The RECORD

Maine Teacher Makes Queer Television History

Maine's most famous transgendered man, Jennifer Finney Boylan, is set to make daytime network television history this week, and the radical homosexual Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) organization praises ABC Television for making the unfamiliar [transgendered men and women] familiar.

Starring as himself in ABC's daytime soap opera, All My Children, Boylan (formerly James Boylan) and five other transgendered adults play a transgendered support group. The group coach Zoe, a young female character played by a Jeffrey Carlson. The now-female Zoe character is involved in a lesbian relationship with Bianca, another female character on the show. Boylan is the transgendered support group leader.

ABC Television reports that their All My Children soap opera will be the first daytime network television program to have a regular transgendered cast member.

The March 9 episode has already been hailed by homosexual websites including The Advocate and GLAAD as amazing and compelling. The show has previously won three GLAAD Media Awards, most recently in 2004. GLAAD's Entertainment Media Director Damon Romine said, "There will never be acceptance of [transgendering] without visibility and it's these kinds of representations of the transgender community that will ultimately make the unfamiliar familiar."

Boylan comments on his transgendering advocacy work in an interview posted on GLAAD's website. He states, "Someday, transgender characters will be as mundane as gay characters or lesbian characters or straight people, and when that day comes, I will feel extremely happy."

Boylan remains married to his wife despite having taken on a female persona in 2001 while still in his early 30s and despite having young sons. He mentions his experiences while taping the All My Children episode recently in his March 4 Kennebec Journal column There from Here. "I asked my boys and my spouse if they had any interest in coming down to the set the next day to watch me film my scenes," writes Boylan. "My son Zach wrinkled his nose."

ABC's Daytime Media Relations contact is Michael A. Cohen. He can be reached by phone at (212) 456-1429 and by email at michael.a.cohen@abc.com ABC's All My Children can be seen locally by checking their website for television station listings and times Jennifer Finney Boylan is a Professor of Creative Writing at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. His contact information is available at his website and he can be reached by email at JennyBoylan@aol.com.

AUGUSTA - People lobby legislators every day on a host of issues - but only a few do so from a position of faith and set their priorities based on Scripture.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, the Maine Council of Churches and the Christian Civic League of Maine are the most recognized Christian organizations that regularly testify on bills and buttonhole legislators in the halls of the State House.

While some issues such as gay marriage, clergy sex abuse and embryonic stem cell research garner headlines, some faith organizations spend more time working to end poverty and ensure access to health care.

This year, the Catholic diocese is the only group that has a full- time registered lobbyist working in Augusta. The Maine Council of Churches and the Christian Civic League have cut back on their lobbying work due to budget constraints, but are following the bills as they make their way through legislative committees to the House and Senate.

How much the church should be involved in government has been debated for centuries, according to Lyman "Terry" Phillips, president of Grace Evangelical Center for Undergraduate Studies and Seminary in Bangor.

"Some people see every single issue as having a faith-related side," he said Thursday, "while others say religious groups should not get involved at all because government is an earthly concern and faith is heavenly focused. The defense of the First Amendment, however, is very important to people of all faiths."

Historically, denominations have taken different positions on their involvement in government, Phillips said. Congregational churches established the first governments in New England, yet other denominations wanted complete separation of church and state long before the U.S. Constitution was drafted.

"It was the faith voice that created modern American liberalism and the idea that government is responsible for taking care of those who can't take care of themselves," he said.

Marc Mutty, 57, lobbyist for the Catholic diocese, spends most of his time working on those issues even though they don't get much attention from the media.

The diocesan public policy committee uses its statement of principles to help decide which pieces of legislation it will take a stand on, and Mutty follows through.

Its priorities are care and protection of human life; caring for children and families; equitable, accessible and ethical health care; economic justice and fiscal resource allocation.

"Social justice issues are what Marc spends the vast majority of is time on," said Michael Poulin, the Auburn attorney who heads the committee.

"Access to essential services by those in need [is] a core issue for the church. ... We're all are part of one human family. Catholic means universal and to the extent that there's suffering and injustice in the world, the church is called upon to speak to that."

For more than two decades, Tom Ewell, the former executive director of the Maine Council of Churches, lobbied the Legislature on social justice, peace, restorative justice and environmental issues.

Ewell, 63, of Cape Elizabeth retired last year.

His successor, the Rev. Jill Saxby, 46, of Cape Elizabeth, is spending her first year on the job helping the council discern where it wants to focus its energies over the next 20 years. As a result, the organization has not lobbied in Augusta this year as much as it has in the past.

