Unraveling the Right's FALSE attacks on Kevin Jennings
- 2009/12/18 20:19:04
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Unraveling the Right's false attacks on Kevin Jennings
December 15, 2009 10:13 am ET —
Media Matters for America
examines and debunks the wide array of falsehoods and distortions the
right-wing media have used in their attempts to smear and discredit
Department of Education official Kevin Jennings and the Gay, Lesbian
and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), which Jennings founded and
previously served as executive director.
source for Jennings
information
3) SMEAR: Jennings failed to report "statutory rape" of
4) SMEAR: Jennings "urged" student to "further the
relationship" with "older man ... forcing his way" on him and to "keep
quiet"
6) SMEAR: Jennings' ties to anti-AIDS group disqualify
7) SMEAR: Jennings is linked to an "Anti-Christian Art
8) SMEAR: Jennings promoted "Child Porn in the
9) SMEAR: Jennings is "linked to shocking teen sex
10) SMEAR: Jennings knew the content of "sex talk"
11) SMEAR: High school students received
"fisting kits" at 2001 GLSEN conference
12) SMEAR: GLSEN handed out explicit13) SMEAR: GLSEN gave teens "directories to
gay 'leather' bars" in Chicago
14) SMEAR: Jennings is a15) SMEAR: Jennings "spoke about the
promotion of homosexuality in the public school
curriculum"
Jennings called
for mandatory "LGBT course" for teachers
Jennings
suggests support for NAMBLA
CLAIM: MassResistance is a
legitimate source for Jennings
information
REALITY:
MassResistance is an anti-gay "hate group." Accuracy in Media
pointed
readers
to the website of the Massachusetts-based anti-gay group MassResistance
to get "the facts on Jennings," stating that the group's longtime
leader Brian Camenker "has covered the scandal of Obama's appointment
of Jennings in much detail." Many right-wing outlets have relied on the group's
false or misleading claims about Jennings in attacking him. MassResistance has
been labeled a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center; even
conservative commentator Dean Barnett has stated
that the organization "verges on being a hate group." Camenker himself
reportedly denied that gays and lesbians were targeted during the Holocaust and has
compared the gay rights movement to the Nazis.
CLAIM: Right-wing attacks on
Jennings are not
anti-gay
REALITY:
Right-wing media unleashed anti-gay rhetoric in attacks on Jennings. In their attacks
on Jennings, numerous conservative media figures
have resorted to thinly
veiled homophobic appeals to paint Jennings, who
is gay, as a "radical" "gay activist" with an "agenda" of "promoting
homosexuality in schools," and have misrepresented or distorted Jennings' previous
comments about religion and tolerance. Moreover, in a blatant appeal to
homophobia, the right-wing media have termed a series of allegations "Fistgate,"
even though several of those allegations have little or nothing to do with the sexual
practice of fisting --
or, for that matter,
with
Jennings himself.
SMEAR: Jennings failed to report
"statutory rape" of student
REALITY: Student
was at least 16 -- the
legal age of consent --
when he spoke to Jennings. Numerous right-wing
and Fox News media figures advanced the falsehood
that Jennings, in the words of Fox News host Bill Hemmer, knew of a "statutory
rape" and "never reported it," based on Jennings' past statements about advice he gave to a student who told him about his
relationship with an older man when Jennings was a high school teacher in the
late 1980s. In fact, a 2004 letter
from Jennings' attorney, as well as a statement from the former
student and his Massachusetts driver's
license definitively show that he was at least 16 -- the legal age of consent in Massachusetts
-- when he approached Jennings.
SMEAR: Jennings "urged" student
to "further the relationship" with
"older man ... forcing his way" on him and to "keep
quiet"
REALITY: No evidence supports these
claims. WorldNetDaily, in at least four separate articles,
falsely claimed that Jennings "counseled a
15-year-old student to keep quiet about being seduced by an older man."
Likewise, Limbaugh accused Jennings of having
"encouraged" and "facilitated the relationship," and claimed that he
"urged" the "15-year-old" to
"further the relationship" with "older man ... forcing his way" on
him. In fact, nothing in Jennings' 2000 speech for the Gay,
Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, his 1994 book, or the student's own
statement in any way suggests
that the student told Jennings that someone was "forcing his way on" him or that
Jennings "urged" the student to "further the relationship," nor do they support the claim that
Jennings told the student to "keep quiet."
