FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
There is No Excuse For Bachmann & Associates to Offer Fringe ‘Pray Away the Gay’ Therapy Rejected By Mainstream Mental Health Organizations
NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out vigorously disputed Marcus Bachmann’s statement to the Star Tribune today where he falsely claimed that his clinic was not anti-gay and had no “agenda or a philosophy of trying to change anyone.” His untruthful assertions contradict the evidence that clearly shows his clinic is disdainful towards LGBT people and practices a discredited and harmful brand of therapy designed to “cure” gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
“Marcus Bachmann is not telling the truth when he dishonestly claims that his clinic is not anti-gay,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen, responding to Bachmann’s new statement in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “Our investigation clearly shows that his clinic has great antipathy towards gay and lesbian people and his therapists work to convert clients from gay to straight.”
“Marcus Bachmann is willfully and wantonly misrepresenting what I experienced during my five therapy sessions at his clinic,” said John Becker, TWO’s Director of Communications and Development, who led an undercover operation at Bachmann’s clinic. “We urge Bachmann & Associates to stop misleading the public and commit to ending the harmful and discredited practice of ‘ex-gay’ therapy.”
According to The Star Tribune article, Bachmann explained that he only offered “ex-gay” therapy at a client’s request.
“Will I address it? Certainly we’ll talk about it,” Bachmann said. “Is it a remedy form that I typically would use? … It is at the client’s discretion…We don’t have an agenda or a philosophy of trying to change someone.”
Bachmann said counselors at his clinics follow the wishes of patients and don’t force any treatment.
“This individual came to us under a false pretense,” Bachmann said. “The truth of the matter is he specifically asked for help.”
“Bachmann & Associates was under no obligation to offer a quack therapy treatment that is rejected by every mainstream medical and mental health association in America,” said TWO’s Wayne Besen. “Taking a clients hard-earned money for a ‘cure’ that is not possible is unethical and a form of consumer fraud.”
The notion that a counselor is required harm a client just because he or she asks is patently absurd, asserts TWO. Similarly, if a bodybuilder had asked a doctor to help him or her inject steroids, the practitioner could refuse. If an African American asked a doctor for a skin bleaching, he or she could decline. If a physician is urged to help manage a model’s anorexia, he or she could turn the model away and instead offer real medical help.
While Bachmann claims that his clinic is not anti-gay, nor invested in “ex-gay” therapy, his office sells a book written by a viciously homophobic minister named Janet Boynes who calls homosexuality a “dirty and shameful life.” In her tome, Called Out: A Former Lesbian’s Discovery of Freedom, she says:
“What are the effects of living a homosexual lifestyle? The list is long: Hurt. Despair. Frustration. Loneliness. Depression. Restlessness. Shame….Hollywood would have you believe gays and lesbians are happy, humorous, well adjusted people, but very rarely do they show the other side – the ugly side. They don’t show the tears behind the mask. They don’t show the desperate ache to be loved beneath all the jokes, clever comebacks and playful remarks.” (pg. 184)
“If Marcus Bachmann’s clinic is not anti-gay, than why is he selling homophobic trash like Janet Boynes’ hateful and deceptive book in his office?” asked Besen.
Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that fights anti-LGBT religious extremism. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.
Excellent rebuttal TWO! Don’t let this story die. Keep it alive in the media so that it follows the good Congresswoman throughout her campaign trail.
Now, someone should also emphasize the fundamental hypocrisy with the Bachmann’s political philosophy. They rail against and lament the spending of federal dollars on social programs for the needy and yet this clinic is the recipient of federal money (as is their farm I understand). Is this not one of the most wasteful use of tax payers’ money? Where is the Tea Party outrage? Why have her faithful followers not turned on her like a pack of rabid dogs? If activists and the media can keep these two issues linked to the Bachmann’s, this might spell the end of her presidential aspirations before they even get off the ground and America will breathe a collective sigh of relief that we dodged this bullet of another “W” presidency.
[...] Wayne Besen adds: The notion that a counselor is required harm a client just because he or she asks is patently absurd, asserts TWO. Similarly, if a bodybuilder had asked a doctor to help him or her inject steroids, the practitioner could refuse. If an African American asked a doctor for a skin bleaching, he or she could decline. If a physician is urged to help manage a model’s anorexia, he or she could turn the model away and instead offer real medical help. [...]
Boynes looks and sounds like a male drag queen. In another column here, it was stated that she used to date drug dealers and sell drugs herself–her eyes in that above photo look like she’s still using.
ps..and what a tacky display of that shitty book, look at the lamp cord all tangled in front of it. Very appropriate!
Has anyone noticed the note taped on the wall behind the book-display in that photo? It says:
“Janet is a friend. I recommend this book as she speaks to the heart of the matter and gives practical insights of truth to set people free.”
