ONE NEWS NOW
Tupelo, Mississippi
June 11, 2008

School silences one, but not the other
by Charlie Butts

A pro-family advocate believes school officials erred in their attempts to censor student speeches at graduation ceremonies in Park Township, Michigan.

Valedictorian Jed Grooters was warned not to make biblical references in his speech and complied, but class president Andrew Webster did cite scripture. Gary Glenn of the American Family Association of Michigan contends school attorneys were wrong in demanding separation of church and state, and he bases that belief on an appeals court ruling.

“‘The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state,” Glenn points out. “And the [court’s] decision went further and called the ACLU’s repeated references to the so-called separation of church and state as ‘extra-constitutional and tiresome,’” he notes.

6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals: http://www.afamichigan.org/2005/1…

Glenn explains that Webster “picked up the mantle” denied Grooters and referred to the Bible in his speech. Webster received a standing ovation at the conclusion of the speech.

“We are proud of these two high school seniors,” says Glenn. “[We are proud] for their commitment, their faithfulness to the Lord, and their unwillingness to be muzzled when it comes to testifying to the role [Jesus] has played in their lives.”

The Michigan family advocate believes Christian legal organizations are standing in line to help either student, if necessary.

http://www.onenewsnow.com…

URGENT

Dear AFA-Michigan supporter,

Please read the news release below. Then, please contact West Ottawa Schools Superintendent Patricia Koeze and urge her to reverse her attempt to force a Christian high school senior and valedictorian to either remove references to the Bible from his valedictory speech or not be allowed to speak at all.

Even if you can’t reach Supt. Koeze live, please leave a message.

Supt. Patricia Koeze
Phone: 616-738-5700
E-mail: KoezeP@westottawa.net

Thanks as always for your support!

Gary Glenn, President
American Family Association of Michigan
www.AFAMichigan.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sat., June 7, 2008
CONTACT: Gary Glenn 989-835-7978

Family group: Holland schools violate Constitution
by censoring Christian valedictorian’s “life lesson”

Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals: “The First Amendment does
not demand a wall of separation between church and state.”

HOLLAND, Mich. — West Ottawa Public Schools Superintendent Patricia Koeze’s censorship of a Christian high school senior’s valedictory address — planned for graduation ceremonies Sunday — is a “clear, outrageous, and unconstitutional violation of the student’s First Amendment free speech rights,” a statewide family values group said Saturday.

The American Family Association of Michigan blasted Koeze’s censorship of planned remarks by West Ottawa High School valedictorian Jed Grooters, who included quotations from the New Testament book of Corinthians. AFA-Michigan President Gary Glenn, Midland, said Koeze’s action “is a clear case of unconstitutional discrimination based on the content of the student’s speech, propped up by some obviously very poor legal advice from the school district’s attorneys.”

“Since the U.S. Supreme Court long ago prohibited school officials from unconstitutionally
forcing students to surrender their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse door,” Glenn said, “Supt. Koeze’s heavy-handed intolerance and discrimination toward this student’s expression of his Christian worldview is an engraved invitation for a First Amendment free speech lawsuit against the school system for which local taxpayers would have to foot the bill for attorneys fees and damages.”

The Grand Rapids Press Saturday reported that Grooters — a 4.0 GPA student and eight-time varsity athlete who won the sportsmanship award in three different varsity sports this year — was asked by school officials to give a valedictory address Sunday talking about a “life lesson” he wished to share with fellow students.
http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2…

But upon submitting a draft of his speech to school officials, Grooters was told he would not be allowed to speak unless he removed his speech’s references to the Bible. The student refused, and the matter was referred to Koeze.

According to the Press, Koeze labeled Grooters’ comments “a religious speech” and insisted that allowing him to present it during the school’s graduation ceremonies would violate the so-called “separation of church and state.”

Glenn said the federal Appeals Court which acts on all federal court decisions originating in Michigan has ruled exactly opposite of Koeze’s faulty interpretation of the First Amendment.

He cited a April 2006 case in which the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals — by a vote of 19 to 5 — upheld a three-judge panel of the court’s earlier rejection of the American Civil Liberties Union’s claim that a Kentucky courthouse violated the First Amendment by displaying a copy of the Ten Commandments found in the Old Testament of the Bible.
http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions…

In its ruling, the Sixth Circuit went beyond the specifics of the Kentucky case, issuing a broad statement of the Constitution’s original intent, dramatically declaring that religious speech is protected by, not at odds with, the First Amendment.

“The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state,” the three-judge panel had unanimously ruled in December 2005 in an opinion authored by Senior Judge Richard Suhrheinrich of Williamston, a graduate of Michigan State University-Detroit College of Law and a full-time faculty member at Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing.

The Suhrheinrich-authored decision further characterized the American Civil Liberties Union’s repeated references to the so-called “separation of church and state” as “extra-constitutional” and “tiresome.”

See page 13 of the Court of Appeals panel’s December 2005 decision: http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions…

“To quote the same Appeals Court that will eventually rule on any free speech lawsuit that
results if Supt. Koeze continues to censor Jed Grooters’ quotation of the Bible, the superintendent’s false claim that the First Amendment requires her to do so is both ‘extra-constitutional’ and ‘tiresome,’” Glenn said. “In fact, the First Amendment requires school officials to both respect and allow Jed to fully practice his First Amendment free speech rights.”

Glenn said if the school district refuses to back off its unconstitutional censorship of Grooters’ speech Sunday, “Christian legal defense foundations across the country will be waiting in line to provide free legal representation to this courageous, principled young man and his family.”

“The question Supt. Koeze and West Ottawa school board members should ponder is how school district taxpayers are likely to feel about being forced to pay attorneys fees and damages when the federal courts reject her blatant violation of Jeb Grooters’ First Amendment free speech rights,” he said.

The American Family Association of Michigan’s mission is to promote and defend traditional Judeo-Christian family values, Glenn said.

