Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 05:30:52 -0700 (PDT) From: jessea@uclink4.berkeley.edu (Jessea NR Greenman) Subject: author seeks GM athletes & coaches; RADICAL RELIGIOUS RIGHT INVADES MERRIMACK, NH -- REV. LOU SHELDON ORCHESTRATES ANTI-GAY CAMPAIGN From: Naddy@aol.com I've just started researching my next book, which will examine the experiences of gay (male) athletes and coaches at the high school and college levels. I'm looking for as broad a range as I can find: different sports, different areas of the country, different degrees of closetedness and outness, etc. I'm looking for both positive and negative experiences. If you're willing to be interviewed, on or off the record -- or know someone who is -- *** please e-mail me at naddy@aol.com; write me at Dan Woog, 301 Post Rd. ***East, Westport, CT 06880, or call me at 203-227-1755. Thanks! P.S. Confidentiality is of course assured. ------------------------------------------- From: RLKottwitz@aol.com Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 01:34:31 -0400 Subject: Smoking Gun Found in Merrimack Anti-Gay Policy FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- APRIL 26, 1996 For further information, contact: Ken Coleman (603) 883-3254 -- fax (603) 881-4877 OR Randal Kottwitz (603) 883-8786 -- email RLKottwitz@aol.com RADICAL RELIGIOUS RIGHT INVADES MERRIMACK, NH REV. LOU SHELDON ORCHESTRATES ANTI-GAY CAMPAIGN Merrimack, NH -- For the past two years, this New Hampshire town has been embroiled in bitter, divisive controversy. Residents of this quiet, picturesque New England town had lived together peaceably for decades. Their public school system, regarded as one of the best in the state, was a source of great community pride. In 1994, two candidates ran for seats on the School Board, claiming to be nothing more than concerned citizens. Joining with a sitting member, Chris Ager, they formed a Majority Bloc that acted and voted as a monolithic political unit, with Ager as its newly elected Chairman. Immediately after the election, the masks came off, and this Majority Bloc began enacting the agenda of the Radical Religious Right. One by one, the items came up for consideration -- school prayer disguised as a moment of silence, creationism in the science courses, removal of psychological counseling services, and opposition to Goals 2000. RADICAL RELIGIOUS RIGHT LOSES AND RETALIATES After a year of rancorous School Board meetings, the town rejected this radical agenda. By the largest margins in the largest turnout in town history, they elected Ken Coleman and Brenda Grady, who opposed the Majority Bloc. "Stunned by the size of their loss," remarked Coleman, "they resorted to the Radical Religious Right's favorite weapon -- homophobia -- to regain control." Their tactic since losing the election has been to scare the town into accepting the Radical Religious Right agenda. Within two months, Chairman Ager proposed Policy 6540, the most severely restrictive anti-gay policy anywhere in the country. Despite unprecedented opposition from parents, teachers, religious leaders, and medical professionals, the Board approved the Policy. A group of parents, teachers and human rights organizations have filed suit in US District Court, claiming violations of their Constitutional rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. THE SMOKING GUN In the April 29, 1996 edition of Time magazine, Rev. Lou Sheldon, head of the Traditional Values Coalition, boasted about coaching people in Merrimack on how to speak effectively to the media about Policy 6540. By his own admission, this national political activist has taught local followers how to present the Policy in ways that would make it palatable to the general public. He said to Time, "We walked them through the whole process -- philosophically, legally and morally -- so they could be grounded in the information that would make them sound far more credible on radio or television. That's the way we do it." The Nashua Telegraph reported on April 25, 1996 that he had traveled from California to Merrimack, not once, but many times for the purpose of training local activists. "We now have the proof we've been looking for," said Coleman. "Indeed, outside forces actually HAVE been enacting a national agenda in Merrimack. One of the prime leaders of this concerted attack is none other than Rev. Lou Sheldon of the California-based Traditional Values Coalition. Undoubtedly, he has many allies we still do not know about." As evidence slowly built proving the intense level of outside activism at work in Merrimack, Ager and his supporters have attempted to blame Coleman and his supporters for causing the strife and acrimony surrounding the School Board. For example, after months of speeches by parents opposing the Majority Bloc's agenda, Ager published a list of "Depraved Citizens" who in his opinion had spoken too often to the Board. At the same time, the Majority Bloc systematically denied any involvement of outside Radical Religious Right groups. "For the past two years, Merrimack has been subjected to a fire storm of controversial issues that have never been a part of our town. Sheldon's involvement with Ager and many others in town proves conclusively that all of these problems have been coming to us from the outside. The Radical Religious Right has planned this attack on our town step by step, using fear and hate to subvert our local political