Kirsten at Wonkette reported on this uncomfortable situation yesterday. Mitt Romney was doing this Man Of The People thing, talking to people in a New Hampshire diner. When he saw a man wearing a Vietnam Vets cap, he figured he was safe, so he started a conversation. It did not go well:
“Vietnam veteran!” Romney greeted Bob Garon.
“I have a question for you,” Garon told the former Massachusetts governor. “New Hampshire right now has some legislation kicking around about a repeal for the same-sex marriage. And all I need is a yes or a no. Do you support the repeal?”
“I support the repeal of the New Hampshire law,” Romney said. “I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. That’s my view.”
Garon, who lives in Epsom, N.H., and was eating breakfast with his husband, turned to Romney and said: “If two men get married, apparently a veteran’s spouse would not be entitled to any burial benefits or medical benefits or anything that the serviceman has devoted his time and effort to his country, and you just don’t support equality in terms of same-sex marriage?”
“I believe that marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman,” Romney replied, adding, “and we apparently disagree.”
At that, a Romney aide called for him to wrap up the conversation: “Governor, we’ve got to get on with Fox News right now.”
“Oh, I guess the question was too hot,” Garon told Romney.
“No, I gave you the answer,” Romney replied. “You said you had a yes-or-no [question]. I gave you the answer.”
“You did,” Garon said. “And I appreciate your answer. And you know, I also learned something, and New Hampshire is right: You have to look a man in the eye to get a good answer. And you know what, governor? Good luck…. You’re going to need it.”
“You are right about that,” Romney said, as he stood up from the booth and headed into a side room for his interview.
OUCH! Garon later said that he could tell by looking into Romney’s eyes that he was not to be trusted. Wonkette’s Kirsten added, “Uh, admitting that you are a weird loser is not exactly how apologies work, Mittens. Pretending to be human is such hard work!”
Of course, there is video:
And then MSNBC interviewed the gay veteran who embarrassed Mittens as well:
When people like Bob Garon can loudly make the case for LGBT equality in public, is there any question whether or not we’ve won this stupid “culture war?”
Truth Wins Out has created a petition to demand that Marcus Bachmann immediately end his harassment of our organization:
Marcus Bachmann, the husband of presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, has launched a petty and vindictive campaign to personally harass Truth Wins Out. He is upset that in July TWO exposed his clinic for practicing “ex-gay” therapy. Prior to this disclosure, Bachmann lied to the American people and denied that his office engaged in these backwards and barbaric techniques. The revelation rocked Michele Bachmann’s campaign and became her first major roadblock.
Now that the campaign is foundering, she and Marcus are looking for scapegoats – and have settled on Truth Wins Out. They are spitefully taking aim at TWO’s John Becker, trying to punish him because he went undercover and gathered video evidence of “ex-gay” therapy at the clinic.
Like the bullies they are, Bachmann & Associates is illegally demanding that Becker pay $150 for appointments that he had canceled in accordance with the clinic’s guidelines. Amazingly, Marcus Bachmann personally called Becker this week threatening to send the bogus bill to collections if it was not paid by Friday. Truth Wins Out retained the services of an attorney and steadfastly refuses to be intimidated or pay the fake bill.
Clearly, Marcus Bachmann is angry with Truth Wins Out for exposing his clinic’s fraudulent practices, and is engaging in malicious and vindictive strong-arming for the sole purpose of defaming and discrediting TWO and John Becker.
Stand with us today — demand that Marcus Bachmann end these spiteful and malicious pursuits immediately and stop harming clients with discredited and harmful “ex-gay” therapy.
The Frothy Mix, néeSantorum, had an exchange with a lesbian documentary filmmaker named Kristina Lapinski, and this is what happened:
After the debate was over, Lapinski walked up to the stage and mingled with the candidates. Placing her arm across Santorum’s shoulder for a picture, Lapinski told him that she was the one who had asked the same-sex marriage question, and she followed: “What would you do if I was your daughter?”
Santorum smiled, “I would love you!”
“Would you want me to get married and have a family?” asked Lapinski.
“Only if it were with a man.”
“But I am not attracted to men,” Lapinski retorted.
“But it is your choice,” Santorum insisted.