# # #

“Gay rights advocates said the (Michigan Supreme Court) ruling is devastating but also are confident that public-sector employers have successfully rewritten or will revise their benefit plans so same-sex partners can keep getting health care. …

Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, said last year that he didn’t anticipate further suits on the issue. But he said Wednesday: ‘You never say never.’ Glenn, who co-wrote the (Marriage Protection Amendment), said the legality of the new policies depends on whether they’re written broadly enough to cover many other unmarried employees.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lansing, Michigan
May 7, 2008

Michigan high court says gay
partners can’t get health benefits

by David Eggert
The Associated Press

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a voter-approved ban against gay marriage also prevents governments and state universities from recognizing domestic partnerships to provide health insurance to the partners of gay workers.

The 5-2 decision affects up to 20 universities, community colleges, school districts and governments in Michigan with policies covering at least 375 gay couples.

Gay rights advocates said the ruling is devastating but also are confident that public-sector employers have successfully rewritten or will revise their benefit plans so same-sex partners can keep getting health care.

The constitutional amendment, which passed 59 percent to 41 percent in November 2004, says the union between a man and woman is the only agreement recognized as a marriage “or similar union for any purpose.”

The majority ruled that while marriages and domestic partnerships aren’t identical, they are similar because they’re the only relationships in Michigan defined in terms of gender and lack of a close blood connection. Voters “hardly could have made their intentions clearer,” Justice Stephen Markman wrote, citing the law’s “for any purpose” language.

He was joined by Chief Justice Clifford Taylor and Justices Maura Corrigan, Elizabeth Weaver and Robert Young Jr.

Dissenting Justices Marilyn Kelly and Michael Cavanagh countered that statements made by backers of the measure before the election suggest they only intended to prohibit gay marriage, not take away employment benefits. The dissent also noted that gay partners who qualify for health care aren’t given other benefits of marriage — equal rights to property, for instance.

“It is an odd notion to find that a union that shares only one of the hundreds of benefits that a marriage provides is a union similar to marriage,” Kelly wrote.

The ruling is believed to be one of the first from a state high court interpreting the scope of measures barring gay marriage. Alaska courts went the other way, ruling that it’s unconstitutional to deny benefits. Ohio courts found that domestic violence laws don’t conflict with a ban on gay marriage.

But numerous states have yet to grapple with how their gay marriage bans apply to same-sex partner benefits.

At least 27 states have passed constitutional bans, mostly since 2004 in response to gay marriages being performed in Massachusetts. At least 18 of those states, including Michigan, have broader amendments that also prohibit the recognition of civil unions or same-sex partnerships.

“It’s a sad day in Michigan when we decide which children and which families are valuable enough to cover,” said Tom Patrick, 50, who gets health insurance through his partner, Dennis Patrick, a professor at Eastern Michigan University. The couple from Washtenaw County’s Superior Township has adopted four children and has a foster child, one with a developmental disability. Tom Patrick works part-time to care for the kids and said it would hurt the family to have to pay for his benefits out of pocket.

The Patricks joined 20 other gay couples and filed a lawsuit in 2005 when Republican Attorney General Mike Cox interpreted Michigan’s measure as making unconstitutional same-sex benefits at the city of Kalamazoo and elsewhere.

Sixteen plaintiffs worked for employers who offered same-sex benefits. Another five were employed by the state, which in 2004 agreed to start providing same-sex benefits but delayed them until courts could clear up their legality. Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s administration is reviewing the ruling.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, which represented the couples, called the decision “flawed and unfortunate.” It pledged to work with public employers to write “neutral” policies ensuring employees’ partners don’t lose health coverage, but also expressed uneasiness and warned that gays will have to go through more hoops.

New policies no longer acknowledge domestic partnerships but make sure “other qualified adults,” including gay partners, are eligible for medical and dental care. The adults have to live together for a certain amount of time, be unmarried, share finances and be unrelated.

“The university believes all current benefit offerings are in full compliance with Michigan law,” University of Michigan spokeswoman Kelly Cunningham said.

It remains to be seen whether the revised policies will be challenged in court.

Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, said last year that he didn’t anticipate further suits on the issue. But he said Wednesday: “You never say never.”

Glenn, who co-wrote the 2004 measure, said the legality of the new policies depends on whether they’re written broadly enough to cover many other unmarried employees.

The ACLU is weighing whether a federal lawsuit is warranted, while Cox applauded the decision.

The dissent argued that the ballot committee sponsoring the gay marriage ban consistently assured voters that the initiative was only about protecting marriage.

But the majority said other supporters and even opponents of the amendment said ahead of time that benefits would be prohibited by the amendment.

“The role of this Court is not to determine who said what about the amendment before it was ratified, or to speculate about how these statements may have influenced voters,” Markman wrote. “Instead, our responsibility is, as it has always been in matters of constitutional interpretation, to determine the meaning of the amendment’s actual language.”

http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/news-53/121017504644810.xml&storylist=newsmichigan

“Hundreds of educators, students and community members are expected to descend upon the State Capitol next week to demand the Senate pass a comprehensive bill aimed at stopping bullying in schools. …’The future of this bill is in the hands of Senate leaders,’ said Sean Kosofsky, policy director of the Triangle Foundation, an anti-violence and (Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender) advocacy group in Detroit. ‘Governor Granholm has said that if it passes, she will sign it.’ …The inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression in the bills has fired up family advocacy groups like the American Family Association of Michigan. During last year’s lobby event, AFA Michigan’s Gary Glenn was sending faxes condemning the bills and calling on the Legislature to kill the final bill.”

MICHIGAN MESSENGER
Lansing, Michigan
March 20, 2008

Anti-bullying forces to descend on Capitol to get Senate to pass bill
by: Todd A. Heywood

LANSING — Hundreds of educators, students and community members are expected to descend upon the State Capitol next week to demand the Senate pass a comprehensive bill aimed at stopping bullying in schools. The bill passed the state House a year ago, but has since languished in the Senate awaiting a hearing.

The event will happen Wednesday, March 26, from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. at the Capitol. The bill, Matt’s Safe School Law, would require school districts to create and report to the state an anti-bullying policy. Some oppose the bill because it includes a list of protected categories, including sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. The bill is named for Matt Epling, an East Lansing Schools student who committed suicide as a result of harassment and bullying.