SMEAR: Jennings advocated for or
supports NAMBLA
REALITY:
Jennings once
praised Hay for his
pioneering gay civil
rights work. Right-wing media sources including
The Washington
Examiner, The Fox Nation,
The Washington
Times, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Karl Rove, have linked
Jennings to the North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) based on a 1997
speech in which Jennings praised gay rights activist Harry Hay. But like many
obituaries written about Hay upon his death in 2002, Jennings was touting Hay as a
gay civil rights pioneer for his role in helping start "the first ongoing gay
rights groups in America" in 1948, and Jennings' comments had nothing to do with
NAMBLA.
SMEAR: Jennings' ties to
anti-AIDS group disqualify him from public service
REALITY: Group credited with
improving awareness, treatment of disease. Hannity and
The Washington
Times editorial board have insisted that
Jennings' past
involvement with the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) somehow
disqualifies him from serving in the Obama administration. But such arguments
are absurd, given that ACT UP, an anti-AIDS activist organization, has been
credited with both creating awareness of the AIDS epidemic in
America and facilitating more
effective treatment of the disease.
For example, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases reportedly
stated that ACT UP played "a significant role in the
whole idea of expanded access to experimental
drugs."
SMEAR: Jennings is linked to
an "Anti-Christian
Art Porn Exhibit"
REALITY: Exhibit
actually features "posters, stickers, and other visual media" used by ACT UP's
AIDS activists. Right-wing web sites attempted to smear
Jennings by
claiming that he, in the words of Gateway Pundit, "funded a pornographic
anti-Christian art show." In fact, Jennings is listed
on a Harvard Art
Museum press
release as providing a gift to the museum's exhibit
ACT UP New York: Activism, Art, and the AIDS Crisis,
1987-1993.
According to the release, the exhibit includes "over 70
politically-charged posters, stickers, and other visual media that emerged
during a pivotal moment of AIDS activism in New York
City" and "chronicles New
York's AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) through
an examination of compelling graphics created by various artist collectives that
populated the group."
SMEAR: Jennings promoted "Child
Porn in the Classroom"
REALITY:
Jennings' group
recommended adults review books for suitability. Conservative blogs
and The Washington Times editorial
board have claimed that Jennings is unfit as "Safe
Schools Czar" because he supposedly promoted "child porn" by allowing GLSEN to
recommend for students in grades 7-12 books that included sexually explicit
content. The organization, however, specifically stated on its book list website
that "some titles for adolescent readers contain mature themes" and recommended
that "adults selecting books for youth review content for suitability"; further,
schools regularly teach books that contain sexually explicit material. In a
December 11 statement, Martin Garnar, chair of
the American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee, said: "Though
Jennings' and GLSEN's critics claim to be upholding American morals and values
by condemning the GLSEN book list, they are actually undermining the values of
tolerance, free inquiry, and self-determination that inform and sustain our
democratic way of life in the United States."
SMEAR: Jennings is "linked to
shocking teen sex talk"
REALITY:
Jennings
criticized content of state employees' workshop at GLSEN/Boston conference.
Several right-wing media outlets have
claimed that Jennings is, in the words of Fox Nation, "linked to shocking teen
sex talk," referring to a recorded exchange that occurred during a "Queer Sex
and Sexuality" workshop during a 2000 conference sponsored by the Boston branch
of GLSEN. In fact, Jennings reportedly criticized
some of the workshop's content when the recordings were first released in 2000,
and the people involved in conducting the controversial discussion were state
employees and contractors, not GLSEN employees.
SMEAR: Jennings knew the content
of "sex talk" workshop in advance
REALITY: Critics
have presented no credible evidence that Jennings knew the specific contents of the
workshop in advance. WorldNetDaily
and Gateway Pundit's Jim
Hoft have both claimed that Jennings knew about the controversial workshop's
contents ahead of time, citing a
MassResistance blog
post which claims, "Of course
Jennings and the Massachusetts Department of Education knew beforehand what the
'sexuality educators' would discuss with children at the 'fisting' workshop. The instructor Margot Abels said so herself"
[emphasis in original]. But the statements MassResistance
cites Abels reportedly
making indicate only that her immediate supervisors in the Department of
Education were aware of her work -- not Jennings or other GLSEN officials. Moreover,
while MassResistance claims that Jennings "worked
hand in hand with the Mass. Department of Education from the beginning, as
co-chair of the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth education
committee," Jennings left that commission years before the
2000 workshop took place.
