Rep. Michele Bachmann’s Wednesday announcement that she is ending her White House bid comes as no surprise. While the Minnesota congresswoman was one of the first GOP candidates to experience a surge in the polls last summer as the party’s base searched frantically for a conservative alternative to Mitt Romney (she even won the Iowa straw poll in August), her campaign had been dogged by a series of high-profile missteps.
They included: suggesting that cervical cancer vaccines cause “mental retardation,” pledging to close the non-existent American embassy in Tehran, reassigning the location of the “shot heard ‘round the world” to New Hampshire rather than Massachusetts, and confusing movie star John Wayne with serial killer John Wayne Gacy.
The withering heat of the presidential vetting process also yielded an embarrassing and disturbing revelation about Bachmann: The “Christian counseling” clinic that she co-owns with her husband, Marcus, offers so-called “ex-gay therapy” that purports to turn clients from gay to straight.
The Bachmanns had long denied that their clinic endorsed this form of “therapy,” which has no basis in research, inflicts substantial harm to patients who are falsely told they can “pray away the gay,” and is denounced by every mainstream professional medical and mental health organization. However, working for the LGBT rights group Truth Wins Out and at the behest of founder Wayne Besen, I conducted an undercover, hidden-camera investigation last summer that provided incontrovertible proof of reparative therapy taking place at Bachmann & Associates.
TWO’s investigation disrupted the momentum of Rep. Bachmann’s campaign, highlighting the congresswoman’s virulently anti-LGBT views and the extent to which those views are out of step with those of most Americans. It helped to define the public perception of Michele and Marcus Bachmann as religious extremists, drew attention to her long legislative record of anti-LGBT bigotry, and made it more difficult for her to recast herself as a mainstream presidential candidate.
Equally important, it cast a glaring spotlight on ex-gay therapy and helped reinvigorate the ongoing national conversation around this issue.
However, we shouldn’t kid ourselves into thinking that today’s announcement will mean we’ve heard the last from Michele Bachmann. She will return to Congress, where she will undoubtedly remain a forceful opponent of any and all efforts to advance LGBT equality. Bowing out of the presidential race allows Bachmann to focus her time and effort on her upcoming congressional re-election campaign in Minnesota, where it’s probable that she’ll lend her now-amplified voice to the effort to pass a proposed constitutional amendment banning any recognition of same-sex marriages or civil unions in that state. And Rep. Bachmann will most likely intensify her homophobia now that she no longer has to concern herself with attempting to appear presidential.
Finally, let’s not forget that the field of remaining presidential candidates is littered with homophobes, including a now-surging Rick Santorum, who most recently stated that his administration would attempt to forcibly divorce legally married same-sex couples.
So while the end of Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign is undoubtedly a positive development for America’s LGBT community, it’s definitely not cause for complacency. To the contrary, our efforts to protect and expand upon the victories we’ve achieved must intensify, because in this election year, our opponents are just getting started.
Note: this op-ed was written for, and initially appeared at, the Advocate.
Screen shot: Andy Towle
Maybe Marcus will time to swing by Alaska and spruce up Palin’s sagging wig. Did anyone else catch that footage of her last night?
No, I don’t watch Palin at all. I read her cultists’ posts online for laughs and according to them she is always stunning and surely running.
The one bad thing about this is Bachman quitting gave Perry hope and he’s off to South Carolina. I’d have been happier if that fraud who I personally think will stop at nothing to get in to the White House was most definitely out of the race.
It’s only a matter of time until Marcus gets caught with a male prostitute.
What gets me is that she claims to be a Christian and says God is on her side. So if that is true, why did she try to hide the “ex-gay” stuff? If she is so right and God wants us all to be “ex-gay,” then why is she not proud of her intolerance? Clearly, she had a guilty conscience and knew it was wrong or she would not have tried to hide it.
I also might add that Marcus Bachmann sashaying down that hallway and twirling like an animated dancing gay bear while dancing with LaBeard, made several eyebrows raise, also bringing down their outhouse of cards.
People everywhere are onto her shtick, but I have no doubt she can still stink up a room without …… well……u get the picture.
John, I do hope you are wrong and the Bachmanns retreat back under the rock they crawled from.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.