transsexuality. He believes claims that the yearly event does not promote homosexual lifestyles and deviant behaviors are not only false but disingenuous.
"Every year it's the same lie," Camenker says. "It's 100 percent about homosexuality and cross-dressing and various other perversions." For example, he notes, one of the speakers at the Youth Pride rally in Boston this Saturday, according to Lydon, will be a teenage boy dressed as a woman who calls himself "Foxy Cleopatra."
The Article 8 Alliance spokesman says Governor Romney, who is a possible 2008 Republican presidential candidate, is giving homosexual activist groups carte blanche to "have their way with kids in Massachusetts." He contends that there is a "huge amount of hypocrisy" in the governor's political pitches to values voters, particularly as he travels to South Carolina and other southern states, "talking about what a conservative he is and how pro-family he is, when he allows this to happen."
Camenker is outraged by Romney's promotion of Youth Pride and the blatant way his administration has underwritten it. The Massachusetts pro-family activist notes that this homosexual and transgender youth celebration "was advertised by stationery with the governor's name on it, from his office."
Although the Youth Pride celebration was created by a former governor's executive order, Camenker believes Romney could easily dissolve the annual event, if he wanted to do so.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
