Towleroad.com

Michele Bachmann’s political future looks perilous as the Minnesota U.S. Rep. faces insurgent Democratic challenger Jim Graves. Regardless of whether she wins reelection next month, Bachmann will always be known for the anti-gay initiatives she helped initiate in DC as well as her home state, where voters will also decide in November whether to pass a constitutional amendment banning marriage equality.

That referendum, says Bachmann’s openly gay step-sister Helen LaFave, is the Republican congresswoman’s “very, very sad legacy.”

In a rare interview, LaFave describes to the New York Times‘ Frank Bruni how she and her partner of nearly 25 years, Nia, have been hurt by Bachmann’s Jekyll and Hyde attitudes. On the one hand, Bachmann is always respectful of LaFave and Nia’s love, but then turns around and calls homosexuality “personal enslavement.”

[LaFave] couldn’t believe it when, about a decade ago, Michele began to use her position as a state senator in Minnesota to call out gays and lesbians as sick and evil and to push for an amendment to the Minnesota constitution that would prohibit same-sex marriage: precisely the kind of amendment that Minnesotans will vote on in a referendum on Election Day.

“It felt so divorced from having known me, from having known somebody who’s gay,” said Helen, a soft-spoken woman with a gentle air. “I was just stunned.”
…
[The women] never hid their relationship from their families, Nia said, though they also didn’t force long-winded discussions about homosexuality. Their philosophy, she said, was simply to “put it out there, show ’em who we are and love ’em where they’re at, and everything will fall into place.” Their goal was one of “killing them with kindness.”

They thought that was happening. At get-togethers, Nia received hugs from Michele, who traded an “I love you” with Helen, as the two always had.

LaFave, a Democrat who voted for President Obama in 2008, also describes how in 2003 she wrote a letter asking Bachmann to back off her homophobic platform. “You’ve taken aim at me. You’ve taken aim at my family,” she wrote. Bachmann never responded to the letter, either in ink or in person. The divide is simply ignored, she says.

Ontopmag
Michele Bachmann has criticized Ron Paul and Mitt Romney on gay marriage in a final pitch to social conservatives in early caucus state Iowa, The New York Times reported.

During a Council Bluffs appearance, Bachmann attempted to use her record opposing marriage equality and abortion to distance herself from her GOP presidential rivals.

“Mitt Romney has defended gay marriage and even signed marriage licenses for same-sex couples and Ron Paul doesn’t believe the government should protect the institution of marriage,” Bachmann said. “I have a record of defending life, marriage and the family and I’ll protect them as president of the United States.”

(Related: Ron Paul: Government should ‘butt out’ of gay marriage.)

Bachmann, who trails her rivals in the state after winning the Iowa straw poll in August, and Rick Santorum have previously leveled the charge at Romney that he helped advance gay marriage.

Santorum said during a GOP debate earlier this month that then-Governor Romney was faced with a choice after the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that barring gay men and lesbians from marrying was unconstitutional.

“So Governor Romney was faced with a choice: Go along with the court or go along with the constitution and the statute. He chose the court and ordered people to issue gay marriage licenses. And went beyond that. He personally, as governor, issued gay marriage licenses.”

In rebutting the charge, Romney described Santorum’s retelling as a “novel understanding” of events.

“The Supreme Court of Massachusetts determined that under our constitution same-sex marriage was required,” Romney said. “And the idea that that somehow that was up to me to make a choice as to whether we had it or not was a little unusual.”

Nouvelobs

Michelle Bachmann dérape sur l’esclavage et les thérapies anti-gay de son mari sont passées au crible. Par Judith Chetrit (c) Reuters

Michelle Bachmann fait parler d’elle, pour le meilleur et pour le pire. La candidate conservatrice du Tea Party, régulièrement en tête des sondages pour l’investiture républicaine à l’élection présidentielle en 2012, a commis récemment un nouveau dérapage. Sa signature s’est retrouvée à la fin d’une promesse d’engagement d’un groupe religieux de l’Iowa, The Family Leader, qui prône l’interdiction de toute “forme de pornographie” et considère l’homosexualité comme un choix réversible. Un document, certes, conforme aux valeurs familiales traditionalistes revendiquées par Michelle Bachmann.

Esclavage

Seulement, le document intitulé “Le vœu de mariage“, également signé par son concurrent Rick Santorum, postule que la situation des familles afro-américaines était meilleure au temps de l’esclavage. Citant un rapport de l’Institute for American Values de 2005, le texte esquisse la comparaison suivante : “L’esclavage a eu un impact désastreux sur les familles afro-américaines mais, hélas, un enfant né en esclavage en 1860 avait plus de chances d’être élevé par sa mère et son père dans un foyer avec deux parents qu’un bébé afro-américain né après l’élection du premier président afro-américain des États-Unis.”

Cette phrase du préambule a soulevé l’ire des internautes et a depuis été retirée par The Family Leader. Ce n’est pas le premier propos controversé de Michelle Bachmann sur le thème de l’esclavage. En janvier, elle avait souligné que les rédacteurs de la Constitution américaine avaient “travaillé sans relâche pour mettre fin à l’esclavage aux Etats-Unis, alors que les dits “Founding Fathers” sont morts avant la fin de la guerre civile américaine qui a marqué la fin des pratiques esclavagistes et au contraire étaient pour la plupart des propriétaires d’esclaves.

