National Geographic

Earlier this week I reported that the Archdiocese of Boston had moved to cancel a planned "All Are Welcome" Catholic mass in honor of gay Pride. Yesterday the Boston Globe reported that the local priest behind the idea is standing up to his bosses.

Sunday Mass at St. Cecilia’s Church in the Back Bay brought the first standing ovation any parishioner could remember. During the first Mass since the Archdiocese of Boston canceled one planned for next weekend in support of St. Cecilia’s gay and lesbian churchgoers, the Rev. John J. Unni preached a fiery message of unconditional love and what he called “acceptance of all." “You are welcome here, gay or straight, rich or poor, young or old, black or white,’’ Unni said as he paced up and down the center aisle. “Here, you all can say, ‘I can worship the God who made me as I am.’" Unni finished his homilies at the 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. Masses to thunderous applause.

The "All Are Welcome" special mass remains canceled, but members of the Rainbow Ministry will gather on the sidewalk outside the church next Sunday.

After enduring ugly anti-gay attacks from Christianists during her nomination hearing, open lesbian Barbara Lenk has won confirmation to the Massachusetts Supreme Court.

The Governor’s Council confirmed Lenk on a 5-3 vote. She is Governor Deval Patrick’s fourth appointment to the seven-member SJC, which issued the landmark 2003 ruling that made Massachusetts the first state to legalize same-sex marriage. Lenk, who married her partner, Debra Krupp, after the ruling, has 18 years’ experience on the bench, a degree from Harvard Law School, and a doctorate in political philosophy from Yale. Patrick nominated her to replace Justice Judith A. Cowin, who is retiring. Lenk's confirmation hearing last week lasted more than seven hours, and was often contentious.

Lenk is the first openly gay justice to be seated on the state's highest court.

Openly gay Massachusetts Supreme Court nominee Barbara Lenk endured some Christianist assholery yesterday during her marathon seven hour confirmation hearing. Lenk is married to a woman and therefore placing her on the state's highest court will turn children gay. Or something.

During her confirmation hearing before the Governor’s Council, some critics testified that her marriage is part of a broader plan to give legitimacy to homosexuality in the public arena. “This will be a clarion call to all that want to indoctrinate our children into homosexuality,’’ testified Sally Naumann, who, like Lenk, lives in Carlisle. “How will we ever be able to say no to our children?" [snip] With her wife, lawyer Debra Krupp, and their two teenage daughters sitting behind her, Lenk was stone-faced during the criticism. Lenk vowed to be a judge who hews to the law and will not be what critics call an activist judge. She also balked when asked to list the cases she handled that dealt with gays or lesbians. “I don’t keep records that way,’’ she said. “I don’t regard these cases in any way of being homosexual or lesbian issues.’’

Provincetown Magazine laments the passing of local legendary street performer Ellie Castillo.

Ellie was Provincetown. Her spirit - one of reinvention, fun, glamour, joie de vivre - came through as she sang up and down Commercial Street year-round for the past decade, making her not only a town favorite, but also an instant icon. Ellie arrived in Provincetown at the age of 70 as Elliot. As her placard read, she came here, like so many others, to live her dream. A former minister, Ellie's own ministry of peace and love reached thousands. Never without a smile, Ellie loved Provincetown, and Provincetown loved Ellie – so much so that when Town Hall re-opened, Ellie sang one of her standards, Frank Sinatra's "Its Impossible", to an adoring crowd. Ellie will be remembered always for her kindness and commitment to this community. We'll all miss her.

Here's the performance mentioned above. You can see more of Ellie on her YouTube channel.

The SPLC-certified hate group MassResistance has just issued an e-book attacking former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney over the advances made in LGBT rights during his tenure. Christian Newswire has the press release:

Massachusetts pro-family activist Amy Contrada has just released her definitive study of Mitt Romney's role in implementing "gay marriage," promoting GLBT "rights," and supporting the sexual-radical agenda in the Massachusetts schools while Governor. Contrada details how Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney supported the homosexual and transgender agenda on same-sex "marriage," sexual-radical indoctrination in the schools, and societal transformation -- while posing as a defender of the Constitution and traditional family values. Pro-family leaders enthusiastically recommend the book: Peter LaBarbera (Americans for Truth about Homosexuality) says, "In writing the meticulously documented 'Mitt Romney's Deception,' Amy Contrada has done the job that the liberal media was supposed to do. What she has uncovered is stunning even to experienced critics of Romney's equivocation on homosexual issues. Contrada lays bare Romney's servile embrace of the radical Massachusetts 'gay' agenda. Then she exposes his subsequent doublespeak in posing as the stalwart defender of traditional marriage in his bid for the GOP presidential nomination."

Longtime JMG readers may recall Amy Contrada for her 2007 reaction to her daughter Claudia's coming out while a high school senior. Contrada accused LGBT activists of "perverting" Claudia's sexuality and yanked her out of school. Then she published a full-page article on the MassResistance site to reveal that Claudia isn't even biologically hers and was adopted. It really does take a vile repulsive bitch like Amy Contrada to actually make us feel (momentarily) sympathetic to Mitt Romney.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley will hold a DOMA press conference at 3:30PM today. In the meantime, you know what to do.