The Christian Civic League of Maine does not have a lobbyist this year either, but the group's executive director, Michael Heath, is keeping an eye on what bills might be of interest to its members.

Established in 1897, the league's three founding principles outline the group's philosophy about its involvement in the civic life of the state.

Those principles are:

. To encourage all the people of Maine in good citizenship.

. To elect honest and competent public officials.

. To enact good laws and provide for their impartial enforcement.

"Personally, I prefer the model of Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper," said Heath, 45, of China. "He said there are three spheres that all citizens are connected to: religion, government and family. They're interlocking like the Olympic circles, so there's overlap and independence. ... If you look at those three spheres, the idea that there's a separation of church and state and no interconnectedness is not real."

Legislative leaders said that the voices of faith the diocese, the Maine Council of Churches and Christian Civic League represent add depth to the political debate.

"In today's modern political environment, people with a particular interest or background collectivize to engage their government," said state Sen. Carol Weston, R-Montville, the Senate minority leader.

"A civic group bound together by a core set of spiritual beliefs, like any other group, adds a tremendous amount to any debate," Weston said.

From the March 3, 2007 edition of the Bangor Daily News. By Judy Harrison.

NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is reproduced for non-profit educational purposes only. For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

By Michael Heath

The League received a six page letter from a Rockland man alleging crimes a number of weeks ago. We asked our attorney for counsel on the matter. He read the letter from Adam Flanders and advised that we make the letter public and turn it over to the police. The letter had already been made public by Mr. Flanders. He sent it to the Bureau of Health before he sent it to us.

Our motive was pure. We are concerned for the well-being of young people, and citizens in Maine. We didn't know whether the claims in the letter were true or not. We invited the police to investigate, and we felt that the public had a right to know about what was going on at the group "Out as I want to be." Flanders was a leader of the group and was, therefore, a credible witness. We weren't going to let this matter be swept under the rug.

While leading the group a year or so ago, Flanders launched a vicious attack on the League Executive Director's wife, Paulie. He manipulated a digital image of Paulie to make her look like Satan, and he posted it on a page at Amazon.com that advertised her music CDs.

On February 11th, Flanders stabbed two people at an Orange Street residence in Rockland. Stephen Betts, editor of the Courier-Gazette, announced that Flanders was arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated assault and one count of criminal mischief. Betts wrote a stinging editorial against the League two days after the stabbings, but waited until the arrest to write about the stabbings.

Here is the timeline:

Early January -- Flanders makes allegations of sexual abuse by "Out as I want to be" public by sending a six page letter to the Bureau of Health. The press chooses to ignore the allegations. According to Betts, the Courier-Gazette only reports on allegations against public officials prior to arrest, not private citizens.

February 11th -- Flanders stabs two people, who are briefly hospitalized.

February 14th -- Stephen Betts, the editor of the Courier-Gazette writes a scathing editorial accusing the Christian Civic League of Maine of being a hate group.

February 20th -- Betts publishes a news story about the Flanders arrest just hours after it occurs.

The Betts editorial belittles the accusations by Flanders. Betts writes, "If a single individual were to walk in off the street and start making serious claims against another person we would not publish those allegations without something more substantial to report." Flanders was not, however, simply an individual off the street. He was an organizer and a leader of the homosexual youth group "Out as I want to be." It was news that he sent a six page letter containing serious and detailed allegations to the Bureau of Health. Betts could have covered the story without naming the individuals who Flanders named in his public six page letter. Betts chose not to. That is his right.

The League doesn't know whether the Flanders allegations are true or not. According to Betts, the Rockland Police have not filed any charges in connection with the Flanders allegations. We don't know whether the investigation is still open.

What we do know is that none of this is surprising. We expect nothing less from a society that appears hell-bent on calling Christians "haters" while creating space for adults to help teenagers become "out as they want to be."

Maybe Adam's antics are a wake up call for homosexual activists and their supporters. The League suspects that stabbing people over homosexual "love" probably isn't what they mean by coming "Out."

The League was viciously libeled by a Maine newspaper this week. The editor of the Rockland-based Courier-Gazette, Stephen Betts, authored a column entitled "Not Christian, nor Civic." Betts called the League a hate group. He wrote, "The League's main mission seems to be to create hate and discontent in its communities. This is neither Christ-like nor civic minded." Betts can be reached by email at sbetts@courierpub.com

"This editorial is so laughable a serious response would only give it more dignity than it deserves," said League Director Michael Heath. "That he published it on St. Valentine's Day is sad, really. Betts needs to look in the mirror, and when's he's done perhaps he could start doing real journalism."