SMEAR: High
school students received "fisting kits" at 2001 GLSEN
conference
REALITY: Planned
Parenthood distributed safe sex kits including "instructions for how to make a
'dental dam.' " Conservative bloggers have followed
Hoft's
lead in claiming that "fisting kits" -- often placed in quotes -- were distributed at the
2001 GLSEN/Boston conference. But those bloggers have presented no evidence that
the kits distributed by Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts were actually
intended for fisting. Indeed, while the conservative newspaper Massachusetts
News - cited by Hoft -- reported
in 2001 that the kits were "intended for 'fisting' or oral sex," the paper
described the kit's contents as "a single plastic glove, a package of K-Y
lubricant and instructions on how to make a 'dental dam' out of the material,"
and offered no support for their claim that the kits were "intended for
'fisting.'" FoxNews.com has reported
that Hoft "alleged that Jennings and GLSEN were involved in Planned
Parenthood's purported distribution of 'fisting kits,'" but that the kit "was
actually for making a 'dental dam' -- designed to prevent STD transmission
during oral sex."
SMEAR: GLSEN
handed out explicit safe-sex booklet to children
REALITY:
Community health group -- not GLSEN -- says it mistakenly brought "about 10 copies"
of booklet banned under GLSEN policy to conference. Conservative bloggers
and the Washington Times editorial
board have falsely stated or suggested that GLSEN had
distributed to children an explicit safe-sex booklet which included "the
addresses and phone numbers of Boston-area gay bars" and
"Pushed Anal S*x in Parks With Strangers." In fact, a community health group --
not GLSEN itself -- reportedly said that it had mistakenly "left about 10
copies" of the booklet on an informational table it rented at a 2005 GLSEN
conference at Brookline High School in Massachusetts; the group reportedly
apologized for doing so; GLSEN stated that if it had known the booklets had been
at the conference, it would have demanded they be removed; and the Brookline
school superintendent reportedly said he believed no students had actually taken
the book.
SMEAR: GLSEN gave
teens "directories to gay 'leather' bars" in Chicago
REALITY:
Chicago Area Gay & Lesbian Chamber of
Commerce -- not
Jennings or
GLSEN -- produced guide
for GLSEN national conference. Hoft has claimed
that GLSEN "passed out guides to gay leather bars in Chicago to
students in 2000." But according to an October 7, 2000, press release
from the anti-gay groups Americans for Truth, the Chicago Area Gay
& Lesbian Chamber of Commerce -- not Jennings or GLSEN -- produced
a visitor's guide that was distributed at GLSEN's annual conference in
Chicago. That guide reportedly, according to the press release,
"contain[ed] a full-page ad for Steamworks, a homosexual bathhouse in
Chicago" [Americans for Truth press release, 10/7/00 (from the Nexis
database)]. According to right-wing WorldNetDaily,
"Organizers said around 800 people, including teenage students, some of whom
received financial
scholarships, attended the event."
SMEAR: Jennings is a
"pedophile"
REALITY: Even
right-wing Accuracy in Media acknowledged there is "no evidence to support" that smear. On December 10, a
blogger for Accuracy in Media, which purports to "set the record straight on
important issues that have received slanted coverage" falsely claimed Jennings is a "pedophile." Shortly after Media Matters brought attention to
the blog post and noted that no allegations of pedophilia have been made against
Jennings and
that the only evidence the blogger appeared to cite to support her allegation
was a false claim, the post was removed without comment.
The following day, Accuracy in Media stated
that it "regret[s] the publication" of the
blog post and that it
has "no evidence to support" that allegation that Jennings is a
"pedophile."
