Bradlee Dean — punk-rocker, youth pastor, antigay activist, ally of ex-gay activist Janet Boynes and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann — took fire from two directions on Monday.
In his home state, GOP Chairman Pat Shortridge warned the St. Cloud State University chapter of College Republicans to cancel its invitation for Dean to perform tonight (April 24). Shortridge appeared less concerned about Dean’s vocal hatred toward gay youth than about the racial and religious smears that Dean has made against President Obama and against non-Christians during a GOP-hosted invocation that Dean gave on the Minnesota House floor.
In the national media, meanwhile, Dean was slammed by MSNBC show host Rachel Maddow, whose attorneys accused Dean of filing frivolous lawsuits for the purpose of suppressing free speech.
Since last year, Dean has been fighting assertions that he supported the conservative Islamic call for extermination of homosexuals.
Muslims are calling for the execution for homosexuals in America, this was just released yesterday and it shows you that they themselves are upholding the laws that are even in the Bible, the Judeo Christian God. They seem to be more moral than even the American Christians do. Because these people are livid about enforcing their laws, they know homosexuality is an abomination. And I continually reach out to the homosexual communities on this radio show, and I warn them, which ones love? Here you have Obama condemning it behind the backs of the homosexuals but to their faces he’s promoting it. I say this to my gay friends out there the ones that continuously nitpick everything I say. Hollywood is promoting immorality and the God of the Heavens in Jesus names is warning you to flee from the wrath to come, yet you have Muslims calling for your execution. If America won’t enforce the laws, God will raise up a foreign enemy to do just that’s what you’re seeing in America today. Read Leviticus 26 America.
Muslims are calling for the execution for homosexuals in America. … They themselves are upholding the laws that are even in the Bible, the Judeo Christian God. They seem to be more moral than even the American Christians do. Because these people are livid about enforcing their laws, they know homosexuality is an abomination. … If America won’t enforce the laws, God will raise up a foreign enemy to do just that’s what you’re seeing in America today.
Dean then sued Maddow for reporting this statement, despite her subsequent addition of a disclaimer that Dean says he has “never and will never call for the execution of homosexuals.”
Truth Wins Out expressed outrage today that a fundamentalist rock band known for preaching offensive hate messages was allowed to spew its misinformation at a Dunkerton High School assembly. While on-stage a Junkyard Prophet band member said, “Homosexuals died at the age of 42.” Bradlee Dean, a Minnesota radio talk show host who had been praised by Rep. Michele Bachmann, leads the rock band.
According to reports, “students and teachers at an Iowa high school say they were blindsided when a traveling band slammed them with anti-gay, anti-abortion and other extremist views during what was billed as an assembly about bullying.”
We are outraged that students were subjected to such a disgusting, hate-filled message that clearly violated the separation of church and state. School administrators have to do their homework to ensure they are aren’t booking extremists with sectarian agendas.
In fact, Truth Wins Out’s “Center Against Radical Extremism” warned in April 2010 that Dean boasted to a panel at the Awakening conference in Lynchburg, VA, “We’ve been to 330 schools and only two asked us to leave.” Upon hearing this, Vision America’s Rick Scarborough cheered Dean and declared, “We need more special forces like yourself,” and then spoke of the importance in engaging in “guerilla warfare.”
Superintendent Jim Stanton (pictured) responded to the community’s fury by saying that Junkyard Prophet offered “a very strong anti-violence, anti-drug, anti-alcohol” message. He added that the presenters shared “an opinion about intolerance that’s not in line with the beliefs of the Dunkerton Community Schools. We promote tolerance for one another. We will continue to celebrate diversity in our student body.”
While Stanton’s words are welcome, it is baffling that the band was reportedly allowed to perform and remain on campus for three hours, causing many students to break down in tears. Many in the community are calling on Stanton to resign, while some reports says he was already considering stepping down.
We are profoundly disgusted that Junkyard Prophet was allowed to perform, and even more disturbed that school officials did not pull out the hook and yank these fanatics off of the stage. It is crucial that schools understand that religious zealots are actively searching for ways to infiltrate classrooms to indoctrinate youth with extremist messages. It is the responsibility of school administrators to stop the attacks on students as soon as they recognize that they are occurring. In this case, the school badly failed at the expense of the students’ mental health.
Dean is also the founder of the Minnesota Christian organization You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has listed as an official hate group. Dean has called LGBT people predators and child molesters and caused a brouhaha when he gave the opening prayer in the Minnesota State House.
