Camenker Vindicated by Reinstatement of Fistgate Teacher

September 2001

The woman who taught homosexual sex at Fistgate, Margot Abels, now believes she is a heroine because an arbitrator has reinstated her in her job.

But this only proves that MassNews and others were correct in what they have been saying all along, says Brian Camenker.

“I believe Abels absolutely,” Camenker told MassNews when she first filed her suit against the state last January.

“She is being used as a scapegoat,” he said. “There’s no question about it. For them to claim this was an isolated incident is completely disingenuous.”

Camenker now says that the fact that an arbitrator came to the same conclusion that he did, does not make Abels a heroine. “Just because her superiors at the state approved her talking ‘dirty’ with children is not to her credit in any way,” he stated.

Abels told the Globe she is “thrilled” by the decision of the arbitrator. “I do feel vindicated,” she said.

Camenker told the Globe this week he agreed with the arbitrator’s decision – to a point. “No question about it: Her supervisors knew what was going on and encouraged her to do it,” he said. “But this woman should not continue to be paid by the state to have contact with vulnerable children.”

Atty. Chester Darling tells MassNews that this “is only the tip of the iceberg.” He believes Abels is telling the truth when she says that what she was doing had been going on for five years.

But he also says that giving her back-pay for a year is only “rewarding her for corrupting little kids.”

Puzzled by Arbitrator

All observers are puzzled about the statement by the arbitrator, Marc Greenbaum, that there were blank spaces in the tape that was recorded by Scott Whiteman of the Parents Rights Coalition. (They are also puzzled that the Globe was so inaccurate as to report in its paper on Wednesday that Brian Camenker was involved in the taping of the workshop.)

These observers do not understand how the arbitrator could have obtained a copy of the tape. They assume that he must be merely regurgitating what he was told by Abels.

Greenbaum wrote in his report, “The blank spaces left by the PRC tape were filled in with important messages about AIDS prevention, abstinence, postponement, alternative forms of sexual intimacy, and the need for students to enforce their own boundaries of personal security.”

But Scott Whiteman, who attended the entire conference, has reported that no such messages were ever given during the entire workshop.

When MassNews broke the story in its May 2000 issue with an article written by Whitehead and Camenker, it reported, “One often hears that there is an aggressive HIV/AIDS prevention campaign, but the session ran 55 minutes before the first mention of ‘protection’ and safer sex came.” And when it finally did come, it consisted of telling the teenagers they could make an “informed decision” about whether or not to use a condom.

Fistgate Made A Difference

Fistgate has made homosexual activists more cautious across the entire country, according to Abels.

She told the Boston Herald yesterday that she’s concerned that her firing triggered a dumbing-down of sex education and HIV prevention work.

“I think a lot of programs around the country and the state have scaled back and gotten the message there are things to be afraid of. Now you can’t just be about effective practices because it all became so political.”

But Camenker says that she is wrong. He says that Fistgate got the program removed from politics when the people found out what was happening. He says that Gov. Weld and Cellucci and other politicians were keeping it quiet for as long as they could because the homosexual lobby was an excellent source of votes and money for them. But after Fistgate broke, they were forced to make some concessions and look like they were correcting the problem. The firing of Margot Abels was one of those concessions.

Gov. Cellucci Knew

Camenker said at the time of the scandal that Gov. Cellucci’s office was well aware of what was happening because he had personally told them. MassNews broke that aspect of the story in July 2000 with its front page headline, “Sex Scandal Began In Governor’s Office.”

Camenker said, “Bill Weld decided, when he beat John Silber in that close race, that he was successful only because of the help and money given to him by homosexual activists.” It was a political decision, he says.

“Therefore,” according to Camenker, “Weld repaid those activists by allowing them access to our public schools and even giving them the money to indoctrinate our kids.”

By the time Cellucci was appointed Ambassador to Canada, the scandal about Fistgate had become so bad that President Bush had to make personal telephone calls to Senators to get him confirmed. Although the Governor’s staff had apologized and three state workers had been terminated, Cellucci refused to acknowledge that the scandal had even taken place. In order to be confirmed, he had to make a written promise to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he would follow the policies of the President.

The statement from Cellucci said, “If confirmed, I will faithfully represent the goals and policies President Bush has set for our nation and its relations with Canada. My personal views will not be imposed on the President’s agenda.”

Everyone is always shocked when they learn what was taught to high school students at Fistgate by Margot Abels and others. That is why it became a national scandal.

The original story about Fistgate was in the May 2000 issue of MassNews and a complete wrap-up was in July 2000, both of which are available free at www.massnews.com or in the print edition. An edited tape of the conference is also available from MassNews.

Fistgate Archive: Your resource for Massachusetts News coverage of the 2000 and 2001 annual GLSEN conferences, their repercussions and related stories