I’m glad to see Smid telling the truth. Chris Matthews has been a major ally on our issues and uses his platform in a very positive way. As always, Michelle Goldberg of The Daily Beast was eloquent and knowledgeable.

Therapist Warren Throckmorton, Ph.D. examines the Christian Right Dominionists and what they would do to gays if U.S. law allowed it. Dominionists, remember, have ties to Michelle Bachmann, Rick Perry, and many other powerful people and organizations in the United States. They want a theocracy and they are working hard to get it. They are to be taken seriously.

[h/t Ex-Gay Watch]

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.

Truth Wins Out Executive Director appeared on MSNBC news with Thomas Roberts to  discuss our operation exposing Bachmann & Associates for practicing “ex-gay” therapy.

TWO’s Wayne Besen  and John Becker appeared on Sirius Satellite radio’s Michelangelo Signorile show. It was guest hosted by legendary activist and good friend Mike Rogers.

TWO’s Becker appeared as a guest on The Ed Schultz show and Live with Al Sharpton on MSNBC.

TWO’s Evan Hurst appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews.

Weekly Column

Last week, I pointed out the absurdity of conservative evangelical minister Franklin Graham’s words of support for Donald Trump, whose only form of worship has been for casinos, trophy wives, and his own reflection in the mirror. I also highlighted the peculiar phenomenon of so-called values voters supporting thrice-married serial adulterer Newt Gingrich.

This week’s example of conservative hypocrisy, however, is priceless. Obsessively anti-gay congresswoman and presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) reportedly embraced the stars of television hit Glee at a Time magazine gala that took place in New York City’s Lincoln Center.

At this ritzy event, Bachmann and her husband excitedly posed with Glee star Darren Criss and e-mailed the pictures to their children. “We looked for Chris Colfer,” Bachmann said of the gay Glee star, but they didn’t find him. “We don’t watch TV, generally speaking. But the kids were thrilled. What kids don’t watch Glee?”

I am absolutely dumbstruck that Michele Bachmann was star-struck over meeting actors who perform in arguably the gayest show in television history. Glee is so gay that Fox 26 in Houston (KRIV) hosted an idiotic and bigoted show titled, “Is TV Too Gay?”, which focused on an episode where the cast performed a campy show tune remake of Lady Gaga’s song “Born This Way.”

Bachmann’s desire to pose and preen with Darren Criss and Chris Colfer is incomprehensible and clearly incompatible with her homophobic career. It is the equivalent of me scouting out Pat Robertson at a cocktail party because my family loves the 700 Club. What next? Are we going to find that the Bachmann family’s favorite singer is Lance Bass and preferred movie is Brokeback Mountain?”

This revelation raises serious questions about Bachmann’s sincerity and makes one wonder if her talk of conservative values is just a marketing gimmick to get votes. Is she truly a fundamentalist or a “fake-a-mentalist” whose anti-gay public persona is simply a hick shtick to appeal to rural Republican voters?

Maybe Bachmann is confused and thinks there are different kinds of gays – the bad ones who sodomize and the goody-goody Glee type that harmonize. Or maybe she just doesn’t own the required Focus on the Family handbook which encourages parents to actually know what their children watch on TV.

Whatever her excuse, it is clear that her family’s love for Glee has not led to Bachmann backing off her gay bashing. In April, the congresswoman gave a speech in Iowa to The Family Leader, an anti-gay organization. Here is what she had to say:

“In 5,000 years of recorded human history… neither in the east or in the west… has any society ever defined marriage as anything other than between men and women. Not one in 5,000 years of recorded human history. That’s an astounding fact and it isn’t until the last 12 years or so that we have seen for the first time in recorded human history marriage defined as anything other than between men and between women.”

The Bachmanns acting giddy over Glee would be rather amusing if it weren’t for her ugly anti-gay rhetoric and the insidious legacy she has left in Minnesota. On Monday, a Minnesota State House committee voted 10-7 to advance a constitutional amendment that would prohibit same-sex couples from marrying. Last week, a Minnesota State Senate Committee approved a similar version of the amendment.

Instead of placing her mug in a photo frame with imaginary TV gays from Hollywood, why doesn’t Bachmann stop the rhetorical and legislative mugging of real LGBT people? Perhaps she can take a moment off of the presidential and cocktail circuit to listen to the wisdom of State Rep. Steve Simon (D) who testified against the discriminatory amendment: “How many more gay people does God have to create before we accept that God actually wants them around?”

In her quest to hobnob with Glee’s stars, Bachmann apparently missed the show’s central message – which is love and unconditional acceptance for all, including LGBT people. It is also ironic that Bachmann would cozy up to actors starring in a television series where the homophobes, like her, are the villains.

Much like the stars of Glee, Bachman lives in front of television cameras in a make-believe fantasy world (She actually thinks she can be president). The difference is, once the lights go down, the set is dismantled, and the actors go home – Bachmann has equal rights and people just like the characters she gleefully poses with are second-class citizens.

Minnesota Republican Rep. Michelle Bachmann loves controversy and is a regular on cable news. The New York Times reports, however, that she is severely and habitually truth challenged and has trouble separating fact from fiction.

Bachmann is a fan of conspiracy theories, such as this doosie reported in the Times article:

And in April, Ms. Bachmann told an interviewer that she found it interesting that “it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president, Jimmy Carter.” She added, “And I’m not blaming this on President Carter; I just think it’ an interesting coincidence.”

As it happens, the scare of the 1970s came in 1976, PolitiFact found. Gerald Ford, a Republican, was president.

Needless to say, when you are as nutty as Bachmann, you are probably anti-gay. According to the congresswoman.

“If you’re involved in the gay and lesbian lifestyle, it’ bondage. It is personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement.”

Yes, entering relationships that are emotionally, physically and spiritually satisfying is “bondage”. While marrying someone out of convenience or religious guilt is “healthy” for both partners. Typical Bachmann “logic”. Interesting how this dishonest Bible-thumper never brings up the “false witness” section of the Good Book.

Bachmann also believes GLBT relationships are are larger problem than a failed health care system, an absence of new jobs and even terrorism. On March 20, 2004, Bachmann said on a KKMS-AM radio program, “Prophetic Views Behind The News”:

[Same-sex marriage] is probably the biggest issue that will impact our state and our nation in the last, at least, thirty years. I am not understating that.”

Bachmann is also an End Times enthusiast, saying on the same KKMS program:

“We’re in a state of crisis where our nation is literally ripping apart at the seams right now, and lawlessness is occurring from one ocean to the other. And we’re seeing the fulfillment of the Book of Judges here in our own time, where every man doing that which is right in his own eyes‚Äîin other words, anarchy.”

I suggest that everyone read today’s New York Times articles about Bachmann’s aversion to honesty. This is not a brave woman who speaks her mind. But a intellectually dishonest person who sows fear and division to drive her political career. That Republicans take this individual seriously, shows how far they have strayed from the mainstream in recent years.