LGBT people were not the band’s only targets while at the event. Junkyard Prophet attacked Lady Gaga, Elton John, and women. Very rarely do such hate organizations stick to attacking one group or minority. They usually have a wide array of targets they dislike and aren’t shy about denigrating a number of people.
“They told my daughter, the girls, that they were going to have mud on their wedding dresses if they weren’t virgins,” one mother of a Dunkerton High School junior, told the Lacrosse Tribune. The girls were told to assume a submissive role in their household and remain “pure” until marriage, students said. The boys said they were shown images of musicians who died of drug overdoses and images of aborted fetuses. The Tribune reported that the school district is working to get back the $1,500 fee they paid Junkyard Prophet for the school event.
It appears that the band’s assertion that gay men die at age 42 comes from the disgraced researcher Paul Cameron of the Family Research Institute, who was permanently expelled from the American Psychological Association and the Nebraska Psychological Association for peddling falsehoods about LGBT people.
Please e-mail superintendent Jim Stanton at express your disgust that a hate group was allowed to speak: jstanton@dunkerton.k12.ia.us
Contact: Wayne Besen, Executive Director
Phone: 917-691-5118
E-mail: wbesen@truthwinsout.org
Band Member Told Students That Gays Die At Age 42, Says TWO
Burlington, Vt. – Truth Wins Out expressed outrage today that a fundamentalist rock band known for preaching offensive hate messages was allowed to spew its misinformation at a Dunkerton High School assembly. While on-stage a Junkyard Prophet band member said, “Homosexuals died at the age of 42.” Bradlee Dean, a Minnesota radio talk show host who had been praised by Rep. Michele Bachmann, leads the rock band.
According to reports, “students and teachers at an Iowa high school say they were blindsided when a traveling band slammed them with anti-gay, anti-abortion and other extremist views during what was billed as an assembly about bullying.”
“We are outraged that students were subjected to such a disgusting, hate-filled message that clearly violated the separation of church and state,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “School administrators have to do their homework to ensure they are aren’t booking extremists with sectarian agendas.”
In fact, Truth Wins Out’s “Center Against Radical Extremism” warned in April 2010 that Dean boasted to a panel at the Awakening conference in Lynchburg, VA, “We’ve been to 330 schools and only two asked us to leave.” Upon hearing this, Vision America’s Rick Scarborough cheered Dean and declared, “We need more special forces like yourself,” and then spoke of the importance in engaging in “guerilla warfare.”
Superintendent Jim Stanton (pictured) responded to the community’s fury by saying that Junkyard Prophet offered “a very strong anti-violence, anti-drug, anti-alcohol” message. He added that the presenters shared “an opinion about intolerance that’s not in line with the beliefs of the Dunkerton Community Schools. We promote tolerance for one another. We will continue to celebrate diversity in our student body.”
While Stanton’s words are welcome, it is baffling that the band was reportedly allowed to perform and remain on campus for three hours, causing many students to break down in tears. Many in the community are calling on Stanton to resign, while some reports says he was already considering stepping down.
“We are profoundly disgusted that Junkyard Prophet was allowed to perform, and even more disturbed that school officials did not pull out the hook and yank these fanatics off of the stage,” said TWO’s Besen. “It is crucial that schools understand that religious zealots are actively searching for ways to infiltrate classrooms to indoctrinate youth with extremist messages. It is the responsibility of school administrators to stop the attacks on students as soon as they recognize that they are occurring. In this case, the school badly failed at the expense of the students’ mental health.”
Dean is also the founder of the Minnesota Christian organization You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has listed as an official hate group. Dean has called LGBT people predators and child molesters and caused a brouhaha when he gave the opening prayer in the Minnesota State House.
LGBT people were not the band’s only targets while at the event. Junkyard Prophet attacked Lady Gaga, Elton John, and women.
“They told my daughter, the girls, that they were going to have mud on their wedding dresses if they weren’t virgins,” one mother of a Dunkerton High School junior, told the Lacrosse Tribune. The girls were told to assume a submissive role in their household and remain “pure” until marriage, students said. The boys said they were shown images of musicians who died of drug overdoses and images of aborted fetuses. The Tribune reported that the school district is working to get back the $1,500 fee they paid Junkyard Prophet for the school event.
“Very rarely do such hate organizations stick to attacking one group or minority,” added TWO’s Communications Director John Becker. “They usually have a wide array of targets they dislike and aren’t shy about denigrating a number of people.”
It appears that the band’s assertion that gay men die at age 42 comes from the disgraced researcher Paul Cameron of the Family Research Institute, who was permanently expelled from the American Psychological Association and the Nebraska Psychological Association for peddling falsehoods about LGBT people.