“Rick, it is not my choice!” Lapinski argued.
He continued with great authority: “Like anything in life, it is a choice. You may feel this is the way that it is supposed to be; you make decisions in life, and you choose what is right.”
He is truly the stupidest person in the public eye right now, and I’m including reality television in that equation.
Newt Gingrich also regurgitated tired talking points for Lapinski, and if you’d like to see that, you can click the above clicky.
TWO Demands That Bachmann Stops Petty and Vindictive Threats Over $150 Fraudulent ‘Therapy’ Bill
Burlington, Vt – Truth Wins Out expressed surprise today that Marcus Bachmann personally called the organization demanding $150 for cancelled July sessions of “ex-gay” therapy with a counselor at his office. He threatened that if TWO did not pay him by Friday he would turn the phony bill over to a collection agency.
In July, Truth Wins Out went undercover and exposed Bachmann & Associates for practicing a form of discredited “pray away the gay” therapy. The revelation rocked Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign. After TWO’s John Becker, who went undercover, had enough videotape evidence to prove that “ex-gay” therapy occurred at Bachmann’s clinic, he called the clinic and cancelled his remaining appointments. Despite widespread circulation of TWO’s video footage, Marcus denied the therapy had taken place.
“I cancelled my remaining appointments in compliance with Bachmann & Associates’ stated procedure,” said John Becker, TWO’s Director of Communications and Development, “yet Marcus Bachmann himself called me and threatened to send the fraudulent $150 ‘bill’ to a collection agency by Friday. I find it odd that Bachmann handled this matter personally rather than through his billing department. This is certainly an unorthodox way of doing business, much like the unethical ‘ex-gay’ therapy offered at his clinic.”
“We call on Marcus Bachmann to immediately stop his petty and vindictive campaign of harassment and threats against our organization,” said TWO’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “Perhaps, now that Michele’s campaign is foundering, the Bachmanns are frustrated and looking for scapegoats to explain her failure. Truth Wins Out refuses to be intimidated or blackmailed by Bachmann. This bogus bill will not be paid.”
Becker was surprised when he received a voicemail from Bachmann on Monday demanding payment for cancelled sessions which never took place. On Tuesday, he returned Bachmann’s call and spoke with him for nearly seven minutes in the presence of a reporter from the local ABC/FOX affiliate in Burlington. The video of the tense exchange can be viewed at Truth Wins Out’s website.
“We saw firsthand that the ‘ex-gay’ therapy practiced by Bachmann & Associates is unethical and unhealthy for clients,” said Becker. “What goes on in that clinic is rejected by every respected medical and mental health organization in America.”
Truth Wins Out is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to create a world where LGBT individuals can live openly, honestly and true to themselves. TWO fights anti-LGBT religious extremism, monitors anti-LGBT organizations, documents their lies and exposes their leaders. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.
Contact: Wayne Besen, Executive Director
Phone: 917-691-5118
E-Mail: wbesen@truthwinsout.org
Contact: John Becker, Director of Communications & Development
Phone: 920-265-6023
E-mail: john@truthwinsout.org
Since you’re all anxiously awaiting the report of John Becker’s exciting chit-chat session with Marcus Bachmann this afternoon, here is Michele’s new campaign ad, where she basically says everybody else sucks, she is awesome, the end.
Michele: the word is spelled “dependents.” By the way. Just trying to help.
UPDATE: 11/15/11, 3:30pm — I just finished a nearly seven-minute telephone conversation with Marcus Bachmann. A member of the media was there, and a video report will be forthcoming. It will be posted as soon as it becomes available.
Yesterday afternoon I was in a meeting and, of course, had my phone off. After the meeting concluded, I checked my phone and saw that I missed a call from a number I didn’t recognize. Since the mystery caller left a voicemail, I checked it, and my jaw nearly hit the floor when I found out that the mystery caller was, in fact, Marcus Bachmann.
Bachmann was calling in an attempt to collect $150 in no-show fees from two “pray away the gay” appointments I canceled after going through five such sessions with a therapist at his clinic back in June.
