CHAMPION: Henry Winkler Says Marcus Bachmann's Ex-Gay Therapy Is LIKE refurbish [gays] like sofas!

On Sirius radio recently, actor Henry Winkler - Fonz from Happy Days - said he adores Lady Gaga and thinks Marcus Bachmann is trying to refurbish the souls of gay people: inkler – an avowed Lady Gaga fan who admits he’s in awe of her flamboyant footwear and that he really wants the pop diva’s John Hancock – also called out Marcus and Michele Bachmann’s so-called reparative therapy, saying, “Marcus Bachmann is trying to refurbish [gays] like sofas!”

Or replace them like old curtains. Or straighten them out like couch pillows. The interior decorating metaphors go on and on, and they seem somehow appropriate when we're talking about Marcus.

RESPONSE: Dan Savage Talks About the End of 'DADT' and Michele Bachmann's Dumb Gay Joke!

Dan Savage appeared on The Last Word last night to discuss the end of 'DADT' and Michele Bachmann's awkward joke on Jay Leno about "praying the gray away".

SACRIFICE: Flash Mob Targets Michele Bachmann with 'Like a Prayer'!

Activists from the Courage Campaign objected to Michele Bachmann's presence at a California GOP convention yesterday by breaking out in a coordinated dance to "Like a Prayer." If only Marcus were up front, leading the pack, twirling his boa... Boa scarf.

GLITTER-BOMB: Gay 'Barbarians' Perform 'Born This Way' Glitter Baptism at Marcus Bachmann's 'Ex-Gay' Clinc!

A group of gay glitter "barbarian" activists returned to Marcus Bachmann's "ex-gay" clinic Friday where they performed Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" and performed a glitter "baptism" on an activist dressed as Bachmann.

SELF-HATE: Marcus Bachmann Shoves CNN Anchor Don Lemon!

After giving a speech (and being heckled) at the Iowa State Fair, Michele and Marcus Bachmann and their security shoved the press, notably, CNN anchor Don Lemon as he was trying to interview the candidate, CNN reports: After talking for about three minutes, Bachmann waded into the crowd filled with adoring supporters. Moments later, as she tried to exit the area back to a waiting drive cart, Bachmann found herself in the middle of a mob of people: among them many supporters and members of the press including this reporter and CNN anchor Don Lemon.

Lemon says he was shoved by two Bachmann staffers, and by Marcus:

“She came out, after speaking for just a couple minutes,” Lemon said. “There were other reporters and cameras there. And I asked her very respectful questions: ‘How do you think you did in the debate last night?’ and ‘How do you think you’re going to end up in the Ames Straw Poll?’ And her two campaign aides started elbowing me.”

Bachmann: 'Submission' Means Respect?

Michele Bachmann believes wives should be submissive to their husbands—she has said she obtained a tax law degree only because her husband told her to—so would she remain submissive to her husband as president? That question from the Washington Examiner’s Byron York last night drew boos from the crowd at the Republican debate in Iowa but Bachmann took it in stride, AP reports. "Thank you for that question, Byron,” she said. 

“Marcus and I will have been married for 33 years this September 10. I’m in love with him. I’m so proud of him. What submission means to us, if that’s what your question is, it means respect. I respect my husband. And he respects me as his wife. That’s how we operate our marriage. We respect each other. We love each other."

STUNG: Inside the Bachmann Institute for Curing Gayness!

DECLINED: Starbucks CEO Cancels Speech at Church Over its Ties to 'Ex-Gay' Org

Howard Schultz, the founder and CEO of Starbucks, has canceled a scheduled talk titled “How Starbucks Fought for its Life Without Losing Its Soul” at suburban Chicago-based Willow Creek Community Church, one branch of a megachurch formerly tied to "ex-gay" group Exodus International, following pressure from a petition on Change.org.

Said the petition: The church that is sponsoring the event on August 11th and 12th has a long history anti-gay persecution. For decades the church was a member of Exodus International, the organization that seeks to cure homosexuality through dangerous conversion therapy. The church split ways with the group, but in doing so stated that it wasn’t a change in belief but a change in focus. The church also has their own “outreach” programs to the LGBT community to spread their anti-lgbt message.

