Conspiracies and lies at MassResistance forum in Acton

At the MassResistance forum at Acton-Boxborough Regional High School the evening of Oct. 3, held to denounce the school drama club's upcoming performance of The Laramie Project, several of the speakers seemed convinced that there was a vast gay conspiracy to silence them by any means necessary. The paranoia reached epic proportions when Brian Camenker, leader of the anti-gay group, told the crowd that one of the scheduled speakers, ex-gay activist Stephen Bennett, was rammed by a gay activist in another car while driving up from Connecticut. Camenker also alleged that the State Police were conspiring with the gay activists to cover up the hit on Bennett.

"Stephen Bennett will not be here tonight. ... He is reviled and hated by the homosexual movement. While he was driving here after he got off the Mass Pike onto highway 290, as he paid his tolls and went going there was a parked car," Camenker told the crowd of about 50 people at the start of the forum. "The parked car, as he got going, bashed into his car, causing him personal injury and then took off. State troopers came and they refused to file a police report on this."

The story of the gay plot to target Stephen Bennett became a recurring theme throughout the evening, particularly in the remarks of Dr. John Diggs, a Massachusetts internist who spoke at the forum to warn Acton parents and community members about the dangers of homosexual sex. Diggs at various points in his remarks compared the alleged attack on Bennett to the attacks on civil rights workers in the South fighting for rights for African Americans, and he said the attack was similar to the tactics used to quash dissent in Nazi Germany and in the Soviet Union.

"So why is Stephen Bennett so dangerous? Why is Stephen Bennett run off the road, in Massachusetts, the land of tolerance!" said Diggs, raising his voice to a shout. "Obviously because of what he had to say here tonight. Why? ... Stephen Bennett is dangerous because he sticks the knife in the core of the lie."

Diggs said that the lie in question was that being gay is an innate part of someone's nature, as opposed to a dangerous aberration that can be cured.

There was just one problem with the conspiracy theories: According to Bennett, he has no knowledge of the motives of the other party in the alleged hit-and-run and no reason to suspect that party was a gay activist lying in wait. He told Bay Windows a very similar story to what Camenker told the crowd at the forum; while he waited to pay the toll heading onto Route 290, another car rammed him from the side, causing damage to his front bumper, the driver's side headlight, and the driver's side of his car. He said the incident also caused him back injuries.

"I don't know who did it, why they did it, if it was road rage, but physically I was unable to make the event from that point," said Bennett. He added that Camenker may have mischaracterized his accident because Camenker did not have complete information about what happened and said he had no quarrel with him.

Trooper Eric Benson, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts State Police, confirmed that police were called to the scene on the eastbound side of the Mass Pike at the toll heading onto Route 290. He said at 2 p.m. that afternoon a Connecticut man, who Benson said was not identified in the police log, reported that another car had struck his while he was waiting at the tolls. Contrary to Bennett's version of events, Benson said when police arrived at the scene they found that Bennett had not been injured and that his car had not sustained major damage.

"The damage as a result of that crash was extremely minor. It includes a scuffed bumper," said Benson.

He also dispelled the myth of a conspiracy between State Police and gay activists. He said police did not file a crash report because the incident did not meet the required threshold; the damage to Bennett's car was less than $1000 and he was not injured. Benson said police took down Bennett's description of the vehicle of the alleged perpetrator, including the license plate number and are working to track that person down. He said the person may face criminal charges for failing to stop after the incident and exchange insurance information.

Beyond the conspiracy theories, the Acton forum featured the overt anti-LGBT rhetoric that has become a staple of MassResistance events and public appearances. Camenker denounced The Laramie Project, a play written by Mois?s Kaufman about the murder of Matthew Shepard, as a propaganda tool to promote prejudice against Christians, and he likened it to the work of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.

"That's the power of this kind of propaganda, and the gay groups have often acknowledged borrowing from that period. And that is really what this is," said Camenker.