Truth Wins Out is a nonprofit organization that fights anti-LGBT extremism. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.
Please e-mail superintendent Jim Stanton at express your disgust that a hate group was allowed to speak: jstanton@dunkerton.k12.ia.us
As our regular readers will know, the Southern Poverty Law Center released an expanded list of anti-gay hate groups earlier this week as a part of a wide-ranging report on the state of hate groups across America. The report found an alarming increase of nearly 60 percent in the number of active anti-gay hate groups between 2010 and 2011.
Organizations joining the ranks of SPLC-certified hate groups include Mission America, founded by Linda Harvey, whom TWO has dubbed “the most homophobic woman in America;” Public Advocate of the United States, headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia and headed by Eugene Delgaudio, whose anti-LGBT bigotry is so extreme that he refers to the Student Non-Discrimination Act – which would protect LGBT students against bullying and discrimination in public schools – as the “Homosexual Classrooms Act;” and Minnesota’s notorious You Can Run, But You Cannot Hide ministry, fronted by radically anti-gay pastor Bradlee Dean, a hair-metal rocker who travels to public schools across the country delivering vitriolic “faith-based” anti-gay lectures to teenagers.
The latest edition of the SPLC’s Intelligence Report also contains an authoritative article detailing the hate and misinformation coming from the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), an “ex-gay” junk science group. This group is headed by radical extremist Joseph Nicolosi, whose theories on sexual orientation are so bizarre that he actually believes Bozo the Clown can turn people gay. NARTH has become the primary source for the faulty research and scientific distortions used by the religious right to justify their continued opposition to LGBT equality at a time when public opinion is swinging dramatically in the other direction. TWO’s Wayne Besen told the SPLC’s Ryan Lenz, “There’s no other play in the playbook except going back to the fire and brimstone.”
Minnesotans should take special note of the newly-expanded list. The inclusion of Bradlee Dean’s You Can Run, But You Cannot Hide International as an anti-LGBT hate group is notable because of the close ties between Dean, his organization, and Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann. Before Dean dumped the notoriously anti-gay former presidential candidate for allegedly “going to the left,” she famously prayed for Dean’s traveling youth ministry to “multiply ten-fold,” helped the group raise funds, and made a guest appearance on Dean’s television show. Both Dean and Bachmann — whose husband’s Christian counseling clinic was busted for offering “pray away the gay” therapy last year by a Truth Wins Out hidden-camera investigation — are outspoken supporters of a proposed amendment that would write marriage discrimination into the Minnesota state constitution.
So-called “ex-gay” organizations have been at the forefront of the push for marriage discrimination in Minnesota, as documented in a recent report by Andy Birkey of the Minnesota Independent. Exodus International, the nation’s largest “ex-gay” umbrella group, has also decided to weigh in this summer, bringing its annual conference to St. Paul from June 27-30 – at exactly the same time that the debate over the proposed anti-gay amendment is expected to reach a fever pitch.
This is no coincidence. Truth Wins Out plans to be on the ground in Minnesota during Exodus’s road show, and we look forward to collaborating with local and state organizations to fight back against ‘ex-gay’ lies.
New List Includes Notorious “You Can Run, But You Cannot Hide” Ministry Run by Hate Pastor Bradlee Dean
BURLINGTON, Vt – Truth Wins Out applauded the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) today for releasing an expanded list of anti-gay hate groups earlier this week as a part of a wide-ranging report on the state of hate groups across America. The report found an alarming increase of nearly 60 percent in the number of active anti-gay hate groups between 2010 and 2011.
Organizations joining the ranks of SPLC-certified hate groups include Mission America, founded by Linda Harvey, whom TWO has dubbed “the most homophobic woman in America;” Public Advocate of the United States, headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia and headed by Eugene Delgaudio, whose anti-LGBT bigotry is so extreme that he refers to the Student Non-Discrimination Act – which would protect LGBT students against bullying and discrimination in public schools – as the “Homosexual Classrooms Act;” and Minnesota’s notorious You Can Run, But You Cannot Hide ministry, fronted by radically anti-gay pastor Bradlee Dean, a hair-metal rocker who travels to public schools across the country delivering vitriolic “faith-based” anti-gay lectures to teenagers.
“We commend the Southern Poverty Law Center for so vigilantly monitoring anti-LGBT hate in America,” said TWO Executive Director Wayne Besen. “Truth Wins Out also congratulates the eleven extremist organizations newly added to the list of officially-certified hate groups, because we know all too well how hard each of them has worked to earn this dubious designation.”