—– Marcus Bachmann, PhD
Isn’t that a “smoking gun?”
Thank you so much for pushing back on Marcus Bachmann’s blatant lies. I hope someone in the press asks him: “Dr. Bachmann, since you claim to only pursue change when the client asks for it: if a ‘straight-identified’ youth came in and was deeply troubled by that ‘lifestyle’, would you assist him/her in changing to be gay?”.
Remember, Bachmann is claiming that he has no problem with gay-identified clients. This is a total lie. But it can be confirmed because he would NEVER treat a troubled straight person on how to change and become gay. Why is that?
So if a client walked in and told him they were straight, but they wanted very badly to become gay…I wonder how he’d handle that!
I am not a member or supporter of the Bachmann position but as a citizen of a country where Freedom of Speech and assembly is part of our constitution, I must remind each of us that they have as much right to express an opinion and follow their philosophy as any of us do. My dad used the expression that “everyone has the right to be wrong” and I would hope we wouldn’t start taking that away from people who disagree with us on this topic or any other. TRUTH will win the day, not censorship or ignorance. If our position has the science – and so far it is becoming increasingly strong – then ultimately the minority position will fail. As Democrats we are a feisty bunch, but if we add intolerance to our positions we aren’t much different from the enemy party except for what we are intolerant towards. Surely we are better than that, aren’t we????
@David:
The problem is that they have the collateral damage of numerous wrecked lives and broken people because of their recklessness…in a way, what they’re doing is almost a nice way of saying, “you deserve to die, and if you do, we don’t care”…sometimes, freedoms need to be reined in when they overstep their boundaries, and this just happens to be one of those times…
Note that Marcus’s “PhD” is from an extinct diploma mill that was shut down for lack of accreditation. Basically, they weren’t really teaching anything.
@David. Yes he has that right but he DOES NOT have the right to take tax dollars to fund his faux therapy that has been debunked by all reputable fields. The fact that MY tax dollars help fund his homophobic scam makes this happy proud gay man very angry!
David, I’m not sure. He has the right to believe what he wants or to express his opinion–but should he have the right to perform dangerous and ineffectual “therapies” on people? Even if they want him to? If someone was performing dangerous and ineffectual operations or perscribing dangerous and ineffectual drugs would we shrug our shoulders and walk away? I suppose we can’t really stop people from doing these things when there is so much ignorance and prejudice agains gay people but we should not just quietly accept this as a “difference of opinion.” The thing is–it’s not just his opinion, it’s not just his speech–he’s actually a “therapist”–a “doctor” and he’s perscribing dangerous remedies that don’t work.
“Boynes looks and sounds like a male drag queen. In another column here, it was stated that she used to date drug dealers and sell drugs herself–her eyes in that above photo look like she’s still using.
ps..and what a tacky display of that shitty book, look at the lamp cord all tangled in front of it. Very appropriate!
Comment by Gary (NJ) — July 15, 2011 @ 2:49 pm”
I agree with Gary of NJ [above]: In looking at the pic of Boynes on the cover of the book, it actually looks like “she” may be a transgendered person in transition [to what extent I could not know]. It appears really suspicious to me, and something that does not appear to be honest, at the very least. Too much there to comment on, beyond that, however, I would definitely run – as fast as I am able – in the opposite direction, were I to meet Boynes.
That was not meant as a “slam” against trans people, by any means, however, in regards to Boynes, I don’t believe she being honest, and is trying to “sell” something, in her situation it’s her book, and that religious “hocus-pocus” she’s trying to make people believe in.
My apologies if any transgendered people were offended by what I said.
TWO is so bankrupt. Bachmann never denied counseling unwanted homosexual feelings. Lots of people get this type of help without harm. The barbarian thing is hilarious. He was obviously referring to kids, not homosexuals.
TWO and Besen are much bigger liars.
Well then Elsa/DownHome, I’m sure you give names of people who have beneffited from this type of therapy. And it’s also obvious Bachmann was referring specifically to gay kids since that’s what he was asked about prior to that answer.
They’re called waivers CC. All a patient needs to do is sign one and the doctors can talk as much as they want. Why are all these alleged “ex-gays” so unwilling to do that?
Downhome/kelly/elsa/evil Becky/omar/Tom said “Lots of people get this type of help without harm.”.
False! No one gets this “help” without harm. All major mental health and medical organizations agree gays who positively accept their orientation are better adjusted and happier than those who do not. Up to 30% of people getting this type of “help” end up in such despair they kill themselves. There is no upside to this kind of “help” and given the huge downside it should NEVER be undertaken by ANYONE.