In attacking the play Camenker also shed light on his past work as a theater critic.

"Most towns don't do this play because for one thing it's really sort of bad theater. I was once a theater critic in an earlier life and I worked for a newspaper, and if you read this play it's boring and it just grinds away," said Camenker.

John Russo, a former school committee member in Reading, spoke to the crowd about how to persuade the school to cancel the play. He urged the audience to bypass school administrators and begin flooding the school committee with complaints.

"They do have the power to change things fast. Talking to superintendents and principals is much less effective. Maybe 25, 50 or 100 calls could stop this event. I'm not sure. But if enough people threaten boycotts, it could get worse than Lexington, Massachusetts, they'll stop," said Russo, referring to the lawsuit currently in federal court by parents demanding advance warning about any LGBT-related content in the schools. MassResistance has been a strong supporter of the families suing the school system in that case.

Russo let loose a torrent of homophobic rhetoric during his speech, citing a political platform approved by a collection of gay organizations in 1972 and claiming that the ultimate goal of modern LGBT rights advocates is to win societal approval for pedophilia.

"In their own gay rights platform, state level one, I quote, 'number 7, repeal of all laws governing the age of sexual consent.' So pedophiles, persons who molest children below 13 years of age, or NAMBLA, North American Boy Love Association for men who specialize in anal sex with boys over above 13 years of age, will not have to be afraid of any sexual acts with any person of any age because they won't be able to be prosecuted if our law is changed," said Russo, adding mysteriously, "There is even now a women's equivalent to NAMBLA."

Diggs wasted no time in letting the crowd no exactly how he feels about the LGBT community.

"When you deal with a force that is innately evil, and I use that word freely and openly and knowing I'm being recorded, with it comes, unavoidably, violence," said Diggs. "I stand up here with my face out and open in public, because one thing I have learned from my Russian friends, my Russian immigrant friends all over Western Massachusetts is this: Freedom is not free. If you do not stand up and be counted, you will die."

Although the goal of the forum was to encourage parents and community members to demand that the play be canceled, there is no indication that their efforts will stop the show from opening Nov. 3. In an earlier interview with superintendent Bill Ryan he said he was aware of the protests of the show but was "absolutely confident" that the community as a whole would support the play (see "MassResistance protests Laramie Project," Sept. 20, 2007).

There were at least a few pro-LGBT audience members at the forum, including KnowThyNeighbor founder and activist Tom Lang and QueerToday activist Mark Snyder. During the question and answer portion of the forum, in which panelists answered questions submitted anonymously on note cards, one parent wrote that she was the proud mother of a gay son who accepted him for who he was, and she asked if the speakers felt that he was an "abomination."

Diggs answered by saying first that he did not mean to imply that gay and lesbian people were inherently bad people. He then promptly compared LGBT people to thieves and murderers.

"People who practice homosexuality are not bad people by and large. However the problem is they're doing something that's bad, which is one thing. But the problem I have here now is they're trying to encourage other people to do things that are bad," said Diggs. "You can be kind, smart, funny, generous and a thief or a murderer. You can be all those things. But you don't see a murderer's pride parade. You don't see a thief's pride parade. You don't see the school saying we need to teach you how to be a thief safely."

There were other pro-LGBT members of the community who allegedly stayed away from the forum to show their support for the play. During the forum Debra Simes, a parent in the Acton Boxborough school system, stood outside and handed out a statement to media purporting to represent 425 Acton and Boxborough parents. Simes declined to give Bay Windows a list of signers, saying she had not secured their permission to make their names public, but she said the statement has been given to the superintendent.

"There is enormous support in the Acton and Boxborough communities for the Acton Boxborough Regional High School Proscenium Circus production of The Laramie Project. We want to be clear that local people are staying away from this 'forum' in droves because we choose not to contribute to the attention sought by sponsors of this forum," read the statement, in part. Simes declined to comment for this story.