process for their own national agenda," concluded Coleman. AN ARMY OF RADICAL RELIGIOUS RIGHT GROUPS Merrimack has been under a ferocious attack by the Radical Religious Right. The sheer number of state and national leaders who have targeted Merrimack and have made repeated trips to our town is shocking. "To list the Radical Religious Right organizations and their national leaders who have not been involved in Merrimack would be easier than listing those who have," observed Coleman. When Rev. Paul Norwalt wanted to force creationism into the curriculum, he immediately brought Duane Gish from California to speak twice in Merrimack. Board Member Shelly Uscinski's membership in the Christian Coalition might be acceptable. Her national activism for them, particularly her training seminars on cloning her stealth tactics for winning local elections demonstrates a more clandestine level of Christian Coalition involvement in Merrimack. The presence of Christian Coalition officers, including Paul Nagy (New England Field Coordinator), George Fellendorf (NH President), and Ray White (NH Executive Director) at Merrimack School Board meetings proves they have strong interest in pushing their issues. SHELDON JOINS THE FRAY Now, the outside origin of Policy 6540 is beyond doubt. It never was a local issue, but always has been an expression of an extremist national agenda. The words are exactly the same as the failed Smith-Helms amendment to the 1994 Education Act. Sheldon boasted both in Time magazine and in the Nashua Telegraph that he instigated Policy 6540 in Merrimack, and is attempting to do the same in many other communities. He refers to US Senators Bob Smith (R-NH) and Jesse Helms (R-NC) by their first names and claims credit for having written the actual language of the amendment. More specifically, Sheldon proudly states that he spoke to Merrimack School Board Chairman Chris Ager last July, and sent him the policy which Ager subsequently presented. According to Sheldon's remarks in the Telegraph, Policy 6540 "brings clarity to the whole school district that this type of behavior is not acceptable." He also bragged about numerous trips (as recently as February, 1996) to Merrimack to coach his local activists. His purpose was to give them more media polish and to "share with them our expertise in policy development and how to frame the issue." Clearly, Sheldon has total disregard for local control over school policy because he has a national agenda to enact through disrupting local elections. OUTSIDE AGITATORS: SUSPICIOUS PATTERNS EMERGE Ager admits to consulting Sheldon for advice. Ager also has offered to send to high school students copies of hate-filled anti-gay propaganda videos promoted by Sheldon . Ginny Cadarette, the candidate supported by the local Radical Religious Right activists, strongly supports Policy 6540, along with many other of their key issues (abstinence-only health education, phonics-only reading, no public Kindergarten, and no student representative to the School Board). Clearly defining the purpose of Cadarette's candidacy, her campaign manager, Bert Tenhave, proclaimed in the Telegraph on Feb. 7, 1996, "I see the next election as the Christian Coalition vs. the gay and lesbian agenda." She has invited three state Senators closely allied with the Christian Coalition to speak at her campaign fund raising event. Like Ager, Uscinski, and Twardosky before her, she claims as a candidate to have no set agenda, and no particular plans to improve the schools. Strangely, enough, she supports every issue they have pushed as Board Members. Is Cadarette another stealth candidate? MANIPULATING PUBLIC OPINION Clearly, Sheldon has been busy in Merrimack during these tumultuous months, coaching his acolytes and polishing their media presence. Christian Coalition activists Nagy and Uscinski appeared on a local radio station to repeat all of the "party line" arguments. Tenhave, an unknown, suddenly started appearing on television news interviews to promote Policy 6540. Prior to that, he had not attended School Board meetings. Soon after, well-known conservative activist and former NH Supreme Court Chief Justice Chuck Douglas interviewed him on Right For New Hampshire, a television program produced by the ultra-conservative, ultra-secretive John Stark Foundation. Douglas interviewed Sheldon himself on a subsequent show. Tenhave quickly became a close associate of Ager, and started publishing a conservative newsletter. He now manages the campaign of Ginny Cadarette, Ager's hand-picked candidate to succeed him. From Sheldon to Ager to Tenhave to Cadarette, the chain of command and the flow of ideas and information is indisputable. This attack on local politics in Merrimack now appears to have been planned and orchestrated by Lou Sheldon as a field operation of his California-based Traditional Values Coalition. This field operation was conducted with the apparent knowledge and support of a variety of Radical Religious Right groups, including the Christian Coalition. MEDDLING BY BIG MEDIA The Manchester Union Leader, and its editorial writer Richard Lessner, have frequently meddled in Merrimack School Board matters. Although they have rarely endorsed any school board candidates in Manchester -- or any other city in the state -- they have endorsed Ager, Uscinski, and Ginny Twardosky in the past. At the same time, they have criticized Coleman and other voices of moderation for