Fistgate Is Repeated

April 3, 2001

Massachusetts News has learned that GLSEN had a lot of trouble finding a site this year for its Fistgate II conference. 

It appears as though Tufts University forced the homosexual activists at GLSEN to make some changes as a condition for allowing them to use a college building. 

Among the changes was a ban on sexually explicit workshops as well as demonstrations at exhibition tables. This may be the reason there were only half as many exhibitors at the conference this year. 

But despite the new policy, Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts distributed free “fisting/oral sex kits” for youngsters to take home. 

In a revealing letter written shortly before the conference, an official from the state’s Department of Education, Kim Westheimer, seemed disappointed about GLSEN’s new policy barring explicit sex instruction. 

In the March 20, 2001 letter, Westheimer, who works for the DOE’s “Safe Schools Program for Gay and Lesbian Students” wrote, “[U]p until the last minute it looked like GLSEN wasn’t going to have a conference at all. Sites they tried to obtain were unwilling to host the conference fearing negative publicity because of what happened last year.

“It might be possible that the only way GLSEN could host the conference at Tufts was to agree to stipulations about materials. I wouldn’t want to make any assumptions about GLSEN’s actions without asking organizers what went into their decision-making. People may agree or disagree with the decision to have the conference without providing explicit AIDS/HIV education. But to cancel the conference would have also sent a negative message to young people.”

The Department of Education employee continued, “Our challenge as a community is to find ways for explicit education to take place as well.”

The Westheimer language which supports “explicit” sex education belies the DOE’s official distancing from what went on last year at Fistgate. Interestingly, at the particular workshop last year which was tape-recorded by the Parents’ Rights Coalition (PRC) and where kids were given explicit homosexual instruction on fisting and other sexual practices, 55 minutes passed before there was any mention of AIDS/HIV.

Westheimer wrote, “When PRC launched their campaign against GLBT youth last year, GLSEN Boston and Wallace Bachman in particular were among the few organizations or individuals who spoke up publicly against PRC, against DOE firing, and in support of providing AIDS/HIV and sexuality education for GLBT youth. Not many organizations spoke out in support of GLSEN or the DOE employees who conducted the workshop.”

Two DOE employees were fired last year for teaching children how to perform dangerous homosexual sex acts such as “fisting.” The letter from Westheimer supports the contention of fired employee Margot Abels, who is suing the Department of Education, that she had the support of the DOE in what she taught the kids and she was made a scapegoat.

At least one exhibitor stayed away from this year’s conference because of the new GLSEN policy. In a March 16 letter to GLSEN, Rob Woronoff, the Director of GLBT Services and Peer Programs for “The Home for Little Wanderers,” explained why his group declined GLSEN’s invitation to set up a display this year. His letter shows that both GLSEN and Tufts were in an awkward position.

“While I certainly appreciate the position GLSEN and Tufts are in resulting from fallout from last year’s conference, the primary reason we won’t be able to attend this year’s conference is as a result of GLSEN’s request that we not include sexually explicit literature or condoms among the materials we display,” wrote Woronoff.

In a reference to Parents’ Rights Coalition which secretly taped last year’s sexually explicit workshop, Woronoff wrote, “We cannot allow reactionary, radical conservatives who by their actions demonstrate an outright and flagrant disregard for the law to dictate policy.” He also said the lack of a challenge to critics has created the current situation.

“There is simply no other way to keep these young people safe than to include open and honest discussions of sex, no matter how uncomfortable it may make some people.”