SO GAY: Marcus Bachmann Okay with Being Called 'Silver Fox' as Long as it Doesn't Mean He's Gay!

The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza profiles Michele Bachmann in this week's New Yorker. There's also a section on her husband Marcus, who reveals to Lizza that he's extremely concerned about appearing "gay".

Marcus Bachmann plopped down on the seat next to me, in the back of the plane. He pointed at my laptop and asked if he could take a look. “All I want to know is what they’re saying about me,” he said. “Newsweek came up with the word ‘silver fox.’ Tell me what ‘silver fox’ means.”

“Do you want me to tell you honestly?” I asked.

“Oh, don’t tell me it’s something gay!” he said. “Because I’ve been called that before.” Marcus is a psychologist who runs a clinic that employs people Michele described in 2006 as “Biblical world-view counsellors,” who “reach out and try to bring the medicine of the Gospel to come and heal people.”

I explained that “silver fox” probably had more to do with the color of his hair.

“O.K., I can handle that,” he said. Tera, the assistant, assured him that it was a positive term.

“It’s better than Porky Pig,” Marcus said, with a laugh.

Suddenly, his face appeared on Fox. “Look, you’re on TV,” I said.

“It’s the Silver Fox!” he exclaimed as we descended into Manchester.

BITCH: Michele Bachmann Won't Address 'Frivolous' Gay Issues!

Michele Bachmann has made a habit of avoiding inquiries about marriage equality and her husband's homophobic professional work. 

The Republican presidential candidate dismissed one Iowa news station's questions about her husband's ex-gay clinics, later stonewalled a reporter from that same channel and then dodged related questions at the National Press Club.

Now it appears Bachmann has done the same thing to New Hampshire's Concord Monitor, via Politico. Bachmann cut off an interview last week as she was being asked a question about gay marriage and emphasized that she is focused on rebuilding the economy and repealing federal health care reform. "I'm not involved in light, frivolous matters," she said. "I'm not involved in fringe or side issues. I'm involved in serious issues."

Alexander Burns seems to think that Bachmann is trying to move away from divisive social issues -- part of the elusive culture war "truce" -- but it seems just as likely she's trying to avoid a Pandora's box of a negative news story about her discriminatory politics.

Bachmann Shuts Out Iowa News Station Over Questioning About Husband's 'Ex-Gay' Clinic!

Michele Bachmann's 2012 presidential campaign is shutting out news organizations that ask about her husband's clinic and its practice of "reparative therapy" for homosexuality.

A cameraman for WQAD in Davenport, Iowa describes how the Bachmann campaign scrubbed a promised interview because one of the station's anchors had repeatedly asked Bachmann about the Marcus Bachmann clinic and the undercover operation that exposed its "ex-gay" practices.

WQAD writes: At the end of last night's event the Bachmann campaign said the snubbing was based on interview questions News 8's Rae Chelle Davis asked the Congresswoman during a satellite interview two weeks ago. Undercover cameras had captured a counselor at the clinic owned by Michele Bachmann and her husband, Marcus, conducting reparative therapy. ... Due to a pre-planned satellite interview, we were in the unique position to ask her about the controversy first.

During the satellite interview, behind the scenes, it got ugly. In the News 8 control room, campaign staffers threatened WQAD producers that they would cut off the feed if Rae Chelle repeated the question. A follow-up question was asked on the issue. The Congresswoman's answers were aired nationally on ABC World News Tonight and Nightline.

GO-GUN: LaSalvia Says Gays Carrying Guns Would Prevent Anti-Gay attacks!

GOProud's Jimmy LaSalvia, who was the victim of an alleged anti-gay attack earlier this week, talks to MSNBC's Thomas Roberts about why he thinks that gays carrying guns (and not legislation) are the way to prevent similar hate crimes, Think Progress reports.

LaSalvia told the Washington Blade that the group who attacked him fled when they thought he might be carrying a gun in his jacket.

LaSalvia also talks about the group's courtship of Michele Bachmann, but would not confirm that the group had actually secured a meeting with her.

