Leader of Mass. anti-gay group was Marxist who used to frequent gay bars

[Ian David]

Courtesy of MassResistance Watch:
http://massresistancewatch.blogspot.com/2005/12/funny-ha-ha.html



Camenker's views on sex ed, gays draw fire
By Scott S. Greenberger,
Boston Globe Staff, 7/4/2000

NEWTON - Brian Camenker has been a longshoreman in Minnesota and a reporter in Florida. He has dabbled, he says, in vegetarianism, he has marched against nuclear power. He was once so enamored of Marxism that he studied Chinese so he could read an original edition of Chairman Mao's Little Red Book.


But the experience that spurred Camenker's current crusade was yet to come. While working as a computer consultant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the early 1980s, Camenker says, he became friends with a group of gay men. He said that they ''hung around constantly,'' often going together to gay clubs on Cambridge Street.

But rather than make Camenker tolerant of homosexuality, the experience had the opposite effect. Camenker says he was appalled by his friends' promiscuity, and deeply affected by how they appeared to wrestle with their identities.

Camenker says he cannot remember any of his friends' names, so his assertions are
impossible to verify.

His crusades, however, arouse strong - and overwhelmingly negative - feelings in Newton. Camenker says he left his synagogue after critics ''harassed'' him outside of services. And he says he and his wife of 15 years, Susan, are shunned at Little League games.

More:
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:1Np4hPJ-IC8J:www.warroom.com//crusader.htm+camenker&hl=en

[pilgrimm]

1. Sounds like the poor man is searching for acceptance

It's unfortunate that he found it in a group of angry bigots fighting a lost cause.

[MADem]

3. Sounds to me the opposite--like he goes out of his way to be the odd man

out!! And he LOVES the negative attention, indeed, thrives on it.

He'll probably get arrested eventually, in a men's room or at a rest stop, doing the very thing he claims to hate. I find his selective memory amusing--he cannot remember these friends, not a one of them, that he hung around with? How convenient!!!

[Ian David]

4. Maybe he was doing a lot of drugs? n/t

[beyurslf]

2. He can have whatever nasty hateful views he wants. But don't whine about

it when other people don't like you because of it.

[Sapphocrat]

5. If we could pump sodium pentathol into the veins...

...of every anti-gay crusader, they'd all admit to being emotionally-arrested, psychologically-damaged, self-loathing closet queens.

[jackpan1260]

8. So true.

[TaleWgnDg]

6. Camenker is mentally unstable. But sure knows how to make

noise. Hateful noise. Perhaps he's projecting himself, psychologically?! It's sick nonetheless.

[Brian_Expat]

7. I was absolutely delighted by the Daily Show piece with him in it

Did anyone see it?

Watching his dullard's face slowly change as he realized he was being had was just a delight. :)

He's been an annoying gadfly for years -- his last big stunt was promoting a tape which was illegally recorded of a safe-sex session for gay students -- held after school and which required parental permission. The session was infiltrated by a pre-law student and several of the kids on the tape were identified -- in violation of the goals of the group. His group was sued in court by GLSEN and a number of the parents of real students who attended over the fact that the session was covertly recorded.

He was going around insisting this was "persecution" and "trying to hide the truth" when he:

1) Did not tell the truth in noting that it was an optional exercise which REQUIRED parental approval on a signed form to attend, suggesting instead that it was mandatory and done despite parental opinion on the matter;

2) Did not note that it was held after school hours, but instead "suggested" it was during school;

3) Did not note that he and his activists lied when they signed the form which promised not to disclose the identity of other students, and then complained about "deceptive practices" later;

4) Did not note that he and his pre-law student "spy" know that recording someone without their knowledge and consent in Massachusetts is illegal wiretapping, while claiming the lawsuit was to "silence" his group.

It's interesting that, when you listen to the session recording, most of the questions (which were anonymously submitted to the moderator) are normal and average -- then doozies like "what is fisting" pop in there. What do you bet that those inflammatory and graphic questions were inserted by Camenker's "spy" in order to get red meat for them to say "they discussed horrible things with our children?" I've got $100 on where I stand. ;)

[Ian David]

9. I bet Brian is the one who asked, "Is it rude to spit during oral sex?"n/t

[Skinner]

10. "Camenker says he cannot remember any of his friends' names"

Of course he can't remember -- because it never happened. What an asswipe.