Celle qui multiplie les bains de foule dans l’Iowa et en Caroline du Nord, où auront lieu les premiers “caucus” du parti républicain a déjà acquis la réputation de gaffeuse pour ses bourdes publiques; elle avait ainsi affirmé que les premières escarmouches de la guerre d’indépendance américaine avaient eu lieu dans le New Hampshire à la place du Massachussetts.

Son mari, un défaut ?

Son mari est également la cible des médias. Thérapeute au diplôme incertain selon le site américain Politico, Marcus Bachmann aurait touché 137.000 dollars de l’assurance santé Medicaid pour assurer le traitement de ses patients, une somme conséquente pour l’époux d’une candidate qui appelle à la restriction du budget fédéral.

Au-delà de la dimension financière, sa clinique du Minnesota a été accusée de tenter de “guérir” ses patients homosexuels. Publié dans l’hebdomadaire The Nation, Andrew Ramirez livre son témoignage alors qu’il était patient de la clinique en 2004 : “ Un conseiller m’a demandé de lire la Bible pour ma thérapie, et de prier pour ne plus être gay”. Une polémique qui vient renforcer la réputation homophobe de son mari qui avait dit, lors d’une émission d’une radio chrétienne Point of View l’an dernier, que les homosexuels étaient des “barbares qui devaient être éduqués“. “Nous avons la responsabilité en tant que parents et figures d’autorité de décourager de tels pensées et sentiments”, avait-il ajouté.

Mother Jones

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Gallery

Campaign 2012: Who’s in and who’s out?: Republicans are beginning to announce who will pursue a bid for the presidency.

The pledge asks signatories to vow that they will be faithful to their spouses and to the U.S. Constitution. It condemns adultery, “quickie divorce,” infidelity, pornography, cohabitation and Islamic sharia law. It also suggests that more African-American children are born out of wedlock now than they were under slavery.

The two-page document also warns that the institution of marriage is “in great crisis,” citing as one reason the “anti-scientific bias which holds, in complete absence of empirical proof, that non-heterosexual inclinations are genetically determined, irresistible and akin to innate traits like race, gender and eye color.” It also suggests that homosexuality may have a negative impact on public health.

Since announcing her presidential candidacy last month, Bachmann has largely sidestepped questions about her views on homosexuality. While she has said she opposes same-sex marriage, she has demurred when asked if she believes homosexuality is a choice or poses a health hazard.

“I’m running for the presidency of the United States,” she said when asked recently. “I am not running to be anyone’s judge.”

Her decision to sign the pledge Thursday, however, suggests that her concerns about homosexuality do extend beyond simply opposing the right of same-sex couples to marry. She and her husband, Marcus Bachmann, made such views a centerpiece of their earlier careers, prompting the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign to launch a petition of its own Friday.

“We’re calling on all of the Republican presidential candidates to speak out against the Bachmanns’ dangerous views and activities before more damage is done,” the group’s Web site states.

The debate is likely to continue as Bachmann seeks to move past her history focusing on social issues and demonstrate her expertise on national security and the economy. On CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Friday morning, Bachmann said her campaign for the presidency would be about reviving the economy and not about gay issues.

Asked on Friday about Bachmann’s signing of the pledge, a spokeswoman reiterated that she was the first presidential hopeful to sign it.

Of the 2012 GOP presidential candidates, the only other one to have signed the pledge is Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). A spokesman for Tim Pawlenty said the former Minnesota governor is reviewing it. A spokeswoman for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cyberpresse

La représentante du Minnesota Michele Bachmann est devenue hier soir la première candidate présidentielle du Parti républicain à signer la promesse d’engagement d’un groupe religieux d’Iowa qui appelle à l’interdiction de «toute forme de pornographie» et présente l’homosexualité comme un choix réversible.

Le document, intitulé «Le voeu de mariage», laisse entendre, d’autre part, que la situation des familles afro-américaines était, en quelque sorte, préférable au temps de l’esclavage. J’en cite un extrait :

«L’esclavage a eu un impact désastreux sur les familles afro-américaines mais, hélas, un enfant né en esclavage en 1860 avait plus de chances d’être élevé par sa mère et son père dans un foyer avec deux parents qu’un bébé afro-américain né après l’élection du premier président afro-américain des États-Unis.»

Y a-t-il jamais eu une référence à l’esclavage plus gratuite et stupide?

L’ancien gouverneur du Minnesota Tim Pawlenty, comme tous les autres candidats républicains, a reçu la promesse d’engagement de l’organisation The Family Leader, mais il n’a pas encore décidé s’il la signerait. En revanche, il a confié mercredi qu’il aimait bien la chanson Born this Way de Lady Gaga, dont les paroles ne lui sont peut-être pas toutes familières :

No matter gay, straight or bi
lesbian, transgendered life
I’m on the right track baby
I was born to survive