FAIRY DUST: Gay Glitter 'Barbarians' Descend on Bachmann Clinic!

Nick Espinosa, the activist responsible for glittering Newt Gingrich, and several others today launched a colorful action at Marcus Bachmann's clinic where Bachmann is said to practice gay "reparative therapy".

Writes Espinosa in a press release: Today a horde of gay barbarians descended upon Michele and Marcus Bachmann’s “pray away the gay” clinic and demanded that Marcus come out and discipline them for their “deviant” behavior.

Marcus Bachmann, who conducts “reparative therapy” at the clinic intended to convert homosexuals, has said that gays are “barbarians who need to be disciplined.” The horde requested to speak directly with Bachmann and experience some “discipline” for themselves.

When Marcus was no where to be found, the barbarians glittered the empty waiting room and reception area while chanting, “You can’t pray away the gay — baby, I was born this way!”

The action was organized by the same young man who threw glitter on Newt Gingrich, starting a national trend in political protest of anti-LGBT sentiments from political candidates and campaigns.

“Michele and Marcus Bachmann think gay people are barbarians?” asked LGBT activist Nick Espinosa. “I think its clear to everyone who the real barbarians are, based on the Bachmanns’ archaic views on LGBT equality.”

NEW SERIES: (the GAY SEXpert) Does the Media unknowingly “Enable” The Ex-Gay Movement?

by Dr. Jallen Rix 

Gay Sexpert

As a queer activist, and an ex-gay survivor, I have gotten pretty frustrated with how the media tends to handle the ex-gay topic. What amazes me is that most of them seem to do the same old thing over and over. Watch the Video Below:

BRING IT On: HRC Targets Michele Bachmann!

Michele Bachmann has her haters, but now gay rights groups are setting their sights on the Minnesota Republican, with one activist calling her a "target-rich environment." Human rights organizations say they plan to home in this summer on Bachmann's past anti-gay efforts in Minnesota, reports Politico. 

Bachmann and husband Marcus—who one patient says told him to "pray away the gay"—have said that sexual preference is a choice, and in addition to leading the 2004 push for a ban on gay marriage, Bachmann has credited her stepsister's lesbianism to Satan. "Given her husband’s positions and things she’s said in past, she’s going to have a really hard time appearing as a reasonable mainstream candidate,” says a Human Rights Campaign rep. Although Bachmann's first campaign ad avoids social issues entirely, gay rights groups will use her stance to help stir support for President Obama—who hasn't quite lived up to expectations when it comes to gay marriage. "It’s not just that [Bachmann] doesn’t believe in marriage," says one gay rights leader. "She doesn’t believe in gay people existing." 

Bring it on, counters the president of the National Organization for Marriage: “The more that they attack Michele Bachmann on these grounds, the better her chances of winning the Iowa caucuses are."

LIAR: Gay 'Barbarians' Tape Not Doctored!

Politico runs a big article on Michele Bachmann and her positions on gays and homosexuality containing perspectives from LGBT rights groups and groups like NOM. Maggie Gallagher predicts Bachmann's homophobia will lead her to victory in Iowa:

 

“The more that they attack Michele Bachmann on these grounds, the better her chances of winning the Iowa caucuses are,” said Maggie Gallagher, the president of the National Organization for Marriage, who said she’d admired Bachmann since 2004. “The Iowa base is extremely upset about same-sex marriage and I don’t think they’re going to look kindly on these attacks.”

The Daily Beast's Michelle Cottle looks at discussion of Marcus Bachmann's sexuality and how it might affect his wife's campaign:

The more personal the persecution of her husband gets, tied as it is to his antigay labors, the more likely it is to steel Michele’s spine and persuade her to stay the course. “Most social conservatives agree with her about the homosexual issue,” asserts Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, predicting: “Not only is it not going to faze her, it will build sympathy for her among her supporters and admiration that she doesn’t back down.”

On Hardball on Friday, the entire "Barbarians" tape was aired. Bachmann suggested in an interview earlier that day that the tape was doctored and he wasn't talking about gays. It wasn't. In fact, he was talking about children coming to terms with their sexuality and telling their parents. 

