An undercover investigation has
revealed that Marcus Bachmann's clinic provides “pray away the gay”
therapy.
Marcus and Congresswoman Michele
Bachmann, who is seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for president, have
been married 30 years.
(Related: Michele
Bachmann signs anti-gay marriage pledge.)
The couple publicly opposes gay
marriage, but Marcus Bachmann, who owns two Christian counseling
centers in Minnesota, has denied allegations that his clinics attempt
to “pray away the gay.”
“That's a false statement,” he told
Minneapolis-based alternative City Pages. “If someone comes
in a homosexual and they want to stay a homosexual, I don't have a
problem with that.”
And, possibly in an effort to keep her
husband's views out of the spotlight, Michele Bachmann has toned down
her anti-gay rhetoric since officially entering the GOP race.
The chatter, however, has only grown
louder since Marcus Bachmann's 2010 comments likening gay people to
“barbarians” who “need to be educated” and “disciplined”
surfaced
on the Internet last week.
Truth Wins Out, a group that opposes
the “ex-gay” movement, sent its communications and development
director, John Becker, an openly gay man, undercover to investigate
the allegations that Bachmann & Associates practices so-called
“reparative” therapy.
“The results of our investigation
should end all doubt whether Marcus Bachmann's clinic endorses and
practices reparative therapy aimed at changing a gay person's sexual
orientation,” said
Wayne Besen executive director of Truth Wins Out. “The facts
plainly show that Bachmann's clinic does try to cure gay people and
he is being evasive when he claims otherwise.”
Becker attended five private sessions
with counselor Timothy Wiertzema.
Wiertzema presented homosexuality as a
treatable condition that should be altered.
“God designed our eyes to be
attracted to the woman's body, to be attracted to everything, to be
attracted to breasts,” Wiertzema told Becker during one session.
“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.”
Becker also reported that Marcus
Bachmann endorses Minnesota “ex-gay” minister Janet Boyne's book
Called Out, which was for sale inside the clinic along with a
typewritten note from Mr. Bachmann: “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.”
Boyne claims she was set free from the
“lesbian lifestyle” after she found salvation through God. And
she has gone on to become an outspoken critic of gay rights.