Before patients at Bachmann & Associates start services, they’re required to sign a paper acknowledging that they’ve been made aware of the clinic’s no-show policy. According to said policy, patients are assessed a $75 no-show fee for each appointment that they miss without giving prior notification. I always booked the maximum number of appointments in advance that I could (3) in order to avoid suspicion — after all, it was to be a 4-6 month course of treatment — so when I went back to Vermont, I called the clinic to cancel them. However, I didn’t want to give them any kind of a heads up about the story that was about to break in the media, so I said that a member of my immediate family “back home in Wisconsin” (they had seen and photocopied my Wisconsin ID) had had a health crisis, and that I needed to go out of state but didn’t know when I’d be back. On the voicemail I left at the clinic, I told them to cancel all three of my appointments and that I’d schedule my next sessions when I knew when I’d be back in the Twin Cities.
Apparently, instead of cancelling all three appointments as per my request, the receptionist or whomever had the job of fielding voice messages only canceled the first appointment, because two months after the story broke I started receiving bills for $150 (two no-show fees) from Bachmann & Associates. I wasn’t about to have Truth Wins Out fork over another $150 for the clinic’s error, so on November 2nd I called them and very politely contested the fee. Neither the receptionist nor the billing representative with whom I spoke had any idea who I was. The billing representative merely told me that once the fees had been assessed they could only be waived at the therapist’s discretion, so she’d send a message to Timothy Wiertzema asking whether he’d be willing to waive them. She assured me that if Timothy hadn’t personally called me back by the end of the week, I could safely assume he’d agreed to waive the fees.
The rest of the week came and went without any further contact with anyone from Bachmann & Associates, so I assumed the matter was settled. Timothy must have deferred any decision on the matter to Marcus himself, as the following message was left on my phone:
Hello John Becker, this is Doctor Marcus Bachmann (emphasis his); I received a message from our billing department asking if we would write off the two no-show fees for 7/7/11 and 7/12/11. We will not (emphasis his) be writing those off, so you do owe those no-show fees, and we would expect payment as soon as possible, otherwise we will have to turn it over to collections. If you have any questions you can call (651) 379-0444. Thank you.
(NOTE: The phone number Marcus Bachmann provided is the publicly listed phone number for the Bachmann & Associates Lake Elmo office. Were it not publicly available, we would not have included it.)
Either Marcus Bachmann has a lot more time to personally attend to his underlings’ business matters now that his wife’s presidential campaign has tanked, or Truth Wins Out’s undercover investigation remains a very personal issue for him nearly five months later. I’ll be calling Dr. Bachmann back later today. Stay tuned!
Jon Stewart at his absolute best. He goes through every candidate and exactly how stupid/awful they are, zeroing in on Rick Perry. And yes, he calls the Republican primaries for Mitt Romney, and I agree wholeheartedly:
You must not miss the second part of this. Seriously.
As Brian at Right Wing Watch says, “when even Pat Robertson thinks the Republican Party has shifted too far to the right, you know there is a problem.” Mind you, Pat’s not saying he necessarily disagrees with the far right platforms of the GOP candidates, but he’s looking at it from a strategic perspective and at least is aware that the majority of the American public just isn’t in line with far right Republican values. Here is Pat saying, in essence, that if the 2012 Republican candidates don’t stop being such freakish wingnuts, that they will all lose to Barack Obama, a million times.
TWO Exclusive Investigative Report by John M. Becker
The date was Thursday, June 30, 2011. I turned on the television and listened half-heartedly to the commercials as I busied about doing other things. All of a sudden I heard a voice saying, “Over the past few days, NBC News has learned how Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann and her family have benefited from the very government programs she denounces.”
At the mention of Bachmann’s name I stopped what I was doing and looked up. The speaker was the Rev. Al Sharpton, who was guest hosting The Ed Show. Rev. Sharpton continued talking about the counseling clinic run by Bachmann’s husband: “As the Minnesota Independent reports, the clinic has been previously accused of engaging in reparative therapy, or treatment aimed at changing one’s sexual orientation. Dr. Marcus Bachmann denies this…”
I chuckled when Rev. Sharpton said this. He won’t be able to deny it for much longer, I thought. After all, I was watching this broadcast from a basement in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, having spent the previous eight days undercover in the Twin Cities receiving reparative therapy sessions at Marcus Bachmann’s clinic.
