Ex-Bachmann aide alleges campaign finance violations

by KEVIN DIAZ 
A top adviser in Michele Bachmann’s 2012 White House bid has filed a complaint with federal election officials alleging campaign finance violations involving her presidential campaign and the independent political action committee she leads. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint was filed Tuesday by Peter Waldron, a widely known evangelist enlisted by the Bachmann campaign for outreach to Christian conservatives. The filing follows his allegations last week that the Bachmann campaign has withheld payments to staffers who refused to sign confidentiality agreements.

Waldron, formerly Bachmann’s national field coordinator, is accusing the campaign of improperly dipping into money from MichelePAC to pay longtime fundraising consultant Guy Short for presidential campaign work he performed in the critical final weeks ahead of Iowa’s caucuses last year.

Waldron also alleges that the campaign concealed payments to Iowa state campaign chairman Kent Sorenson, a state senator who abruptly left the Bachmann camp to join then-U.S. Rep. Ron Paul’s insurgent campaign. Under Iowa Senate rules, Waldron maintains, Sorenson could not perform paid work for a presidential campaign.

Click the header link above to read the full article.

Bachmann Highlights Antigay Positions

By Trudy Ring

MICHELE BACHMANN 20110811 (GETTY) | ADVOCATE.COM

In the final days leading up to the Iowa presidential caucus, Michelle Bachmann is touting herself as more anti–marriage equality and anti–abortion rights than her opponents.

At a campaign stop Tuesday in Council Bluffs, Bachmann sought to set herself apart from the rest of the Republican field, The New York Times reports. “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,” she said. “I have a record of defending life, marriage, and the family, and I’ll protect them as president of the United States.”

Bachmann’s campaign staff also sent out a press release quoting longtime right-wing activist Phyllis Schlafly as saying, “Michele has the courage to be a leader among her peers. … She has a 100 percent pro-life record and is a strong supporter of traditional marriage.”

Iowa voters will make their preference for the GOP candidate known in the caucus next Tuesday.

Bachmann Confronted by Eight-Year-Old with Gay Mother

By Julie Bolcer

Michele Bachmann 201103 x390 (getty) | Advocate.com

“My mommy’s gay but she doesn’t need any fixing,” said a young boy who approached Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann at a recent book signing in South Carolina.

In a video of the encounter posted by the Daily Mail, the boy shyly approaches Bachmann at a table, and the congresswoman warmly asks, “What’s your name?” He responds that his name is Elijah and whispers in her ear.

“You said it but I think my ears were too far away,” says the candidate, as she leans into the boy, who is accompanied by an adult.

“Miss Bachmann, my mommy’s gay but she doesn’t need any fixing,” says Elijah, as the friendly look on her face melts to shock and then fear. The Minnesota lawmaker has been dogged by allegations that the Christian counseling clinic she owns with her husband Marcus offers therapy that promises to “change” gay clients.

“Bye bye,” says Bachmann as the clip ends.

Click the link above to watch the video and read the full article.

Anti-LGBT Bullying Advocates Meet With Bachmann’s Staff | advocate.com

By Andrew Harmon

Tammy Aaberg (Gabe Aderhold) x390 | Advocate.com
Gabe Aderhold, Graham Luterbach, Tammy Aaberg, and Justin Anderson

The mother of a gay teenager who committed suicide last year met Thursday with Rep. Michele Bachmann’s office to ask, at the very least, that the congresswoman publicly denounce anti-LGBT bullying.

Bachmann: Anti-gay bullying ‘not a federal issue’ | gayagenda.com

Bachmann

Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann is coming under fire for saying anti-gay bullying in her district isn’t a problem for the federal government.

At a rally in Costa Mesa, Calif., on Friday, Minnesota resident Alex Lemon asked Bachmann what she intends to do about the rash of anti-gay school bullying in her district, according to CBS News.

Bachmann reportedly offered a brief response: “That’s not a federal issue.” The GOP presidential hopeful moved on to the shake hands with the next rally attendee.

A U.S. House member who represents Minnesota in Congress, Bachmann has become associated with the issue of anti-gay bullying because of the rash of teen suicides in her congressional district. Over the past two years, nine youths have committed suicide in the Anoka-Hennepin school district, the largest in Minnesota. At least four suicide victims were victims of bullying because they were gay or perceived to be gay.

In July, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit against the district on behalf of students who say they experienced harassment and violence as a result of an anti-gay environment. The Education and Justice departments are also investigating the district over the issue.

Minnesota resident Tammy Aaberg met with Bachmann’s staffers on Thursday in her Waite Park, Minn., district office to urge the lawmaker to speak out against bullying. Aaberg’s 15-year-old son, Justin, hanged himself in July 2010 after being subjected to anti-gay harassment.

Fred Sainz, vice president of communications at the Human Rights Campaign, said Bachmann’s remarks at the rally demonstrate “her ignorance and why she’s not worthy of the presidency.”

“Two bills to make schools safer for all kids are pending before Congress and in just a few days, the White House will host a second summit on the issue,” Sainz said. “It most certainly is a federal issue.”

Legislation pending before Congress known as the Student Non-Discrimination Act and the Safe Schools Improvement Act aims to stop the bullying of LGBT students in schools. President Obama has yet to endorse either of these bills.

But the Obama administration has interpreted existing federal law prohibiting schools from discriminating on the basis on gender to apply in some circumstances to LGBT youth. Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibit harassment based on gender.