“I think if you are going to make a statement on bullying, you don’t make special classes of students,” said State Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, chair of the Senate Education Committee. “Bullying is a symptom of a larger problem.” Kuipers said he is working on substitute bills that would address the bigger problems behind bullying. “It is a lack of respect for others,” Kuipers said of the root of the problem. “They (students) are not being taught the proper way to deal with others.” Kuipers said his substitute bills would cause a bigger discussion about what he called “character education.” “In the context of that character discussion, there will be some discussion on bullying.”

The new bills are currently being redrafted and he expects them to be taken up after the Senate’s two-week spring break, which begins on next Friday. He said he has meetings with Lobby Day participants that day. Asked if he would attend the Lobby Day event, Kuiper said: “No. I wasn’t invited.” Organizer’s of Wednesday’s Lobby Day hope to push the Senate to hold hearings on Matt’s Safe Schools law. “Make no mistake, the Senate is a much different battlefield than the House because of party affiliation and individuals involved in letting legislation move or not,” said Derek Smiertka, executive director of Michigan Equality, a statewide LGBT rights organization.

“The future of this bill is in the hands of Senate leaders,” said Sean Kosofsky, policy director of the Triangle Foundation, an anti-violence and LGBT advocacy group in Detroit. “Governor Granholm has said that if it passes, she will sign it. We have the broadest possible coalition pushing this bill. We think it’s the best possible compromise to keep everyone pleased.” The House version of the bill passed last March during the Safe Schools Lobby Day although the vote had been unanticipated by Lobby Day organizers. Organizers had expected a vote three weeks after the Lobby Day. Instead they were presented with a substitute bill that required school districts to adopt an anti-bullying policy similar to the model policy passed in September 2006 by the State Board of Education. The model policy includes a list of protected categories, based on things like sexual orientation, gender identity and expression.

The inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression in the bills has fired up family advocacy groups like the American Family Association of Michigan. During last year’s lobby event, AFA Michigan’s Gary Glenn was sending faxes condemning the bills and calling on the Legislature to kill the final bill.

http://www.michiganmessenger.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=E00C93EDA1E192A2D233F788FBFC0AEB?diaryId=1015

Contact:
U-M President’s Office
Phone: (734) 764-6270
E-mail: presoff@umich.edu

“The class at the tax-funded University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is called ‘How to be Gay: Male Homosexuality and Initiation’ and is taught by David Halperin. It surfaced in 2000, returned the following year and again a couple years later. Now university officials have confirmed it is returning, and Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, said ‘it was and remains an outrageous abuse of taxpayer dollars.’ …In the past, Glenn promised, ‘Every time U-M offers this ludicrous class, you and I cannot fail to speak out against it.’”

WORLD NET DAILY
Cave Junction, Oregon
January 11, 2008

Prof teaches “being gay” with taxpayer funding

“Being homosexual doesn’t mean you don’t learn how to become one”

ANN ARBOR — A University of Michigan class that earlier prompted state lawmakers to consider a 10 percent budget penalty for the school and is taught by a homosexual professor openly endorsing the “uncompromising political militancy” of “lesbian and gay studies” is returning.

But so is the opposition.

The class at the tax-funded University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is called “How to be Gay: Male Homosexuality and Initiation,” and is taught by David Halperin.

It surfaced in 2000, returned the following year and again a couple years later. Now university officials have confirmed it is returning, and Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, said “it was and remains an outrageous abuse of taxpayer dollars.”

“Each time it has been offered we have renewed our objections to it. The first time around, the Michigan House of Representatives came within a few votes of cutting the university budget by 10 percent,” he said.

He said Halperin “makes no bones about it on the other side of the world, knowingly using tax dollars to promote the militant political agenda of homosexuality.”

Glenn was referring to Halperin’s writings on his activities as part of his work in Australia, where he spends part of each year.

There, Halperin has written, “The fact is that lesbian and gay studies simply is the academic wing of the lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgender movement … no one in the field has ever (to my knowledge at least) contested this…”

“Let there be no mistake about it: lesbian and gay studies, as it is currently practiced in the U.S., expresses an uncompromising political militancy,” he wrote.

“We have lobbied universities and professional associations to adopt and enforce anti-discrimination policies, to recognise same-sex couples, to oppose the U.S. military’s anti-gay policy, to suspend professional activities in states that criminalize gay sex or limit access to abortion, and to intervene on behalf of human rights for lesbians, bisexuals, and gay men at the local and national levels,” he wrote in Australian Humanities Review.

“Just because you happen to be a gay man doesn’t mean that you don’t have to learn how to become one,” he writes in the University of Michigan course description. “Gay men do some of that learning on their own, but often we learn how to be gay from others, either because we look to them for instruction or because they simply tell us what they think we need to know, whether we ask for their advice or not.”

Further, he advises potential students, “the course itself will constitute an experiment in the very process of initiation that it hopes to understand.”

University officials posted a defense of the decision to allow the course on the university website, a tacit acknowledgment of its controversial nature.

“This course is not about encouraging people to become gay, but about how individuals in our society create meaning and beliefs about gay culture from literature and the arts,” explained Robert M. Owen, associate dean for undergraduate education. “The course also makes no assumptions about the sexual orientation of its students.”

“We are aware that much of the concern is with the title of the course and acknowledge that the interpretation of that title is very troubling for some people. The English Department … approved this course,” he said.

Provost Paul Courant boasted of the evolution of the school into one “of the finest public institutions of higher education in the world” and attributed that to “the free and open exchange of ideas.”

He said Halperin’s course “is similar to literature courses taught at many other universities in our state and across our country.”

Concerns over Halperin’s actions were raised even within the homosexual community. In an online forum for homosexuals, one wrote, “Having a course in initiating young people into the gay lifestyle? Isn’t that what Christian Fundementalists (sic) claim actually goes on in the gay community? Thank you Dr. Halperin for confirming their suspicions.”

Halperin also has written that, “I still find the possibility of an open, uncensored, honest, and sexually explicit gay male literature thrilling, and I expected my students to do the same…”

“Lesbian/gay studies necessarily straddles scholarship and politics …. It would be hard to be more explicit than that,” said Halperin, who is has written several homosexual-oriented books.