The latest edition of the SPLC’s Intelligence Report also contains an authoritative article detailing the hate and misinformation coming from the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), an “ex-gay” junk science group. This group is headed by radical extremist Joseph Nicolosi, whose theories on sexual orientation are so bizarre that he actually believes Bozo the Clown can turn people gay. NARTH has become the primary source for the faulty research and scientific distortions used by the religious right to justify their continued opposition to LGBT equality at a time when public opinion is swinging dramatically in the other direction. TWO’s Besen told the SPLC’s Ryan Lenz, “There’s no other play in the playbook except going back to the fire and brimstone.”
The inclusion of Bradlee Dean’s You Can Run, But You Cannot Hide International as an anti-LGBT hate group is notable because of the close ties between Dean, his organization, and Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann. Before Dean dumped the notoriously anti-gay former presidential candidate for allegedly “going to the left,” she famously prayed for Dean’s traveling youth ministry to “multiply ten-fold,” helped the group raise funds, and made a guest appearance on Dean’s television show. Both Dean and Bachmann — whose husband’s Christian counseling clinic was busted for offering “pray away the gay” therapy last year by a Truth Wins Out hidden-camera investigation — are outspoken supporters of a proposed amendment that would write marriage discrimination into the Minnesota state constitution.
“Minnesotans should take special note of the SPLC’s newly-expanded list,” said John Becker, TWO’s Director of Communications and Development, who went undercover at Bachmann & Associates last year. “Virulently anti-LGBT extremist groups like the one led by Bradlee Dean will never be satisfied with simply excluding loving same-sex couples from marriage. These hate groups won’t stop until LGBT people are beaten back into second-class status in every aspect of society.”
So-called “ex-gay” organizations have been at the forefront of the push for marriage discrimination in Minnesota, as documented in a recent report by Andy Birkey of the Minnesota Independent. Exodus International, the nation’s largest “ex-gay” umbrella group, has also decided to weigh in this summer, bringing its annual conference to St. Paul from June 27-30 – at exactly the same time that the debate over the proposed anti-gay amendment is expected to reach a fever pitch. “This is no coincidence,” said TWO’s Becker. “Truth Wins Out plans to be on the ground in Minnesota during Exodus’s road show, and we look forward to collaborating with local and state organizations to fight back against ‘ex-gay’ lies.”
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.
Ace reporter Andy Birkey has pursued anti-gay extremists in Minnesota — from the Bachmanns and Janet Boynes to Bradlee Dean and the Catholic bishops — more doggedly than perhaps any other journalist in that state; with a marriage discrimination amendment on the ballot there in November, he’s had his hands full.
In his latest article for the American Independent, Birkey reveals that the “ex-gay” movement is working furiously to pass the amendment in the North Star State, and that a disturbing number of other marriage discrimination proponents have embraced the “ex-gay” myth.
Birkey asked me to comment on the deep ties between the “ex-gay” movement and Minnesota’s anti-marriage equality push on behalf of Truth Wins Out:
Last year, John Becker of Truth Wins Out, an organization formed to confront the “Love Won Out” conferences as well as the broader “ex-gay industry,” went undercover in the Bachmann family counseling clinic and found that the clinic conducted “ex-gay therapy.”
That information sparked protests and an unflattering news cycle for Bachmann, who was a presidential contender at the time.
Becker told The American Independent that the endorsement of this type of therapy by every major backer of the marriage amendment “should send shivers up the spine of every fair-minded Minnesotan.”
“Amendment backers claim to want a ‘respectful debate’ about marriage equality, yet they gravely disrespect their fellow Minnesotans by aligning themselves with the ‘pray away the gay’ fraud,” he sad.
He said that the therapy is dangerous.
“This depraved form of ‘therapy’ has been rejected by literally every single mainstream organization of medical and mental health professionals because studies have shown that it doesn’t work and actually increases anxiety, depression, and suicide in patients,” he said.
He added that the fact that so many proponents of the anti-gay-marriage amendment have also supported the “ex-gay” movement shows that the motives behind the amendment are not solely about banning same-sex marriage.
“By embracing the myth that sexual orientation can be changed, amendment proponents are showing their true colors,” he said. “The endgame isn’t simply the exclusion of loving same-sex couples from marriage. They won’t stop until LGBT people are relegated to second-class status in every aspect of society.”
Presidential candidate Sen. Rick Santorum appeared Saturday on the radio show of Minnesota “kill the gays” youth preacher Bradlee Dean to endorse so-called sodomy laws, which would imprison all LGBT Americans while sparing millions of misbehaved heterosexuals.
Santorum pointed to the landmark case, Lawrence v. Texas, where the U.S. Supreme Court overturned sodomy laws that were used to imprison gays and lesbians.