The organization I work for, Truth Wins Out (TWO), fights anti-LGBT religious extremism and the “ex-gay” myth. We’d been receiving questions about the Bachmann clinic and reparative therapy for months, and they only grew more intense after the June 13 GOP presidential debate in New Hampshire. Like everyone else, we were aware of the rumors and that no one had yet been able to independently verify them. TWO Executive Director Wayne Besen decided that we were going to obtain that verification: I was to go undercover to Bachmann & Associates in Lake Elmo, MN posing as someone seeking counseling for homosexuality, schedule as many appointments as I could, and document what went on during my appointments with hidden cameras.
When I called Bachmann & Associates to schedule my initial appointment, I told the receptionist who answered the phone that I was struggling with homosexuality. She referred me to Timothy Wiertzema, a counselor at the clinic, and scheduled me for a June 23 appointment.
I decided that the wisest course of action was to make my story fit as closely as possible to my own experience. Of course I’d have to embellish a bit and make a few things up, but it stood to reason that the closer the story I told was to the truth, the easier it would be for me to keep track of what I had said. After all, I was once a deeply-closeted teenage Catholic boy awakening to my own sexual orientation, terrified of what it might mean, too ashamed to tell anyone, and desperate to change it by any means necessary; although those memories are now far behind me, it was surprisingly easy to bring them back and put myself in a similar mental and emotional place. Still, I’d never done anything like this before. As the date of my departure grew nearer, my excitement and nervousness mounted. Could I pull it off? Would the cameras be well-hidden enough? Would they figure out what I was up to? What would we find? I packed my bags, made my social network profiles unsearchable, bid adieu to Michael, my husband of more than five years, and boarded a flight to Minneapolis to find out.
Preparing for my first visit was a surreal experience. I couldn’t pay by check since my checks had my name, my husband’s name, and a Vermont address. This meant I would be paying with cash and opening my wallet before each appointment, so I realized I’d have to go through my wallet and remove or hide anything that would invite suspicion. My Human Rights Campaign credit card had to go, lest anyone recognize that organization’s ubiquitous logo. I left our ACLU membership card behind as well. I also hid my out-of-state debit card and library card, and took the photo of Michael and me out of my wallet along with the copy of our marriage certificate that I always keep close. Despite the hot and humid Minnesota weather, I wore long pants to conceal a tattoo on my ankle of a pink triangle, the badge of gay prisoners in Nazi concentration camps and a symbol of the struggle for LGBT equality. At the last minute, in the parking lot, I remembered that Michael’s picture was set as the background image on my phone, so I hurriedly changed it. Finally, I took a deep breath and slipped off my wedding ring, placing it in a plastic bag inside my satchel, right next to one of the hidden cameras. My identity as a proud, openly gay, happily married LGBT rights activist was totally erased. I was ready.
The first session was introductory in nature. Wiertzema introduced himself as a licensed marriage and family therapist who enjoys working with men, adolescents, kids, and married couples. I spoke briefly about my experience and education in music, talked about my recent (fictitious) move to the Twin Cities from my home state of Wisconsin, and answered Wiertzema’s detailed questions about my personal and family medical history, significant life events, religious background, etc. When asked why I came in for counseling, I said that I had been struggling with homosexuality for a long time and tried a lot of things, up to and including suicide, to make it go away – exactly how my 16-year-old self would have responded. I said that I was upset: this struggle has lasted for so long that I started to wonder if I was doing it right and decided to seek outside help. All of my sexual experiences, from age 14 onward, had been with men. What I wanted, though, was to get rid of my homosexuality and eventually marry a woman. Wiertzema asked if I had a support system, anyone who I could talk to about this. My response was that I hadn’t spoken with anyone. We only had time to briefly touch on my first sexual experience before the session ended.
I felt strangely relieved as I walked to my car that evening. I was totally emotionally spent – inhabiting and conveying the role of a troubled, self-loathing man looking to change his sexual orientation was exhausting, and I missed Michael terribly – but at least I knew I could do it.