opposing the Radical Religious Right agenda, usually describing them as flaming liberals causing trouble. On April 25, 1996, Lessner endorsed Ginny Cadarette's use of three state Senators allied with the Christian Coalition to speak at her campaign fund raising event, thus contradicting the paper's long-standing position on "local control." The Union Leader has been driving its own national agenda through activities such as endorsing Pat Buchanan for president and calling for the dismantling of the Department of Education. Supplementing its support for the Radical Religious Right, it has frequently published editorials calling for the Merrimack School Board to adopt the moment of silence, creationism, and other items advanced by outside activists. They have strongly supported the anti-gay Policy 6540 written by Sheldon. All of these activities reflect attempts to enact a national agenda, and have nothing to do with the local control the paper claims to advocate. FRINGE CULTS FIND MERRIMACK Other organizations, such as the Moonies and Scientologists, also have been looking at Merrimack. For example, Uscinski does not limit her activism to the Christian Coalition. Beyond teaching stealth tactics to school board candidates around the country, she serves as a Commissioner on the Human Rights Commission. Though its name sounds innocuous, this group is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Church of Scientology. Its announced purpose is to remove all psychological and psychiatric counseling services from the schools, one of Uscinski's major goals on the School Board. Since the Church of Scientology hides behind a cloak of secrecy, we do not know what Uscinski might select from its agenda to enact in Merrimack in the future. On April 18, 1996, Rev. Sun Myung Moon personally presented Uscinski with a National Service Award from his newly created Washington Times Foundation, a branch of his Unification Church. Rev. Moon, a convicted felon, spent time in Federal prison for tax evasion. In the award citation, his Foundation specifically honored Uscinski for her work in stopping the health curriculum, and for passing Policy 6540. Presiding at the ceremonies, was Baptist clergyman Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority, creating a bizarre confluence of competing ideologies. The cult-like nature of the Unification Church disturbs many people, including parents of children who have been recruited as "Moonies" and later had to undergo de-programming. STEALTH AND DELIBERATE DECEPTION What has emerged in Merrimack is a textbook example of how the Radical Religious Right targets a town for takeover. They make no secret of their goal, which is to get their candidates elected to local offices all over the country. What they hide is the connection of their candidates to these organizations, and what their ultimate agenda will be once elected. In the words of the Christian Coalition's Executive Director, Ralph Reed, after the Christian Coalition's victory in the San Diego school board elections, "Stealth was a big factor in San Diego's success. But that's just good strategy. It's like guerrilla warfare. If you reveal your location, all it does is allow your opponent to improve his artillery bearings. It's better to move quietly, with stealth, under cover of night. I want to be invisible. I do guerrilla warfare. I paint my face and travel at night. You don't know it's over until you're in a body bag. You don't know until election night." In Merrimack, all of these candidates have persistently denied membership in any of these organizations. When advocating specific policies, particularly Policy 6540, they have continued to deny any knowledge of them. Instead, they throw up a smoke screen by criticizing their opponents as troublemakers working for outside organizations. We now know these denials and countercharges to be lies, deliberate deceptions designed to mislead the general public. SPINMEISTER SHELDON Lou Sheldon's spin control has left its fingerprints all over Merrimack. Though Policy 6540 does not use phrases such as "promotion of homosexuality" or "teaching homosexuality in the schools," its backers always use these phrases in public debate. They claim the opponents of the Policy want to "promote" homosexuality or even "teach" about homosexual sex acts in the schools. "When I offered an amendment to Policy 6540 that would prohibit promotion of any sexual orientation or activities, the Majority Bloc turned it down," recalled Coleman. "They needed the precise wording of Sheldon's Smith-Helms amendment to accomplish their political agenda." "Until the interviews with Sheldon in Time and the Nashua Telegraph, most people in Merrimack did not believe that the town has been under continuous attack by outside agitators," Coleman said. "Those who did believe it had no idea how extensive the meddling and interference actually have been. All of the bitter, divisive controversy has been artificially contrived by outside agitators from the Radical Religious Right. Now, the truth is out." END *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ OK TO RE-POST. Jessea Greenman The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project (Public Education Regarding Sexual Orientation Nationally) CHECK THIS OUT FOR TONS OF INFO - - http://www.youth.org/loco/PERSONProject/ Please cc us (for our files) on correspondence you send or receive re our action alerts.