Wow… Janet Boynes was really crushed in a relationship it seems like – so now, the only way to wash off the ‘shame’, is to make everyone who is gay pay the price. The heart has no labels, knows no labels, gay, straight, bi – and everything in between, love is what it is. It can’t be ‘wiped off’ and thrown in the trash. Sorry you were so severely crushed in a past relationship. I hope you can forgive her and move on, and find another loving relationship; you may need some counseling to get there, but hey… we all need it, and we’re all only human after all.
What I find so amazing about this debate is that the gay and lesbian community is using the same philosophy of intolerance they decry being used against it. It would seem that as our society becomes more and more tolerant of the gay and lesbian lifestyle, the gay and lesbian community is becoming less and less tolerant of those that do not embrace their lifestyle. The truth of the matter is that the country is still largely conservative. Why is it so difficult for those that are more liberal in their views to accept that?
There is no such thing as a gay lifestyle in the sense that you mean it; there are gay lives. The whole lifestyle idea is part of fundy propaganda, an evangelical codeword, if you will. Try thinking for yourself for a change.
Vince– i don’t want you to embrace my lifestyle, whatever that means. you can think whatever you like of my lifestyle.
I want you to stay the hell out of my life entirely, and not insist that the government enforce your religious views and my inequality.
pretty simple isn’t it? No intolerance necessary.
@Vinnie- they aren’t as conservative as you think they are, especially when it comes to their medicare, SS and other social safety nets which you undoubtedly detest. It also depends on the age group, I know simple minded fundamentalists have great difficulty with nuanced thinking, but older people tend to be more conservative than younger ones; and since the less homophobic younger ones will be taking power in the not too distant future –YOU LOSE!
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Let me get this straight if I can, Two Women sex it together, nothing comes of it,Two men sex it together; nothing comes of it However, take the sperm from one male and introduce it into one of the females, you bring life into the world…….
Now what;s so wrong with Gods plan. Oh He made a mistake with you you say.. One Day you shall SEE!
Bonnie, honey– a man and a woman have sex, and if he hasn’t put his weenie someplace you would probably disapprove of, or doesn’t withdraw early, or isn’t using a condom, or isn’t impotent, or hasn’t had a vasectomey, and she deoesn’t use birth control, or isn’t infertile…
then they bring life into the world– maybe, if she doesn’t have a miscarriage or an abortion.
so, your point is….?
Im sorry, “sex it together” f**k, thats romantic!
Bonnie…”sex it together”? How old are you? Twelve? Eleven? Isn’t computer time over for the day?
Vince you think gays owe it to people who are intolerant of them to just smile and go along with the attacks and oppression?
If someone made it their daily goal to slander you, attack you, deny you the rights they have do you think in the spirit of fairness you owe it to them to tolerate that?
Vince, really, you should know better. We should be tolerant of people who want to deny us equal rights? You’re kidding right? And I would like to say, your bigoted views are not biological. You can change, let yourself.
Bonnie–this is the worst pseudonym yet–I know you’re trying to write like you’re a child but you just come off as sort of, well, slow.
Bonnie, have you ever been invited to a party at someone’s new home? If so, I’ll bet that while everyone else is oohing and ahhing about how beautiful it is, you would be in the basement inspecting the plumbing.
[...] lobby of his clinic alongside a typed placard saying “Janet is a friend,” according to this photograph taken by an undercover gay [...]
I am so happy gay people are able to be more open. It is a positive cycle. The more open they are, the more the straight people see that they are normal people, thereby making it even easier for more gays to be more open. Hopefully soon gays will have equal rights with straights. I’m in my late 50′s and have gone through the women’s movement and the civil rights movement. Gay rights is the civil rights movement for today’s generation. I’m really proud of the young people for being more open minded than their elders. To all the gay people out there – hang in there, there are a lot of people working hard for your rights!
My god the hatred, borderline (and well cross it) bigotry in these comments is astounding.
I dont care how much you disagree with someone elses ideology, some of the vile non since that has been spewd on here is not only uncalled for its reprehensible.
The fact that so many people would stoop to such hate that they are actually doing more real life tangible hating than the people who try to “pray gays strait” makes you wonder which side of people in this debate are really the bad ones.
I’m intolerant of posters who can’t spell easy words correctly, who can’t use simple punctuation and find hate to justify their own hate. You make me “sic,” “Real Liberatarian.”
Real Libertarian–give it a rest. The “hatred” you read here is anger and it’s directed at people who try to deny us our rights. It’s directed at people who bilk money out of gay people who are in pain with their hopeless promise of “becoming straight”. It’s directed people who continue to say there is something wrong with being gay so that people continue to believe they need to change. It’s directed at you–a “libertarian” who seems to be okay with government money going to this damaging snakeoil. There’s a difference between hate and anger. And there is no “debate”. These “therapies” don’t work and can just damage the people who get into them even further. Spare us you fake outrage.
Also, Real Libert…., “non since”? I mean, some of the other things we can forgive but that’s just idiotic.
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