MassResistance crashes gay youth meeting

The May 21 meeting of the Massachusetts Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth got off to a rocky start when a group of attendees, including at least one with ties to the anti-gay group MassResistance, sparred with commission chair Jason Smith over whether or not they had the right to videotape the meeting, held in the State House's Gardner Auditorium. The week before the meeting MassResistance blogger Amy Contrada urged supporters to attend the meeting, and at the start of the meeting there were two cameras pointed from the back of the auditorium to record the proceedings.

One of the cameras was being operated by two men, one of whom had been working with MassResistance on May 12 to film the Youth Pride event on the Boston Common. At the time, he identified himself to Bay Windows as Jim but declined to give a last name. Janet Aldrich of Hamilton, an LGBT-rights opponent who frequently tapes State House hearings and told Bay Windows that she is filming a documentary on the impact of same-sex marriage, operated the second camera.

At the start of the meeting Smith told the audience that the commission meetings were bound by the state public meeting law and that while audience members could audio record the meeting, they were prohibited from filming or photographing the meeting.

Jim and the man accompanying him demanded the right to film the meeting, but Smith reiterated that filming would violate the open meeting law, and one commissioner asked State House security to intercede. The two men left the auditorium, and Aldrich stayed and continued recording, with the camera lens pointed towards the ground.

Once the MassResistance activists left, the meeting ran smoothly. Eleni Carr, chair of the commission's government relations committee, explained that the commission is currently pushing the legislature to increase funding for safe schools programming in the Fiscal Year 2008 (FY08) budget. Following the commission meeting she told Bay Windows that Sens. Jarrett Barrios (D-Cambridge) and Robert Antonioni (D-Leominster) recently filed amendments to increase the Department of Education's Safe Schools money by $50,000, above the level funding contained in the Senate Ways and Means' FY08 budget proposal. A similar amendment was filed by Rep. Carl Sciortino (D-Somerville) for the House budget.

Carr cautioned the commissioners that while the commission and its legislative allies have mobilized around LGBT youth funding, the decreased revenues funding the FY08 budget suggest that it will be an uphill battle to get any increase in youth funding.

"I think this has been a very difficult budget year," said Carr.

Beyond the budget, commissioners also discussed plans for the commission's next meeting on July 16, the first in a series of meetings held outside the Boston area. The July meeting will take place in Hyannis, followed by an Oct. 22 meeting in Worcester, a Dec. 17 meeting in Brockton, and a March 2008 meeting in Springfield. Members discussed the possibility of either inviting local LGBT youth groups to the meeting or having a separate visit by commissioners to meet with youth groups and service providers. Smith said the executive committee would continue to flesh out the details of the meeting, but it will be one of the commission's most important planning meetings of the year.

"July and August are really the months where we set the work plan for the next year," said Smith.