While they lie about Kevin Jennings, Michelle Malkin attacks GLSEN's funders

UPDATE - I have just completed an interview with Maxim Lott of Fox News about the so-called Jennings controversies. Keep your fingers crossed regarding the accuracy of the potential article.

Another day, another lie about Kevin Jennings.

From Media Matters comes the following distortion about a "Little Black Book:"

The Gateway Pundit blog falsely suggested that the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, a group founded and formerly headed by Department of Education official Kevin Jennings, had distributed to children an explicit safe-sex booklet. 
 
But GLSEN wasn't the ones who brought this book:

In a May 19, 2005, article, The Boston Globe reported:  

Fenway Community Health officials yesterday said they left about 10 copies of the ''Little Black Book" on an informational table they rented at a conference sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network of Boston. The annual event, held on April 30 at Brookline High School, was aimed at high school students, educators, counselors, administrators, and parents.

The ''Little Black Book," produced by the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, is targeted at 18-and-older gay men, according to the committee. The book uses vivid descriptions and colloquial terms to describe the ways HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases can be prevented and spread. 

A Fenway Community Health employee brought the pamphlets along with other materials and put them on the table by mistake, said Chris Viveiros, a spokesman for Fenway Community Health. 

''Fenway Community Health regrets accidentally making available a small number of copies of the Little Black Book, an HIV-prevention publication for gay and bisexual men over the age of 18, at an event where young people were present," said Dr. Stephen Boswell, Fenway Community Health's president and CEO.

The rest of the post is here.

Believe it or not, the folks at Gateway Pundit are calling this mess "Fistgate III."

And like Peter Jackson with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, they already have "Fistgate IV" in the works:

Earlier today it was reported that Kevin Jennings’ Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) organization was distributing gay bar directories to high school students at the 2005 Massachusetts GLSEN conference.

Oh the horror! 

There is just one problem with that story. The bar guides came from the "Little Black Book," the book that GLSEN did not hand out.

Remember (look at the Media Matters links to refresh your memory), it wasn't GLSEN who gave out the guides, but a community health group (Fenway Community Health) who accidentally provided a small number of guides.

And by the way:

On May 18, 2005, WHDH 7News Boston's Sean Hennessey reported that Brookline Superintendent of Schools William H. Lupini says that "none of his students, he believes, took the [Fenway] book home."

Gateway Pundit also claims that GLSEN advised students to attend leather bars in 1999 and 2000 but does not provide actual proof of this. All the site provides is a link to a blog by Mass Resistance, the anti-lgbt hate group in Massachusetts whose ability to stretch the truth I have talked about numerous times.

And the Mass Resistance blog links to two World Net Daily (the site that believe that President Obama is not a United States citizen) articles (here and here) that provides no proof that GLSEN was giving out leather bar guides to students.

Also, ironically, the Mass Resistance link actually exonerates GLSEN:

In 2005, GLSEN recommended the infamous "Ramrod" bar in Boston in the Little Black Book: Queer in the 21st Century, handed out to teens at their Boston conference. 

Remember, the Little Black Book" was not given out by GSLEN but accidentally by Fenway Community Health. But I guess that  really doesn't matter to the folks looking to take Jennings down.

For three days now they have posted blatant lies against Jennings (which you can read about it here and here) in an attempt to paint him as sort of a "pedophile-enabler."

My guess is since the Brewster incident blew up in their face a while back, these new attacks won't amount to much if they are exposed for the lies they are in a swift fashion. They're mostly on right-wing webpages (i.e. World Net Daily and the Washington Times) and homophobic fringe blogs.

But there seems to be another component to this madness.

Right-wing denizen Michelle Malkin has taken it upon herself to get into the situation, even appearing on Hannity tonight to no doubt tell more lies about Jennings. She is also making a push against corporations who fund GLSEN, the organization founded by Jennings:

Did you make sure to read the not-safe-for-school reading list of GLSEN, the radical gay rights advocacy group founded by Obama’s safe schools czar Kevin Jennings?

If you missed it last week and you’re a parent, you better go read it now in my summary post from last week. You’ll also get a recap of “Fistgate” (it is as bad as it sounds) and learn about GLSEN’s sponsorship of this year’s “Santa is Coming Out” extravaganza.

You might be wondering who’s behind GLSEN.