Additionally, the White House held a bullying summit in March. Next week, the Education Department is hosting its second annual bullying prevention summit at the Washington Hilton Hotel in D.C.

Bachmann has an extensive anti-gay voting history as a member of Congress and has taken anti-gay positions in her pursuit of the White House. She backs a U.S. constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage and has pledged to reinstate “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” if elected president.

The lawmaker co-owns with her spouse, Marcus Bachmann, a faith-based therapy center that has been revealed in engage in widely discredited “ex-gay” therapy aimed at turning gay people into being straight. The clinic has reportedly been the recipient of at least $137,000 in Medicaid funds since 2005. Bachmann has refused to answer questions about this practice at her clinic or whether federal funds have subsidized it.

View Source at Washington Blade – Gay News

Mother of gay suicide teenager pressures Michele Bachmann | gayagenda.com

The mother of a gay teenager who killed himself is pressuring Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann to speak about the issue. Justin Aaberg, 15, who went to school in Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin School District, hanged himself in 2010 after suffering anti-gay bullying.

View Source at PinkNews.co.uk

GOP Candidates: Reject Bachmann's Support of Reparative Therapy

intenselycool:

Michele Bachmann and her husband, Marcus, hold some of the most extreme and disturbing anti-LGBT views of any presidential candidate and spouse. Marcus Bachmann once said gay people were “barbarians” who “needed to be disciplined.” But the Bachmanns’ homophobia goes well beyond words alone: They’ve both publicly supported the dangerous theory of “ex-gay,” which says homosexuality can be cured or even prayed away.

Think Progress recently reported that Michele Bachmann openly supported the ex-gay theory at a 2004 Conference, referring then to the “deep emotional wounds” that being gay causes and the “message of healing that is possible.” Marcus Bachmann’s clinic also reportedly offers ex-gay therapy.

We can’t let these dangerous actions go unchallenged. Both the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association have strongly repudiated ex-gay therapy. 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.

(click the link, sign the petition, reblog and spread the word. it’s ridiculous that things like ex-gay therapy still exist in this country.)

Bachmann Weighs In on N.Y. Vote

By Winston Gieseke

MICHELLE BACHMANN FOX SUNDAY X390 (GRAB) | ADVOCATE.COM

During a morning appearance on Fox News Sunday, Rep. Michele Bachmann spoke about Friday’s marriage equality victory, saying the state of New York was within its right to legalize gay marriage.

“Under the Tenth Amendment,” she said, “the states have the right to set the laws that they want to set.”

She also stated that federal officials have the right to put forth a constitutional amendment overturning the decisions made in individual states, and said she would support a federal amendment that defined marriage as “between a man and woman.”

“Federal law will trump state law on this issue,” she said.

She also stated that her support for states’ rights as well as a federal amendment overturning those rights was “entirely consistent.”

Watch As Michele Bachmann Smiles Her Way Though an Attack on Marriage Equality

Tea Party stalwart and presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann smiles her way through an attack on same-sex families and their marriage equality. Speaking at the GOP’s Faith And Freedom Coalition Conference in Washington, D.C., Bachmann applauded the Minnesota state legislature’s decision to put on the 2012 ballot a constitutional amendment banning marriage equality. Bachmann then brags about her own opposite-sex marriage of 33 years to a “family and marriage therapist,” and how much they love their kids.

When speaking to their own, antigay activist dispense with the somber tone you see on the talk shows and in debates. They stop pretending to understand that banning same-sex marriage has grave consequences for her fellow Americans. Instead they brag and celebrate our subordination. Wanna bet she’s be screaming bloody murder if her ability to protect the rights of her own family were called into question by political foes?

Photo via

Michele Bachmann’s Head-Banging, Gay-Bashing BFF

solemnhypnotik:

Photos Courtesy of Rep. Michele Bachmann/You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International

How the Minnesota lawmaker fell in with a controversial hair-metal evangelist.

— By Tim Murphy

In late September, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R–Minn.) will travel to a greyhound racetrack on the outskirts of Kansas City, Kansas, to speak at the Freedom Jamboree, a five-day festival billed as “the first national nominating convention” for the tea party. Bachmann, who is considering a run for president, will be joined by some familiar faces—WorldNetDaily editor and arch-birther Joseph Farah will be there; so will Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the architect of Arizona’s harsh immigration law.

One confirmed speaker, however, is not like all the others: Bradlee Dean is a Minnesota radio host, anti-gay activist, and drummer for the band Junkyard Prophet, voted “the second-best unsigned band in the nation” in 1996 by Heaven’s Metal magazine. Dean is likely the only scheduled speaker with a tattoo of Abraham sacrificing Isaac on his forearm; he is almost certainly the only scheduled speaker who has ever gone more than a decade without cutting his hair—a lifestyle decision that gives him a more-than-passing resemblance to Poison’s Bret Michaels.

Maggie Gallagher Rubs Elbows With Michele Bachmann At Glenn Beck’s Rally

National Organization for (Straight) Marriage’s Maggie Gallagher has been trying to muscle in on the media attention surrounding Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally. Here’s her latest attempt, as posted on the NOM blog. A (rather poorly shot) slide show of the rally (almost entirely sans people of color!) culminating with a shot of Maggie Gallagher in the same photo as Michele Bachmann. Chills.

(Oh, and whose legs are those and why were they included?)

Click the link above to watch the video.