Yesterday Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick "quietly" signed an executive order protecting state workers from discrimination on the basis of gender identity. Christian groups have denounced the protection as "the bathroom bill" and are screaming the usual nonsense about men in dresses stalking little girls in public restrooms.

“This Executive Order ensures that all employees in the executive branch will continue to be able to perform their duties free of discrimination,” Patrick spokesman Alex Goldstein said in a statement. Gay rights groups hailed the move yesterday as a strong “first step” in equality for transgendered people, but critics have cautioned that the bill could make state restrooms and lockers unisex. “If this indeed is a bathroom bill, if it is there’s no doubt that it will impact the public schools,” said Kris Mineau, a longtime opponent of the bill. Arline Isaacson, co-chairwoman of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, said she’ll still work to get the legislation passed in order to ensure equal rights in the private sector. “We are deeply grateful yet again to Gov. Patrick for his solid and consistent support,” Isaacson said.

Openly gay Springfield, Massachusetts cop Mike Carney appeared on local television with his It Gets Better message. Carney has been an occasional JMG tipster!

Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has filed a DOMA amicus brief with the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. In 2003 Moore was booted from office for refusing to remove a two-ton monument to the Ten Commandments from his office. A member of the Christian Nationalist movement, which seeks to overturn democracy in favor of a Christian theocracy, Moore's brief (PDF) was filed by his Foundation For Moral Law. Christian Newswire quotes Moore about his brief:

"Marriage was defined by God at creation as between a man and a woman and no rhetoric or judicial gymnastics can alter that. Congress simply recognized that immutable, self-evident truth when it passed the Defense of Marriage Act. When judges start attacking traditional marriage and the laws of nature, one wonders whether they ever learned the difference between boys and girls. Activist judges have been rewriting the Constitution for decades and now are attempting to destroy one of the most foundational principles of our society."

Moore's brief joins those already filed by NOM and the Family Research Council.

Yesterday a legal arm of the Family Research Council filed a DOMA amicus brief with the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Massachusetts. Via Christian Newswire:

The brief, authored by Thomas More Society's special counsel Paul Linton, argues two points in defense of the constitutionality of DOMA:

1. There is no Federal Constitutional Right to enter into a same-sex marriages.

2. US law reasonably reserves marriage and its benefits to opposite sex couples so as to promote both responsible procreation of children and the raising of those children by their biologically-related mother and father.

"Why should Americans be forced to encourage, as well as support with their tax dollars, same-sex relationships, which obviously -- and by their very nature -- cannot produce children or provide both the mothers and fathers that evidence proves beyond peradventure that children need to fully develop and flourish?" asked Tom Brejcha, president and chief counsel for the Thomas More Society in Chicago.

NOM filed an amicus brief yesterday too.

And I have repeatedly tweeted Porno Pete, calling on him to denounce his BFF Scott Lively for hiring a convicted child molester to work with school children. Lively has been the subject of numerous praising posts on LaBarbera's site and the two have appeared together at an event held by the SPLC-certified hate group, MassResistance. Last year, MassResistance endorsed Scott Lively as a write-candidate for governor of Massachusetts, but they too have yet to comment about the arrest at Lively's coffeehouse.

Since LaBarbera remains silent on the Lively scandal, we can only presume he approves of anti-gay Christian teen outreach centers hiring somebody who raped a ten year-old girl, who failed to register as a sex offender, and who then gave a false name to police. But we probably shouldn't be surprised that two certified hate groups, Labarbera's AFTAH and MassResistance, would close ranks around a third, Lively's Abiding Truth Ministries. After all, just because somebody rapes a third grader doesn't mean he can't be an effective Minister of Hate.

Police have arrested a convicted child molester working at the Springfield, Massachusetts coffeehouse of infamous anti-gay activist Scott Lively, who runs the business as a Christian outreach to local teenagers.

A local man who served as manager of the Holy Grounds Coffee Shop on State Street -- a cafe operated by anti-gay pastor Scott Lively that serves free coffee and offers conversation to teenage visitors -- is a sex offender from New York who was imprisoned for the sexual abuse of a 10-year-old girl in 1995, according to police. Police detectives on Thursday arrested Michael Frediani, 38, of 453 State St., for failing to register as a Level 2 sex offender in Springfield. He was living in an apartment above the coffee house. He was being held at the Springfield police lock-up, said Sgt. John M. Delaney, a spokesman to Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet. In New York, Frediani is listed as a Level 3 sex offender, defined as most likely to repeat an offense.

Frediani was convicted in New York in 1995 for "deviate sexual intercourse" with the ten year-old child. Upon his arrest in Springfield, he described himself as a "minister of Jesus." Last week Lively's coffeehouse was raided by public school truant officers, who accused Lively of allowing students to ditch school there. According to my tipster, students were offered free coffee and hot chocolate in return for wearing one of Lively's Jesus pins.

RELATED: Lively is considered largely responsible for Uganda's still-pending "Kill Gays" bill, legislation that was introduced after his visit with local evangelicals and politicians. Lively's book, The Pink Swastika, contends that the Nazi Party was conceived by and largely run by gay men. Lively is a dear, dear friend of Peter LaBarbera.