“And I stood up from the very beginning back in 2003 when the Supreme Court was going create a constitutional right to sodomy and said this is wrong we can’t do this,” Santorum said. ”And so I stood up when no one else did and got hammered for it. I stood up and I continue to stand up.”
Santorum added, “I do not believe that sexual orientation should be added to hate crimes, but let me be honest, I don’t believe in hate crimes, period.” (Full audio.)
Like Santorum and Dean, Exodus International leaders including Minnesota activist Janet Boynes effectively contend that violence targeting specific minorities should be punished more leniently, if at all.
What a whiner. If you’ll remember, the other day, hate-filled pastor Bradlee Dean was invited to give the opening prayer in the Minnesota legislature. Dean, of course, is one of the most unhinged anti-gay wingnuts in the country, having asserted [among other things] that Islamic nations that put gays to death are more moral than the United States, for that reason. The outrage came immediately after his bigoted prayer, which excluded people of all faiths other than Christianity, and insinuated that President Obama isn’t a Christian. There was a do-over, an outraged Democratic representative who took to the floor immediately, and a tail-between-the-legs reaction from the Republican House Speaker.
So Bradlee Dean decided to take to the radio and his website and cry, cry, cry. Here’s what he said on his website:
“If Speaker Zellers does not stand for the Constitution, our veterans, the Founding Forefathers and the Christian God to whom he swears by an oath to uphold these very things, then I would say Mr. Zellers is not fit to be the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Minnesota,” Dean wrote on his website Friday. “Today Speaker Zellers exemplified a point I have made many times over in past years. When a little heat comes for taking a stand, diplomatic people immediately bend to the opposition. They fall all over themselves to apologize for something that they claim to stand for when speaking to their constituents. But when it comes to actually putting what they said into practice, they denounce the Constitution’s laws and the people’s principles who voted them in. How hypocritical.”
Right, whatever. Then he whined on the radio:
Dean then devoted his entire two-hour radio program to the prayer flap. He denied mentioning President Obama and compared himself to Martin Luther.
“I went into them chambers with total respect,” Dean told his listeners. “I feel like Martin Luther, innocently nailing the 95 theses on the wall, and I’m not even Catholic.”
“I didn’t say we weren’t a Christian nation, Obama did,” Dean said. “If you want to point the finger at someone denying Christianity in our country, you might want to talk to Obama about it, because I didn’t say it.”
No, Bradlee, dearheart, you didn’t say we weren’t a Christian nation. That is not even what people are accusing you of. So either you are too dumb to understand the English language when it is directed at you, or you’re lying and creating a strawman since you can’t fight against what you actually did say. It’s one of the two, or possibly a combination of the two.
For their part, members of the DFL party issued a statement protesting the decision to invite such an unhinged bigot to participate in such an honored tradition, and Andy Birkey’s got that posted if you want to read it.
To refresh everyone’s memories, Bradlee Dean is the crazy hate pastor in Minnesota, a close associate of Michele Bachmann’s, who believes that supporting gay rights will bring shari’a law to the United States, who has stated that Muslim countries who put gays to death are more moral than American Christians, and who has asserted that gay men molest around 117 kids before they are caught. He has been supported by the extremist Tom Emmer, who ran for governor of Minnesota last year and was the primary reason for the Target boycott. Really an unhinged, hateful human being.
So it was a bit disgusting to see that Bradlee Dean was invited to give the opening prayer in the Minnesota legislature this morning:
Classy tracksuit. After the prayer was over, the session stopped and restarted because people were so offended by Dean’s words, which sought to exclude people of different faiths, which suggested that the President is not Christian, and was just generally hateful.
At least one Democrat, Representative Terry Morrow, was outraged enough to stand up and speak about it right then and there:
Indeed, something went very wrong in the Minnesota legislature today, for a figure such as Bradlee Dean to be allowed such an honor. For more of his hateful rhetoric, the Minnesota Independent has a good round-up.
I placed a call to find out who was responsible for Bradlee Dean’s invitation, but haven’t heard back yet, but I’ll update when I find out.
I do not know what this means, but I find it gross just the same. Joe explains:
Maryland-based carpetbagger Bishop Harry Jackson appeared on the radio show of Minnesota hate preacher Bradlee Dean to declare that gay marriage is part of Satan’s plot to “destroy our seed.”
I had no idea wingnut seed was so weak, the motility so pathetically low, that the nice gay couple down the street sealing the deal legally would kill it.
Presidential candidate Sen. Rick Santorum appeared Saturday on the radio show of Minnesota “kill the gays” youth preacher 