In the past, Glenn promised, “Every time U-M offers this ludicrous class, you and I cannot fail to speak out against it.”

Reports said in 2003, Halperin refused to meet Glenn’s offer for a face-to-face public debate on the merits of the class.

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59627

Dear AFA-Michigan supporter,

Paste these e-mail addresses for the school board into the “to” line of your e-mail:

PDosenberry@mtpleasant.edzone.net; LMcBride@mtpleasant.edzone.net; DBriggs@mtpleasant.edzone.net; RDoneth@mtpleasant.edzone.net; GNewland@mtpleasant.edzone.net; BAlford@mtpleasant.edzone.net; EHarris@mtpleasant.edzone.net

Thank you for your support, which is deeply appreciated, and…

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Gary Glenn, President
American Family Association of Michigan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Fri., Nov. 30, 2007
CONTACT: Gary Glenn 989-835-7978
Pam Dosenberry 989-773-7995
President, Mt. Pleasant School Board

Traditional values group says recognizing
Christmas in schools is fully constitutional

Mount Pleasant schools urged to drop Christmas censorship policy

School calendar lists day off for “Good Friday” but calls Christmas vacation “winter break”

MT. PLEASANT, Mich. — A statewide traditional values organization headquartered in mid-Michigan is accusing the Mount Pleasant Public Schools of censorship over a reported policy prohibiting any mention in school of the words “Christmas” or “nativity” or “Santa.”

Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, located in Midland, Friday wrote President Pam Dosenberry and other members of the Mt. Pleasant Public Schools Board of Education, urging them to drop the Christmas censorship policy.

“This censorship policy may be politically correct,” Glenn wrote, “but it is not constitutionally required or correct, and it raises the obvious and much broader question of whether the school district’s enforcement of a policy censoring any mention of Christmas is violating the constitutionally-protected free speech rights of students and faculty.”

“The American Family Association of Michigan urges Mt. Pleasant Public Schools to drop its ‘politically correct’ censorship policy,” Glenn wrote, “and allow students and faculty to both recognize and even celebrate the Christmas holiday at school, a right clearly protected by the Constitution and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court so long as no student who may object is required to participate.”

The school district’s Christmas censorship policy gained notoriety worldwide this week when United Press International Wednesday published the following report:

“Organizers of a Mt. Pleasant, Mich., festival have taken ‘Christmas’ out of the celebration’s name to allow them to advertise the event in schools. The town’s Dickens Christmas Festival has been renamed the Dickens Holiday Festival to allow the city to offset its small advertising budget by placing fliers in schools. …’We changed the name this year for the schools because we wanted to advertise in the school brochures, and the schools have a list of words you can’t use like Santa, Christmas and Nativity,’ Downtown Development Coordinator Michelle Sponseller said. ‘So (we) did a brochure for the schools and we took those words out. But we have a brochure we did for the public and the word Christmas is still in it.’” http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/11/28/festival_drops_christmas_from_title/4447

Glenn said that among the school district’s policies and administrative procedures published in full on the district’s web site, he could find no formal written policy that prohibits the use of certain words at school. He said he spoke Friday to school Superintendent Joe Pius, who confirmed that it is an informal rather than written policy by which the district does not allow material that makes reference to “Christmas” to be distributed to students but does allow material that uses the word “holiday.”

(more…)

“In February, a family values group asked the principal of Howell High School in Michigan to take four books off the 11th grade reading list. …Vicki Fyke, a founding member of (Livingston Organization for Values in Education)…said she was most alarmed by a child rape scene in ‘The Bluest Eye.’

…Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, says the episode sheds light on a larger problem. ‘There’s a growing conflict between parents and educators who see schools as their private playground for indoctrination and social experimentation,’ Glenn said. He believes parents and community members have a right to intervene in schools’ decision making and calls Fyke’s reaction to the reading list a ‘rational and moderate’ response.”

Teen free speech: Defending students’ rights at school
By Annie Correal

When Joseph Frederick, an 18-year-old high school student, unfurled a banner that read “Bong Hits 4 Jesus� along the crowded route of the 2002 Olympic torch relay in Juneau, Alaska, he may not have expected it to take him all the way to the Supreme Court. But when it got him suspended from his school, Frederick became a national figure in a First Amendment battle and a focal point for the National Coalition Against Censorship, which defends First Amendment rights.

The coalition issued an amicus brief in the Supreme Court case on behalf of 50 national nonprofit organizations and free speech advocates. The coalition argued that schools should not be able to restrict student speech when students were off campus, unless they were on field trips or school-sanctioned events. The battle over free speech is being echoed in school cases around the country.

Just in the last year, a family in California sued a high school for censuring their freshman daughter for saying, “That’s so gay.� In Indiana, two sophomores went to court after they were expelled for making a movie depicting killer teddy bears attacking a teacher. And in Virginia, a teacher who moonlighted as an abstract artist sued after he was fired for a YouTube video that depicted him making paintings with his behind.

The coalition’s executive director, Joan Bertin, says there are many more disputes that never make it to the news because they don’t reach the court system.

Every week, the coalition receives about a dozen allegations of censorship from around the country in its midtown Manhattan office, which is lined with file cabinets filled with reports of controversial art exhibits, theater productions and even scientific investigations. But according to Bertin, it’s the nation’s public high schools that are keeping her eight-person operation busy these days.

Bertin, a former public interest lawyer, estimates that more than half of the reports that come across her desk concern teens or teachers who have tested the limits of free speech and have been punished for it.

The reason the coalition sees so many school cases, Bertin says, is the growing involvement of parents and community members in the education process—particularly at the high school level.

When Bertin first took the helm of the coalition in 1997, most of the complaints she received involved middle schools. Today, the coalition is getting a significantly higher rate of complaints from high schools. Parents and community members have always felt a responsibility to monitor what their young children were exposed to at school, but Bertin says, “the age ceiling seems to be rising.�

Books are a hotly contested topic. In February, a family values group asked the principal of Howell High School in Michigan to take four books off the 11th grade reading list. The Livingston Organization for Values in Education (LOVE) complained about sexual themes and profanity in Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,� Richard Wright’s “Black Boy,� Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five� and Erin Gruwell’s “The Freedom Writers Diary.�

“We are not talking about ‘Catcher in the Rye’ or ‘Huck Finn,’� said Vicki Fyke, a founding member of LOVE. She said she was most alarmed by a child rape scene in “The Bluest Eye.�

“We are talking about books that describe acts that are actually illegal,� she said.

