Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann's
husband Marcus Bachmann has denied claims his clinic practice
'ex-gay' therapy.
Mr. Bachmann responded to the
allegations in an in interview
Thursday with the Star
Tribune.
In remarks to ABC News, Michele
Bachmann refused to talk about the controversy surrounding Bachmann &
Associates, saying only that she was proud of the family business for
creating jobs.
Evidence that the Bachmann &
Associates family clinic run by Michele Bachmann's husband, Marcus,
practices
“ex-gay” therapy surfaced last week from the gay advocacy group
Truth Wins Out, which sent its communications and development
director, John Becker, an openly gay man, undercover to investigate
the allegations that the Christian counseling center attempts to turn
gay people straight.
Speaking to Nightline, Becker
said there was no doubt that the Bachmann family clinic was
attempting to alter the sexual orientation of gay people.
“He said that change is possible.
He's seen it. He believes that full change from homosexual to
heterosexual is possible,” Becker said of Timothy Wiertzema, who
counseled him during five sessions.
Marcus Bachmann said his counselors
were only following Becker's wishes in attempting to alter his
sexuality.
“This individual came to us under a
false pretense,” Bachmann said. “The truth of the matter is he
specifically asked for help.”
“Will I address it? Certainly we'll
talk about it. Is it a remedy form that I typically would use? …
It is at the client's discretion.”
And he added that his clinic doesn't
have “an agenda or a philosophy of trying to change someone.”
While conceding he was talking about
homosexuality, Bachmann denied he ever called gay people “barbarians”
during a 2010 interview, and suggested the recording had been
altered.
In
the recording, Bachmann is heard likening gay people to
“barbarians” who “need to be educated” and “disciplined.”
(Barbarians can refer to people outside the mainstream.)
“I was talking in reference to
children,” Bachmann said. “Nothing, nothing to do with
homosexuality. That's not my mindset. That's not my belief system.
That's not the way I would talk.”