Michele Bachmann's gay stepsister Helen
LaFave has said Bachmann's anti-gay rhetoric is “hurtful.”
Bachmann, who has positioned herself as
the most socially conservative candidate in the GOP presidential
field, regularly boasts
of her sponsorship as a Minnesota senator of a constitutional
amendment to ban gay marriage in the state, has said she would
reinstate
“Don't Ask, Don't Tell,” the just ended policy that banned
gay and bisexual troops from serving openly, and has defended
her clinic's attempts to “cure” gay people of their sexuality.
The two Minnesota-based clinics are run by her husband Marcus
Bachmann.
Bachmann, who in 2004 likened being gay
to “personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement,”
has denied accusations that she's anti-gay, telling PEOPLE
that she's “no better than anyone else.”
Marcus Bachmann added, “There's never
been a bias.”
Helen LaFave, Michele Bachmann's gay
stepsister, told the magazine that her words are “hurtful.”
“Yes, we are family and love each
other, but she seems to have a disconnect,” LaFave said. “Her
statements and actions related to gay rights are very hurtful,
whether she understands that or not.”