“This stuff can change who people are,� Fyke added. “And it’s not fair for schools to have that power over children without parents knowing.�

The coalition’s first task when it receives a report that a book has been challenged is to research the case and inform the local school board of its legal obligations under the First Amendment, which safeguards the right to free speech and free expression. If a school fails to respond, the group generally contacts local reporters to generate publicity. As a last resort, the group seeks out a lawyer.

In the Michigan case, that wasn’t necessary. A few days after LOVE petitioned to remove the books and the coalition sent a letter supporting the literary value of the works, the local school board voted 5-2 to keep the books on the shelves.

“Not one of those people voted for those books voted because they were good for children,� Fyke argued. “They voted the way they did to support their teachers.�

Bertin says episodes like the one at Howell have a “chilling effect,� making educators think twice before assigning books that have caused problems in the past.

But Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, says the episode sheds light on a larger problem.

“There’s a growing conflict between parents and educators, who see schools as their private playground for indoctrination and social experimentation,� Glenn said. He believes parents and community members have a right to intervene in schools’ decision making and calls Fyke’s reaction to the reading list a “rational and moderate� response.

Bertin is quick to point out that book complaints come from “left, right and center.�

The vigilance of parents and community members has made schools more cautious and quicker to react to cases, Bertin said. Recently the coalition was notified when an elementary school girl in Texarkana, Texas, was punished by school administrators for going onto a Web site at school that was deemed inappropriate because it showed nudity. The site was an online paper-dolls game.

The Internet is another hot zone for free speech debates — at all grade levels, according to Samantha Harris, director of legal and public advocacy for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Education, which focuses on colleges and universities.

Popular social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace make it easier for schools to root out student bullies or kids involved in illegal activities, but free speech advocates say punishing students for online behavior amounts to censorship.

“We’ve seen a major uptick in censorship and punishment — after-the-fact censorship,� Harris said. Recently, the foundation was alerted when Sigma Chi fraternity members at Johns Hopkins University were punished for posting an invitation for a “Halloween in the Hood� party on Facebook that was filled with racial references. The fraternity was suspended and is now on probation.

Advocates like Bertin say they hope the Frederick case, which will come before the Supreme Court this spring, may help safeguard students’ free speech rights off campus, too.

“The proper response to bad speech is more speech,� Bertin said, “not enforced silence.�

http://70.47.124.114/node/841

STATE NEWS
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan
June 6, 2007

MSU stops issuing same-sex domestic partnership benefits
by Colleen Maxwell

The university will no longer offer health insurance benefits to employees in same-sex domestic partnerships not covered by a health care agreement between MSU and the Coalition of Labor Organizations.

About 54 people use domestic partnership benefits at MSU, said Pam Beemer, assistant vice president for Human Resources.

The contract they operate under will expire within the next few years.

Some employees might leave the university if their partner’s health coverage permanently expires.

“I know it’s an important reason for lots of people - it’s why people consider MSU a good place to work,” said Kitty O’Neil, a research assistant in the plant and crop soil science department, who uses domestic partnership benefits.

O’Neil and her partner won’t be affected by the ruling until 2009, when her union contract with the university is renewed.

“A lot of individuals will lose health insurance and family security,” she said.

The university’s decision follows a Feb. 2 Michigan Court of Appeals ruling that stated the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage also would ban domestic partnership benefits for partners of employees at public universities and institutions.

The city of Kalamazoo will eliminate its domestic partnership benefits because of an order from the Michigan Supreme Court. The court will rule at a later date on a Michigan Court of Appeals decision to uphold state Attorney General Mike Cox’s legal opinion, which stated public employers could no longer offer same-sex domestic partnership benefits. The opinion stems from the passage of Proposal 2.

“The law is the law,” said Rusty Hill, Cox’s spokesman. “We were asked our opinion - that’s the way we ruled.”

Proposal 2 was an amendment to the state constitution that defined marriage as between one man and one woman. Michigan voters passed it in the 2004 general election.

Five MSU employees are part of the lawsuit being bounced through Michigan’s court system - each is vying to keep same-sex domestic partnership benefits statewide. The suit was filed by the state’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Public employers can provide same-sex domestic partnership benefits, but they have to use a different approach, such as buying insurance, said Jay Kaplan, staff attorney for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Project of ACLU Michigan.

“They never said you can’t buy coverage,” he said, adding that places like the city of Kalamazoo chose not to do that.

Kaplan said he doesn’t believe it was the voters’ intention to take away health insurance.

“In some instances, that’s the effect of this decision,” he said.

MSU has done all it can to be responsive to court opinions as they come, Beemer said.

“We worry about all of our employees and maintaining benefits,” she said.

According to the Human Resources Web site, MSU will “continue to monitor legal developments in this area and will revise its policies where appropriate once a final ruling has been provided by the Michigan Supreme Court.”

Beemer said it’s difficult to predict what MSU will do once all rulings are final, but the university is working to determine what options are available.

O’Neil said she could potentially see herself, and other employees, leaving MSU if the potential for same-sex domestic partnership benefits ends.

“Several other states actually made marriage and civil unions legal,” she said.

“It’s going to have more of a negative image against Michigan in the future.”

http://www.statenews.com/article.phtml?pk=41263

“The City of Kalamazoo no longer will offer health insurance benefits to the partners of gay workers, becoming Michigan’s first public employer to take away such benefits in the wake of a 2004 ban against gay marriage. Kalamazoo City Manager Kenneth Collard confirmed Monday that the city will eliminate domestic partner benefits for four non-unionized employees effective June 30. He cited a May 23 order from the Michigan Supreme Court. …Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, said public universities and state and local governments should follow Kalamazoo’s lead and ‘honor the will of the voters.’”