At the start of our second session I went straight to the point: what could I do? Would I ever be able to be completely rid of homosexuality, or merely learn to cope with and manage it? Wiertzema’s response was that it’s situational. Some people have been able to get rid of it completely over a long time period, others over a shorter time period. Still others are able to get it to “subside,” down to a “manageable” level, but it’s still there in the background. He asked me, “Are you okay with knowing that it might take awhile, and that it might not… maybe not happen at all? …Obviously, it’s not okay, in a way, but…” I said that I wanted to give it a go, that it was better to try than to not try.
Interestingly, this exchange was the only time during all of my sessions at Bachmann & Associates that Wiertzema or anyone else ever brought up the risk of this treatment failing. In later sessions he would say that he “…think[s] it’s possible to be totally free of [same-sex attraction]. For sure.” and that “It’s happened! It really has happened to people.” I was never told that every professional medical and mental health association rejects “ex-gay” therapy including the American Medical Association, American PsychologicalAssociation, American Psychiatric Association, and the American Counseling Association, or that the treatment I was seeking was totally unsupported by research. I was never informed about possible alternative treatment options such as gay-affirmative therapy. Nobody ever told me about the potential for harmful side effects like depression and suicidal thoughts. And although I was asked to sign a treatment plan outlining my problem, desired outcome, and treatment strategy, I was never given nor asked to sign any kind of informed consent document that disclosed the above information about “ex-gay” therapy. As such, I believe Bachmann & Associates to be practicing unethically, even by the standards of the American Association of Christian Counselors. This is particularly disconcerting given the fact that Marcus Bachmann’s clinic has received significant funding from the State of Minnesota and the federal government.
In the second session, Wiertzema also began what amounted to an extended fishing expedition to find a “cause” for my homosexuality, asking me if I had experienced any physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. In later sessions we would turn again and again to my first sexual experience at age 14. He also insinuated that “there’s maybe a feminine sort of tie” between my self-consciousness about my high speaking voice and my sexuality concerns and that I had somehow conditioned myself to respond sexually to male stimuli by masturbating to gay pornography. After I mentioned a (fictitious) memory of discovering a hidden stash of male pornographic images in the bedroom of a friend’s older sibling, he said that this experience “obviously… had at least a little bit of a part” in the development of my homosexuality and asked, “What if you would have saw [sic] female pornography [instead]? Maybe you would be talking to me right now about your addiction to lust.”
Despite the fact that I never once mentioned having insecurities surrounding my own masculinity, Wiertzema took it upon himself to reassure me in our fifth session that “…because you have feelings of homosexuality, [it] doesn’t mean you don’t have masculinity. I’m just gonna go ahead and say that.” I was encouraged to further develop my own sense of masculinity and my personal definition of what it meant to be a man. When I mentioned that I can objectively acknowledge a woman’s beauty without having any sexual feelings toward her whatsoever, I was told that whenever I saw an attractive woman I just needed to reinforce in my mind that she was, indeed, attractive, and that God made her this way and made me to notice her. After all, “God designed our eyes to be attracted to the woman’s body, to be attracted to everything, to be attracted to her breasts.” Further, according to Wiertzema, “We’re all heterosexuals, but we have different challenges.” Attraction to the same sex “is there, and it’s real, but at the core value, in terms of how God created us, we’re all heterosexual.”
This faulty reasoning parroted the words of Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, the co-founder of the “ex-gay” organization known as the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH): “There is no such thing as a homosexual, just heterosexuals with a homosexual problem.”
Here are a few more highlights from my therapy sessions at Bachmann & Associates:
I was advised to find a heterosexual “accountability buddy” as I struggled to increase my attraction to women and decrease my attraction to men. I was to confide in, pray with, and be held accountable to this person.
Bachmann & Associates sells a book written by Twin Cities minister and self-proclaimed “ex-lesbian” Janet Boynes. This book chronicles her supposed journey “out of the lesbian lifestyle.” Next to the stack of books was a prominently-displayed, typewritten note that read, “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.”
I pretended to have just told my brother that I was seeking counseling to help me deal with homosexuality. My brother’s (fictitious) response was that I should just come out, because a person can be happy and gay and still go to heaven. My therapist said that my brother “didn’t choose his words wisely.”