SMEAR: Jennings "spoke about the
promotion of homosexuality in the public school
curriculum"
REALITY: Jennings said promoting sexual orientation in schools was "ineffective." Andrew Breitbart and The Washington Times
grossly distorted
comments Jennings made to a GLSEN audience in 2000 to
claim he "spoke about the promotion of homosexuality in the public school
curriculum" and "criticize[d] schools for promoting heterosexuality." In fact,
in the audio files posted by the Times and Breitbart, Jennings
promoted a curriculum that demands "respect [for] every human being regardless
of sexual orientation, regardless of gender identity, regardless of race or
religion or any of the arbitrary distinctions we make among people," and said
that efforts to promote a specific sexual orientation through schools were
ineffective.
SMEAR: Jennings called for
mandatory "LGBT course" for teachers
REALITY: Jennings called for course on "issues of bias in the classroom." The Washington
Times' Kerry Picket reprinted a doctored
transcript -- originally posted by a conservative blog -- of 2008 comments by
Jennings to falsely claim Jennings had said he wanted teachers to be required to
"take an LGBT course" -- a claim also echoed by The Fox Nation. In fact,
responding to an audience member who asked about how to combat stereotypes held
by teachers based on race, gender, and ethnicity as well as sexual orientation,
Jennings did not call for a mandatory "LGBT course," but rather called for a
mandatory course on "issues of bias in the classroom" for aspiring teachers in
order for them to be aware of "how biases can influence how you interact with
your students."
SMEAR: Book foreword written by Jennings suggests support for
NAMBLA
REALITY: Jennings
called for valuing "every human being as a precious gift." Hannity and Karl Rove attempted to link the
foreword Jennings wrote for the 1999
book Queering
Elementary Education: Advancing the Dialogue about Sexualities and
Schooling to his purported support for NAMBLA
and statutory rape. In
fact,
in the foreword -- which,
contrary to Rove's and Hannity's suggestions, had nothing to do with statutory
rape -- Jennings
called for valuing "every human being as a precious gift" and looked forward to
the day when people could "walk down our streets without
fear."
http://mediamatters.org/research/200912150012#1
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A lot of the facts you present do not prove the right is incorrect and is nothing more than more false rhetoric like you accuse the right of making. If you are going to disprove the opposition, you will not succeed by behaving in the same manner you accuse them of. Your accusation about MassResistance being a hate group does not prove what they say is false nor stating the Southern Poverty Law Center declared them a hate group when the SPLC has come under increasing fire for accusing groups and labeling unrelated instances together to create patterns that do not exist.
Often, radical groups left or right are accused of falsehoods just because people attack them for being radical rather than addressing or proving what they say is false. This in turn gives these radical groups more power instead of taking it away from them.
You...
A lot of the facts you present do not prove the right is incorrect and is nothing more than more false rhetoric like you accuse the right of making. If you are going to disprove the opposition, you will not succeed by behaving in the same manner you accuse them of. Your accusation about MassResistance being a hate group does not prove what they say is false nor stating the Southern Poverty Law Center declared them a hate group when the SPLC has come under increasing fire for accusing groups and labeling unrelated instances together to create patterns that do not exist.
Often, radical groups left or right are accused of falsehoods just because people attack them for being radical rather than addressing or proving what they say is false. This in turn gives these radical groups more power instead of taking it away from them.
Your wrap up about NAMBLA... how does saying he values every life as a precious gift prove he does not support NAMBLA? The very foundation of NAMBLA is that the sexual predators who molest little boys are also supposed to protect them and help them mature into manhood. Guess you didn't understand that part as they do express that these childrens lives are precious... but then, they have ulterior reasons for saying this.
I won't disagree that the right can be extreme or their attacks at times can be unwarranted, but much of what they say about Jennings hs proven true. Even if one of their accusations were true, the severity of the accusations warrants giving Jennings a closer look. Defending Jennings using the tactics you accuse the right of using is self defeating and you should invest more time to get the facts straight to focus on the ones you can prove are false rather than giving truth to them with false or incomplete statements trying to prove them wrong.
While correct on issues like Jennings being falsely accused of being a pedophile, you cite dubious reports on other issues no different than you claim they have cited to prove their points. That's why it is often better to address things separately in some cases and stick with the ones you can prove if you are going to attack the opposition for things it turns out you yourself are as guilty of doing.