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lansing, Michigan
June 4, 2007

Kalamazoo no longer will provide health benefits to gay partners
by David Eggert

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The City of Kalamazoo no longer will offer health insurance benefits to the partners of gay workers, becoming Michigan’s first public employer to take away such benefits in the wake of a 2004 ban against gay marriage.

Kalamazoo City Manager Kenneth Collard confirmed Monday that the city will eliminate domestic partner benefits for four non-unionized employees effective June 30. He cited a May 23 order from the Michigan Supreme Court. The high court agreed to hear an appeal of a state Court of Appeals decision blocking same-sex benefits, but it also let the earlier decision take immediate effect. “We have no authority, as being a creation of the state, to ignore the (Michigan) constitution as defined,” Collard told The Associated Press. The affected employees were informed last week and their partners have about a month to get other insurance, Collard said.

Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, said public universities and state and local governments should follow Kalamazoo’s lead and “honor the will of the voters.” Some public employers have said they will not take away domestic partner benefits until the case is decided once and for all.

The appeals court in February said Michigan’s 2004 voter-approved constitutional amendment against gay marriage also bars domestic partner benefits for the same-sex partners of public employees. Twenty-one gay couples represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan appealed to the state Supreme Court, arguing the public never intended to ban same-sex benefits. A message seeking comment was left with the ACLU Monday.

Sixteen of the plaintiffs work for employers who offer same-sex benefits — Kalamazoo, various universities and a county health department covering the Lansing area. Another five plaintiffs are employed by the state, which in 2004 agreed to start providing same-sex benefits but delayed them until courts clear up their legality.

Kalamazoo has been at the center of the dispute over same-sex benefits in Michigan. In March 2005, Republican Attorney General Mike Cox interpreted the city’s domestic partner policy as violating the constitutional amendment, prompting a lawsuit by a Washington-based AFL-CIO group called National Pride at Work and others. Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm supports providing the benefits.

Up to 20 public universities, community colleges, school districts and local governments in Michigan have same-sex benefits policies. Universities, which employ most of those affected, argue that not being able to offer the benefits will hurt recruitment of faculty and staff.

At least 375 university and government employees in Michigan have partners who qualify for same-sex benefits.

http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/michigan/index.ssf?/base/news-44/1180986013217020.xml&storylist=newsmichigan

Homosexual activists rallied at the state Capitol Tuesday to protest a Michigan Court of Appeals ruling in February that public employers may not recognize homosexual relationships among government employees for the purpose of providing taxpayer-financed spousal benefits…

“Sean Kosofsky, director of policy for the (homosexual) Triangle Foundation, exhorted the crowd: ‘Are you tired of a polluted political atmosphere caused by the toxic diatribes of Gary Glenn and the American Family Association?’ The crowd replied with a resounding ‘yes.’

…Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan and co-author of the 2004 (Marriage Protection Amendment), feels that the outcome lives up to its original intent. ‘The issue is about government recognition,’ he said in an interview last week. ‘And government recognition includes taxpayer-provided benefits.’ …Glenn cited an October 2004 Detroit Free Press poll taken before the proposal’s passage. At the time, 53 percent of those polled approved of the proposal, and 54 percent opposed allowing government and university employers to provide benefits to same-sex couples. According to Glenn, this proves that voter intent was parallel with the authors’ intent and that voters saw the proposal as a way to prohibit such benefits.”

CITY PULSE
Lansing, Michigan
May 23, 2007

Rapper plea: ‘Where homophobia ends, true freedoms begin’

by Clay Taylor and Wes Holing

The Michigan Supreme Court will soon decide on the ultimate fate of 2004’s Proposal 2, the so-called gay marriage amendment, and its opponents are not going quietly.

At a rally at the state Capitol Tuesday, about 100 people heard Lansing resident Dennis Finceth tell them, “There’s an awful lot of good families that I know and partners that I’m acquainted with who have left Michigan (because of the amendment), and it’s a shame to lose those people over something so regressive.�

The University of Michigan Social Workers, Michigan Equality, Triangle Foundation and several other groups organized the rally to kick off an effort to educate Michiganders about the adverse effects of Proposal 2 on gay couples who stand to lose domestic-partner health benefits.

The ballot initiative passed with 59 percent of the vote, defining marriage only as “the union of one man and one woman.� It also says that such a union will be “the only agreement recognized as a marriage or similar union for any purpose.�

State Attorney General Mike Cox has argued that the language makes domestic-partner benefits for same sex couples illegal. The State Court of Appeals agreed with Cox, overturning a ruling by Ingham County Circuit Judge Joyce Draganchuk that would have kept same-sex benefits intact.

At stake primarily are health benefits at MSU, U of M, LCC and several other state universities and colleges. But some governments also offer them to employees, including Ingham County.

Ingham County Commissioner Todd Tennis told the crowd, “I think I can speak on behalf of all my fellow county commissioners when I say that Ingham County is going to do everything in its power to continue to offer domestic partner benefits in the future and to fight this horrible decision.�

Sean Kosofsky, director of policy for the Triangle Foundation, exhorted the crowd: “Are you tired of a polluted political atmosphere caused by the toxic diatribes of Gary Glenn and the American Family Association?�.

The crowd replied with a resounding “yes.�

“Are you ready to proclaim that children do not need protection from homosexuals, but from homophobic zealots that thrive on panic and fear?� Kosofsky called. This time, an even louder “yes� answered him.

Offering a decidedly untraditional approach was speaker Kevin Correa, a full-time staff member at the University of Michigan’s LGBT Affairs office. When he took the podium, he rapped.

“I’m saying all I can so that justice can win, where homophobia ends, true freedoms begin,� Correa said. “Our tastes may be different but we’re humans the same, so just be real with us, stop playing these games.�

The rally was followed by a march to the Hall of Justice to present a resolution denouncing the early February Court of Appeals decision.

Derek Smiertka, executive director of Michigan Equality, a statewide gay rights advocacy group based in Lansing, said a petition on its Web site opposing the court decision has 1,225 signatures so far.

As opponents wait for the State Supreme Court to take up the case, they are arguing that the voters did not intend to end domestic-partner benefits for public employees when they banned same-sex marriage. “Intent� can be a reason to overturn a law.

Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan and co-author of the 2004 ballot proposal, feels that the outcome lives up to its original intent. “The issue is about government recognition,� he said in an interview last week. “And government recognition includes taxpayer-provided benefits. One does not require the other.�

Glenn cited an October 2004 Detroit Free Press poll taken before the proposal’s passage. At the time, 53 percent of those polled approved of the proposal, and 54 percent opposed allowing government and university employers to provide benefits to same-sex couples. According to Glenn, this proves that voter intent was parallel with the authors’ intent and that voters saw the proposal as a way to prohibit such benefits.

However, Doug Meeks, president of Michigan Equality, disagrees. He feels that this was not what voters asked for, nor should the amendment be read in such a way. In a May 16 interview on “City Pulse on the Air� on WDBM-FM, Meeks said, “The proponents of the amendment basically had gone out and told voters that domestic partner benefits would not be affected by this proposal.�

Nancy English, Michigan Equality’s executive assistant, agrees, pointing out the proposal’s supporters have been inconsistent in their claims. She cited a quote from Marlene Elwell of Citizens for the Protection of Marriage, a group supporting the amendment. In October 2005, Elwell told USA Today, “This has nothing to do with taking benefits away. This is about marriage between a man and a woman.�

English also cited Glenn himself in an interview with the Ann Arbor News, stating that public and private employers could continue to offer domestic partner benefits.

http://www.lansingcitypulse.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1092&Itemid=29

Dear AFA-Michigan supporter,

As always, thanks for your support.

Gary Glenn, President
American Family Association of Michigan

DETROIT NEWS
Detroit, Michigan
May 14, 2007

(Editorial)

Don’t punish state colleges for ‘Angels’ play
Lawmakers should drop threats to slice universities’ funding

If the American Family Association of Michigan gets its way, a few buttocks will derail Michigan’s economic resurgence.

The AFA and its supporters have been raising a stink, even threatening to lobby for a decrease of state funding to Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU) and other Michigan colleges and universities for hosting a play that includes bare derrieres. The focus of their protest: Saginaw Valley’s student production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Angels in America,” which explores AIDS.

“The people I’ve talked to, including the Democrats, are willing to nick their budget, just to send a message,” state Rep. Jack Brandenburg, R-Harrison Township, said Friday. SVSU and other universities are nervously waiting to hear what their public funding allotment will be as the state Legislature scraps over the budget.

Brandenburg says he’ll push for funding cuts to any public university that shows “Angels” or other plays with swear words or nudity.

Don’t Brandenburg and his supporters have anything better to do than cause a tizzy over a few naked bottoms? Their example supports our case that the state Legislature should be downsized from full- to part-time. Then the politicos might not waste taxpayer money on such meddling.

Michigan is relying on its public universities to be the engine of new job growth. The universities bring in millions of dollars in research jobs and development money.

More important, they are the bridge for thousands of Michigan residents to get a college education, the new foundation of a viable American livelihood and life.

With every dip in state funding, tuition goes up, and fewer students can afford it. There’s a direct link with rising college costs and falling or stagnant student attendance.

Decreasing Saginaw Valley’s or other universities’ budgets to protest a play will only hurt students — and the state. Four other Michigan universities — including Michigan State University and the University of Michigan — have performed “Angels,” says SVSU spokesperson J.J. Boehm.

To be sure, Brandenburg’s concern over America’s crass culture and media being increasingly filled with obscenity-laden songs, violence and sex is warranted. But “Angels” dramatizes the painful lives of AIDS patients and their devastating deaths. Seeing people suffer is far from glamourous.

He admits he hasn’t seen the play himself, but he’s open to trying it out. We encourage him and other state legislators to see such plays before punishing all Michigan students and their parents by dinging college funding.

In the context of a sophisticated play such as “Angels,” students know better than to interpret nudity as obscene. Brandenburg and his circle of supporters should focus on what matters most in Michigan: adequately funding public universities to fuel the state’s comeback.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/OPINION01/705140318/1008

“Despite the constant drumbeat of bigotry and small-minded meanness from Gary Glenn of the American Family Association and his small band of vocal groupies, (lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender) organizers, allies and activists across the state have been engaged in trainings to mobilize for equal rights and protections for our families. …We can be sure that Glenn will again flood legislators with e-mails containing threatening messages, promising doom to them and their political careers if they vote in favor of equal rights and protections for Michigan’s LGBT citizens. …Glenn will try to scare legislators, and pressure them with threats of retribution at the polls. …(Saginaw Valley State University’s president) stood up to critics like Glenn who demanded he shut down the school’s production of ‘Angels in America.’ … It’s time for our state legislators to take a lesson from SVSU and just say no to hysterical Gary Glenn.”

BETWEEN THE LINES
(homosexual newsmagazine)
Detroit, Michigan
May 3, 2007

(Editorial)

It’s time for Michigan to turn back bigotry

Despite the constant drumbeat of bigotry and small minded meanness from Gary Glenn of the American Family Association and his small band of vocal groupies, LGBT organizers, allies and activists across the state have been engaged in trainings to mobilize for equal rights and protections for our families. These dedicated volunteers are not cowed by the poison coming from the AFA, and they are learning how to speak up, speak out and hold our political leaders accountable for their votes and actions.

Second parent adoption legislation is being introduced in the Michigan legislature and it appears to have a decent chance of passage. We can be sure that Glenn will again flood legislators with emails containing threatening messages, promising doom to them and their political careers if they vote in favor of equal rights and protections for Michigan’s LGBT citizens.

But we still believe this is America and that most people believe in the basic tenets of our nation and our Constitution - that freedom, family, love and community are created by individuals in harmony with each other. Second parent adoption rights would hold loving couples responsible for their dependent children. It would guarantee that children could count on the continued support from two parents - not just one and a “roommate” that has no legal authority to protect and defend that child.