Well, they receive financial backing from numerous private foundations, corporations and corporate foundations.

Their national sponsors “make an annual commitment to GLSEN of $75,000 or more and, in addition to our gratitude, receive recognition as National Sponsors in our publications and website. Current National Sponsors are Cisco, Citi, Goldman Sachs, IBM, KPMG, National Education Association and PepsiCo.”

Yesterday, she announced that Eastman Kodak stands by GLSEN. Of course she isn't happy about that.

And I am so happy that she isn't happy.

This situation seems to be ready to explode again. Like some monster in an 80s horror movie, those who are smearing Jennings are rising up for another round of lies irregardless of the embarrassment they received from the Brewster sitaution.

What can we do?

Let everyone know that these people are lying, point blank. And we can start contacting GLSEN's major funders and urging them not to fall for fear tactics and lies:

Cisco Systems, Inc.
* 170 West Tasman Dr.
San Jose, CA 95134
USA
* (408) 526-4000
(800) 553-NETS
(800) 553-6387
Email contact info here.

Citi Foundation
Contact form here.
DaimlerChrysler Corporation
Contact Us by Telephone
1-800-992-1997
M-F 8:00AM-6:00PM EST
Contact Us by Mail:
Chrysler Group LLC Customer Assistance Center
P.O. Box 21-8004
Auburn Hills, MI 48321-8004
Email contact form here.

Ernst & Young
Email form here.
IBM Corporation
Corporate headquarters:
IBM Corporation
1 New Orchard Road
Armonk, New York 10504-1722
United States
914-499-1900
Email contact form here.

KPMG LLP
Email contact form here.
PepsiCo
PepsiCo, Inc.
700 Anderson Hill Road
Purchase, NY 10577
(914) 253-2000
Comment form here.

Time Warner
Headquarters
Time Warner Inc.
One Time Warner Center
New York, NY10019-8016
212.484.8000

Edward Adler
Executive Vice President
Corporate Communications
Time Warner Inc.
One Time Warner Center
New York, NY 10019-8016

Keith Cocozza
Vice President
Corporate Communications
Time Warner Inc.
One Time Warner Center
New York, NY 10019-8016

Also, the following are the rest of GLSEN's  listed sponsors

Let them know that you will not stand for a campaign of lies against a group created to help our children.

Exposing the 'ex-gay movement' and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

MSNBC: The Story Behind ‘Curing’ the Gays - On the heels of her absolute destruction of "ex-gay" Richard Cohen, Rachel Maddow goes for dessert during an interview with Mark Benjamin, a man who infiltrated the ex-gay movement in 2005.  Huge hat tip to TruthWinsOut

Rise of the New McCarthyism: How Right Wing Extremists Try to Paralyze Government Through Ideological Smears and Baseless Attacks - People for the American Way nails the right on their character assassinations.

"On Fox News, percentages don't add up to 100 and, apparently, 'zero tolerance' means unless we get caught." - via Americablog and Media Matters, Fox News caught telling a blatant lie . . . AGAIN.

Colin Firth thinks Hollywood is full of 'secret' gay actors - And in other news from the department of No #!@(, Sherlock . . .

When fisting and oral sex are the same: The latest smear against Kevin Jennings

Editor's note - I wrote two posts this morning. This one is about the latest lie against Kevin Jennings. The first one was about Rachel Maddow making 'ex-gay' Richard Cohen bark like a dog over the Ugandan anti-gay bill.

Yeah, I know you all are tired of my posts on Kevin Jennings but I also know you will love this one.

You have heard of "Fistgate," the 2000 incident  which Jennings had nothing to do with but keeps getting blamed for?

Well get ready for "Fistgate II."

Apparently, the right-wing site Big Government is working hand-in-hand with the Massachusetts anti-lgbt hate group Mass Resistance even to the point of reprinting every bit of tripe the organization comes out with against Jennings.

Including the following factoid:

Supposedly neither Jennings nor GLSEN learned anything from "Fistgate" because they were allegedly handing out "fisting kits" to children a year later during another conference.

And Big Government not only has the story but a picture of the kit (see above).

But the truth of the matters comes from Massachusetts News, a defunct Massachusetts right-wing publication which published a 2001 piece on the conference. Despite its attempts to smear Jennings, the piece actually exonerates him.