The editorial is a justification for not reporting serious allegations about wrongdoing in a group called "Out as I want to be." This group exists to create relationships between adults and teens for the purpose of deepening mutual commitments to sexual promiscuity. A former leader has made serious criminal charges public regarding the group. The charges are being investigated by local police, while they are being ignored by the press.

Here is the Betts column:

The Christian Civic League of Maine is certainly in a league of its own.

The organization is known statewide for leading the opposition to civil rights for gay people. Its efforts worked until November 2005, when Maine citizens rejected the referendum that would have repealed a civil rights law approved by the Legislature and signed by the governor.

The Christian Civic League has issued many proclamations that border on hate. Once they encouraged people to publicly oust legislators who supported gay rights. The organization later apologized for that action.

But the group has not learned its lesson.

Last month, the league sent a news release to media organizations across the state noting that it had received a letter from an individual who accused a pro gay rights group of being pedophiles. In an effort to prove that the allegations were true, the Civic League pointed out that the letter had been sent to the Augusta Police Department and was given a complaint number. That complaint was then forwarded to Rockland police because the allegations included claims of illegal conduct in the city.

A week later, the Civic League issued another news release titled, Pedophilia Allegations Remain Unreported. The group said that Maine newspapers, including The Courier-Gazette, had not reported on the claims.

The league has that right.

The [Rockland Courier-Gazette] newspaper generally will not report on allegations of criminal behavior until an arrest is made or criminal charges filed. The newspaper holds public officials to a higher standard, so if an allegation is made against a government employee or elected official we might report on the matter, if we find some grounds for the claims.

But if a single individual were to walk in off the street and start making serious claims against another person, we would not publish those allegations without something more substantial to report. Anyone can walk into a police station and make an allegation. This doesn't make it true.

The newspaper relies on its police agencies to investigate. Only if we felt a cover-up were occurring would be begin our own investigation into a criminal matter that involved private individuals.

The league, however, was hoping that the media would splash these allegations across our front pages with no evidence other than one letter from an individual.

The league's main mission seems to be to create hate and discontent in its communities. This is neither Christ-like nor civic minded.

Stephen Betts is editor.

The following press release was issued by Concerned Women for America today:

Lesbian activist Pam Spaulding's popular weblog Pam's House Blend is known for its outrageous and controversial content. In addition to promoting anti-Christian bigotry, the North Carolina-based Web activist's favorite pastime appears to be smearing pro-family leader and Americans for Truth president Peter LaBarbera with bizarre and hateful accusations and insults. However, House Blend's typically intolerant and obscene content may have recently shifted from the absurd to the criminally violent.

In what was, at the very least, an apparent attempt to intimidate and frighten LaBarbera, who is married with children, "House Blend" published his home address in a January 13, 2007, thread titled, "Saturday this and that." Shortly thereafter, someone identified as "Barry G. Wick" posted the following comments: "It's across from a park in an area with cul de sacs. I'd bet it's a residence ... and across from a park. Snipers take note." (emphasis ours)

"Wick" later seemed to suggest that shooting LaBarbera would amount to an act of self- defense: "Self-defense for gay folks isn't PC, is it? No, we have to be sure that we're victims all the time. ... When we start standing up for ourselves, we lose all the status of an under class. I refuse to be part of an underclass. I'm equal. And I'm gonna use any language, even outrageous language, to get my point across. ... I'm a citizen ... equal, proud, and willing to defend my way of life with my life. ..."

Later in the same thread "Wick" made his true intent clear: "If I were Azerbaijani and living in Russia right now, I'd want to advocate violence against skinheads ... [LaBarbera] and others like him ought to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what future awaits them from a cadre of selected defenders willing to give up everything in order to protect the lives of gay and lesbian citizens. The greatest thing ever to happen to the [Martin Luther King] movement was the Black Panthers. Americans were shocked by an open display of firearms and Black Pride ... Pushing back verbally ... or with selected action isn't dishonorable, it's necessary."

LaBarbera indicated that he has been in touch with both the FBI and the North Carolina Attorney General's Office. He's anticipating a full criminal investigation. "I'm a big boy. It's not so much that I'm worried about myself," said LaBarbera, "but the effect this could have on my wife and children ... that has me extremely upset."

Concerned Women for America is deeply disturbed by this apparent threat to Peter LaBarbera's life. Matt Barber, CWA's Policy Director for Cultural Issues said, "This is nothing short of cyber-terrorism. There should be a thorough criminal investigation, and if it's determined that a crime has occurred, the perpetrators should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."

As of the time of this press release, the thread in question was still posted on Spaulding's Web site.