EXAMPLES OF SAME-SEX MARRIAGE IMPACT IN MASSACHUSETTS ________________________________________________________________________

Impact in Public Schools

1. Tonia and David Parker filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court after their 5-year old son brought home a book depicting a gay family. The judge, Mark L. Wolf of Federal District Court, said the courts had decided in other cases that parents rights to exercise their religious beliefs were not violated when their children were exposed to contrary ideas in school. Schools are entitled to teach anything that is reasonably related to the goals of preparing students to become engaged and productive citizens, Judge Wolf said. (NY Times, February 24, 2007) 2. The following incidents have been reported in various news sources and to MFI by concerned parents since the implementation of same-sex marriages on May 17, 2004 --Spring 2004, freshman and sophomore students at Medford High School were invited to an assembly at the school where they listened to a lesbian comedian who spoke for half an hour, detailing how she had to hide her homosexuality during her high school years in MA, but how pleased she was about the current societal changes and her own upcoming same-sex marriage. (National Catholic Register, Oct. 23, 2004) --On May 14, Boston teachers were sent a memo from the Superintendent of Schools threatening them with disciplinary action if they did not present same-sex marriage to their classes in a positive light. -- On May 17, the principal at Burr Elementary School in Newton announced over the intercom that the state was officially recognizing same-sex marriages. The school then sent several of its homosexual teachers to classrooms (from kindergarten through fifth grade) to explain what this meant and to herald the law as a wonderful civil-rights advancement. (National Catholic Register, Oct. 23, 2004) --Summer 2004, the Brooks School summer camp held a carnival day where a mock marriage booth was set up for children as young as five participated in mock marriage ceremoniesincluding mock same-sex marriages. Children were given mock marriage certificates to commemorate the event. (Patriot Ledger, Sept. 2004) --An eight grade sex education teacher in Brookline told NPR that the Goodridge decision emboldened her to teach homosexual-friendly curriculum, part of which involves handdrawn charts depicting various sex acts. (NPR Broadcast Transcript, Sept. 13, 2004)

--For the 2004 National History Project, a Social Studies teacher at Winchester High School assigned Plato's Symposium to his 9th grade honors class. The central theme of this socalled "classic" from ancient Greece is that love between a man and a man and between a man and a boy is nobler than that between a man and a woman. (We do not have documentation on this, only verbal report) -- Gay and lesbian advocates, some of whom are teachers and school physicians, are working on new gay-friendly curriculum designed for Kindergarten and up. (MassNews, Sept. 15, 2004.) -- The Boston Gay & Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN) is setting the tone for nontraditional gender role play for preschoolers. To help get the LGBT message across to younger children, teachers can turn to an array of educational products, many of them available from GLSEN. Early readers include One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads, and the recent publication King and King depicting same-sex marriage. (City Journal, Spring 2003) -- April 27, 2005, David Parker confronted Lexington Elementary School officials with a book titled, Whos In a Family that was assigned reading for his five-year-old son. The book depicts same-sex parents as a normative family equal to a traditional family of a father and mother. When Mr. Parker insisted the school comply with Massachusetts law requiring schools to notify parents when sexual issues are part of the curriculum, he was arrested for trespassing. (Boston Herald, April 28, 2005) -- Mrs. Robin Wirthlinconcerned when her second-grade son said his teacher read a book in his Lexington, MA school about two princes who got marriedasked the school for forewarning if such books would be read in the future. Superintendent of Schools Paul Ash said the school has no legal obligation to notify parents about the book. Lexington is committed to teaching children about the world they live in, and in Massachusetts same-sex marriage is legal. (Boston Globe, April 20, 2006) -- September 27, 2005, Massachusetts Department of Education announces that school officials have no obligation to notify parents of discussions, activities, or materials that simply reference same-gender parents or that otherwise recognize the existence of differences in sexual orientation. (Article 8 News, October 15, 2005) -- Oct 2005, Thomas Bousnakis, Social Science teacher at Hudson High School announced that he is openly gay and proudly told his class about his engagement to be married to another man. The schools chapter of the Gay-Straight Alliance has posters up around the school with photos of famous homosexuals (reported to MFI by concerned parent).
-- November, 2006, third graders at the Franklin Elementary School in Newton were terrified when a GLSEN social worker described to the class the details of a male to female sex change operation. School authorities defended the event as a teachable moment.(Newton Tab, November 8, 2006)

-- June 2009, Weston Grammar School officials announce over the school PA system that two of their female teachers just got married and that students should congratulate them (reported to MFI by a concerned parent). II Impact on Religious Liberty

On March 10, 2006, Catholic Charities of Boston, one of the nation's oldest adoption agencies, announced that it would no longer function as an adoption agency because Massachusetts Department of Social Services required them to place children into homosexual households. (Boston Globe, March 10, 2006) III Impact on Public Institutions

Leo Childs of Truro, MA was forced out of his volunteer position on the board of fire engineers for signing a petition to allow a constitutional amendment on the definition of marriage before voters. Openly gay town Selectman Paul Asher-Best maligned the reputation of Mr. Childs, a long-time public servant, and questioned his ability to provide rescue service without bias to gay Truro residents. (Cape Code Times, May 09, 2006)

Birth certificates issued in Massachusetts cross out the word father for the children of same-sex couples and instead write the phrase ''second parent," denying children information about the identity of their true biological parents and thus vital medical and genealogical data. (Boston Globe, July 22, 2005)

IV

Impact on the Workplace

A Massachusetts man was fired from a national retail corporation because of his traditional beliefs on same-sex marriage. Peter Vadala was formally dismissed from his job as second deputy manager of the Brookstone store at Bostons Logan Airport on August 12, 2009, after a supervisor reported him to Human Resources for expressing his opposition to same-sex marriage. (World Net Daily, November 2, 2009) A Massachusetts woman was demoted because she refused to conduct pro-homosexual training in a non-profit organization for youth at risk. (August 2009, case still under legal review).