Marcus Bachmann Defends Clinic's 'Ex-Gay' Therapy, Claims Tape on Which He Called Gays 'Barbarians' Was Doctored

In a new interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Marcus Bachmann discusses the undercover operation by Truth Wins Out and defends his clinic's gay "reparative therapy" practices.

He also claims a recording of him discussing his views on homosexuality is doctored: "We have to understand: Barbarians need to be educated,'' Bachmann's voice is heard saying on the tape. "They need to be disciplined. Just because someone feels it or thinks it doesn't mean that we are supposed to go down that road.''

Bachmann said that someone must have doctored the recording of the interview, in which he addressed child discipline as well as homosexuality and sex education.

The recording also became a focus of media attention this week, including ABC's "Nightline."

"I was talking in reference to children. 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," Bachmann said.

Bachmann tried to explain that they don't force treatment on anyone but do it at the client's wish, and that the Truth Wins Out investigator came under false pretenses: He didn't deny that he or other counselors at Bachmann & Associates have attempted to convert gay patients, but he said it is not a special interest of the business and would only be attempted at the client's request.

Bachmann call Gay Lifestyle, 'Personal Despair'!

If anyone is still confused about where GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann stands on gays, Gawker has discovered a quote that should settle the matter. "We need to have profound compassion for the people who are dealing with the very real issue of sexual dysfunction in their life, and sexual identity disorders," Bachmann said in a 2004 speech. "It's not funny, it's sad. It's part of Satan, I think, to say this is gay. It's anything but gay."

She adds later in the speech: "If you're involved in the gay and lesbian lifestyle, it's bondage. Personal bondage, personal despair, and personal enslavement. And that's why this is so dangerous." Bachmann can't seem to skirt the topic in recent days: There's been much press about the fact that she signed a pledge written by a Christian group characterizing marriage only as the union between man and one woman. Husband Marcus has come under fire recently for his Medicaid-funded Christian counseling clinic, where one former patient says he was urged to "pray away gay" and stop being a sinner.

A-MEN: Bachmann Clinic Told Man to 'Pray Away Gay'!

A former patient of the clinic owned and run by Michele Bachmann's husband says he was urged to "pray away the gay" when he went for therapy there. He was told prayer could help him be "re-oriented" and "rid him of his homosexual urges," ex-patient Andrew Ramirez tells the Nation. The therapist "basically said being gay was not an acceptable lifestyle in God’s eyes," he added. 

Bachmann has denied his counseling clinic in suburban Minneapolis engages in such therapy. But an undercover video of another counseling session also reveals a similar approach to what Ramirez encountered at the clinic, which promises "Christian counseling," reports ABC News. 

In the video, a gay man posing as a patient is told that prayer and effort can eradicate his homosexual urges and help him be attracted to women. Michele and Marcus Bachmann have refused to answer questions about therapies, citing patient confidentiality, though Marcus has referred to gays as "barbarians" who "need to be disciplined." The clinic has collected $137,000 worth of Medicaid payments for care, and a $30,000 government job training grant.

BURNING BUSH: 'Marriage Vow' Slavery Quote Gets Bachmann in Hot Water!

Michele Bachmann was already in hot water after signing a pledge that appears to maybe, sorta-kinda, call for a ban on porn. Now it turns out that same pledge included a controversial slavery-related clause in its preamble, forcing Bachmann to backpedal and the group behind the pledge to ultimately remove the reference. The section in question read, “Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President,” Politico reports.

Bachmann’s spokesperson yesterday stated that the presidential hopeful only endorsed the “candidate vow,” not the preamble that included the slavery passage. While Bachmann “stands behind the candidate vow—which makes absolutely no reference to slavery,” the rep said, the Congresswoman “believes that slavery was horrible and economic enslavement is also horrible.” But the Washington Post notes that the document was a mere four pages long (and that includes two pages of footnotes), and that the slavery section was the preamble’s very first bullet point, implying Bachmann likely saw it. After the controversy erupted, the Family Leader ultimately decided to remove the language. A spokesperson for the group apologized “for any negative feelings this has caused.”