I mentioned Marcus Bachmann’s by then well-publicized remarks calling gays “barbarians” who “need to be educated.” “Am I a barbarian?” I said through tears. Rather than contradict his boss’ words, Wiertzema opted to doubt the authenticity of the recording I had heard: “It sounds like… something that someone just did. It doesn’t sound accurate.”
Several sessions after asking for information about “ex-gay”-friendly churches, programs, and support groups, Wiertzema passed along a colleague’s referral to Outpost Ministries, a Robbinsdale, MN-based “founding member ministry” of the discredited “ex-gay” group Exodus International.
I mentioned the marriage equality ruling in New York and the possibility that some of my close gay friends might now get married. When I asked him for advice on whether or not I should attend any future same-sex weddings, he acknowledged that it was a tough and highly personal decision, but if he were in my situation he wouldn’t go – at least not without a heterosexual accountability buddy in tow. When I expressed concern for the well-being of my gay, soon-to-be-married friends’ eternal souls and asked if they could go to heaven, Wiertzema reassured me that indeed they could, “if they repent before the Lord and are right with God, later on.” When I sought clarification as to whether or not he meant they would need to turn away from homosexuality first, he responded in the affirmative.
Based on my experiences at Bachmann & Associates, there can no longer be any doubt that Marcus Bachmann’s state- and federally-funded clinic endorses and practices reparative therapy aimed at changing a gay person’s sexual orientation, despite the fact that such “therapy” is widely discredited by the scientific and medical communities. It’s time for Michele and Marcus Bachmann to stop denying, dodging, and stonewalling. They owe it to all Americans to provide a full and honest explanation for their embrace of these dangerous and fraudulent practices.
Here’s your round-up: There was an atrocious election, as Americans went to the polls and loudly shouted, “We are confused and angry about being confused and angry, and also, we have the collective memories of goldfish! USA! USA! USA!” There are a few silver linings though. The end.
Dismayed by the fact that over the past 24 months they have not experienced the immediate short-term personal gain they had hoped for, Americans went to the polls Tuesday and, for the 112th consecutive time, elected the candidates they deserve.
Some other things happened, we are sure, so scroll and click on things if you’re not caught up yet. Done? Okay, good.
Remember, if you’re in Philadelphia tomorrow, Truth Wins Out will be Lifting Its Luggage in protest at the NARTH convention. A good time will be had by all.
For music this week, I’m starting with an old classic from the Pretenders. Just ’cause. Chrissie Hynde rocks my face. And the way the second verse of “I’ll Stand By You” suddenly modulates down from D Major into C Major, and then back into D for the chorus, is nothing short of brilliant, as sonic painting goes. So, Pretenders, shuffle, first ten songs that come up at random, more videos after the jump, The End.
1. The Dandy Warhols – “I Am Sound”
2. Robert Shaw Festival Singers, cond. by Robert Shaw – “I Will Arise”
3. The Killers – “On Top”
4. Culture Club – “Karma Chameleon”
5. Jason Mraz – “The Dynamo of Volition”
6. Bright Eyes – “You Will. You?Will. You? Will. You?Will.”
7. The Antlers – “Sylvia”
8. Bonnie Raitt – “Feeling of Falling”
9. Beyoncé – “Disappear”
10. Les Miserables – Original Broadway Cast Recording – “Look Down”
Marcus Bachmann, the husband of presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, has launched a petty and vindictive campaign to personally harass Truth Wins Out. He is upset that in July TWO exposed his clinic for practicing “ex-gay” therapy. Prior to this disclosure, Bachmann lied to the American people and denied that his office engaged in these backwards and barbaric techniques. The revelation rocked Michele Bachmann’s campaign and became her first major roadblock.
X affiliate in Burlington. The video of the tense exchange can be viewed at Truth Wins Out’s website.
UPDATE: 11/15/11, 3:30pm — I just finished a nearly seven-minute telephone conversation with Marcus Bachmann. A member of the media was there, and a video report will be forthcoming. It will be posted as soon as it becomes available.
The date was Thursday, June 30, 2011. I turned on the television and listened half-heartedly to the commercials as I busied about doing other things. All of a sudden I heard a voice saying, “Over the past few days, NBC News has learned how Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann and her family have benefited from the very government programs she denounces.”