It’s absurd that there is even a debate as to whether two parents are better for a child than one parent. Every childs needs and deserves as much support and attention as possible, and it is ridiculous for the state to deny a child the protections of two parents simply because it may object to the two people because they are of the same gender. Glenn will try to scare legislators, and pressure them with threats of retribution at the polls. But we are watching too, and if our political leaders are not willing to stand up for basic human and American values, then we will have no time for them when it comes to voting.

Saginaw Valley State University’s president understood that hysterical propaganda intended to vilify an entire group of people is wrong. They stood up to critics like Glenn who demanded he shut down the school’s production of “Angels in America.” We find it highly encouraging that President Gilbertson just said no to the AFA and their political patsy, State Rep. Brandenberg. How dare a state representative threaten the funding for an entire university based on the production of one play - a Pulitzer prize winning one at that! Has he nothing more important to do, especially given the state’s current fiscal crisis, than to become an arts censor?

It’s time for our state legislators to take a lesson from SVSU and just say no to hysterical Gary Glenn. Taking healthcare away from children is not promoting family values. Denying children two responsible parents does not promote family values.

Demonizing people because they are different creates fear, it does not teach expansive, inclusive thinking. Yet Glenn and his bunch do all of these things under the false mantle of family values.

We believe it is high time that people stand up and say “enough!” It is time for Michigan to move forward with courage. Instead of the “Land of the Free, Home of the Brave,” Glenn wants Michigan to become the “Land of the Mean, Home of the Scared.” We are better than that. We want our leaders to know that and to lead the state, the legislature and our institutions of higher learning to a better, safer and more just place.

http://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=24963

“A state representative has asked that Saginaw Valley State University president Eric Gilbertson resign because he has allowed the university to perform a play that has a scene involving full frontal nudity and uses profanity. He also wants to put a hold on university funding. …A letter of protest was sent to Gilbertson’s office from members of the Michigan House of Representatives. …The university’s police department also received a complaint April 27 from Midland-based American Family Association of Michigan, but the Saginaw County Prosecutor’s Office said there was no basis to file charges, (an SVSU spokesman) said.”

MIDLAND DAILY NEWS
Midland, Michigan
May 2, 2007

University’s performance
continues to draw protest
by Noel Lyn Smith

A state representative has asked that Saginaw Valley State University president Eric Gilbertson resign because he has allowed the university to perform a play that has a scene involving full frontal nudity and uses profanity. He also wants to put a hold on university funding. The play, “Angels in America – Part One: Millennium Approaches” is a Pulitzer Prize winning play by Tony Kushner and an HBO production. The play is a story about politics and the AIDS crisis in America during the mid-80s, and is centered around a group of separate, but connected people.

“I feel President Gilbertson has been very remiss in his duties,” State Rep. Jack Brandenburg, R-Harrison Township, said in a statement. “If he wants to promote this type of promiscuity at a taxpayer funded institution, I want him to resign.”

Brandenburg said he objects to the play’s use of profanity and frontal male nudity. Controversy has surrounded the play since its first performance April 20. A letter of protest was sent to Gilbertson’s office from members of the Michigan House of Representatives. “We did receive the letter…and are aware of it,” SVSU spokesman J.J. Boehm said.

The university’s police department also received a complaint April 27 from Midland-based American Family Association of Michigan, but the Saginaw County Prosecutor’s Office said there was no basis to file charges, Boehm said. Brandenburg, a three-term representative and member of the House Appropriations Committee, has questioned the role the production has in the university environment. “I would challenge the president to come down to Lansing to explain just how this play enhances the education of students who go there,” Brandenburg said.

Gilbertson has said the issue of one of freedom of expression for all involved – both students and protesters. “It is their right to protest these things; it may even be their duty,” he said. “And whether we may agree or disagree with them, their views are entitled to a respectful hearing. They are citizens and taxpayers and thinking people who are entitled to their freedom of expression too.” Brandenburg requested the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Higher Education investigate the issue but the request was denied by state Rep. Pam Byrnes, D-Lyndon Township, the subcommittee’s chairwoman. “We heard these comments from Brandenburg before,” Boehm said.

“Angels in America” was performed April 20 to 22 and 27 to 29 at SVSU’s Malcolm Field Theatre for Performing Arts. “We perform a broad arrange of theatrical productions,” Boehm said. “We do children’s plays, comedies and classics but our students’ experience would be incomplete if they did not get the opportunity to perform a modern play that may include controversial themes and adult subject matter.” Brandenburg said he would like to put a hold on state funding for the university. “The money that taxpayers send to the university is not going to the school with the intent to produce filth but to educate students,” Brandenburg said.

“This will not be forgotten for next year’s budget when Saginaw Valley requests for money,” he said.

Four other Michigan universities – including Michigan State University and the University of Michigan – have performed the play, Boehm said. If other Michigan schools were to perform “Angels in America,” Brandenburg said he would take the same action against those schools. Almost 900 people attended the performance at Saginaw Valley, Boehm said.

http://www.ourmidland.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18289638&BRD=2289&PAG=461&dept_id=472542&rfi=6

“The leader of a group championing family values threatened to send a camera crew to the controversial (Saginaw Valley State University) play to tape its scenes of male nudity. Gary Glenn, head of Michigan’s chapter of the American Family Association, did show up at a Saturday evening performance with a cameraman, but campus police refused to admit them. …Glenn had said he wanted the nude images on tape to convince lawmakers that SVSU is breaking indecent exposure laws.”

SAGINAW NEWS
Saginaw, Michigan
April 30, 2007

SVSU turns away cameraman from show
The only drama in Saginaw Valley State University’s final productions of “Angels In America: Part One” came on stage, college officials say.

Last week, the leader of a group championing family values threatened to send a camera crew to the controversial play to tape its scenes of male nudity.

Gary Glenn, head of Michigan’s chapter of the American Family Association, did show up at a Saturday evening performance with a cameraman, but campus police refused to admit them, said J.J. Boehm, SVSU spokesman.

“They had a short, polite conversation with university police and left,” Boehm said.

Glenn had said he wanted the nude images on tape to convince lawmakers that SVSU is breaking indecent exposure laws. Boehm said recording devices weren’t allowed per the licensing rights.
The last performance was Sunday.

http://www.mlive.com/news/saginawnews/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1177943162248250.xml&coll=9