Bachmann Rumor Grows Louder

[Bozita]

Bachmann Rumor Grows Louder
The chatter about Michele Bachmann’s husband's sexuality is spreading. Michelle Cottle on how it could affect a candidate whose Christian beliefs are central to her campaign.
Jul 16, 2011 9:30 PM EDT


Hear that snickering? That’s the sound of the 2012 mud-slinging starting in earnest.

If you aren’t yet familiar with the growing whispers about Michele Bachmann’s campaign—the uncorroborated speculation that the candidate’s profoundly anti-gay hubby, Marcus, is a closeted gay man—you will be. The chatter has already made its way from the blogs and Twitter (Cher tweeted that Marcus has tripped her exquisitely tuned gaydar) to the alternative press to The Daily Show, where Jon Stewart and Jerry Seinfeld put one another into stitches this week taking shots at Mr. Bachmann’s effeminate manner and “center-square gay” voice. (Anyone out there old enough to remember Paul Lynde?) As Stewart joked, the guy is “an Izod shirt away from being the gay character on Modern Family.” Clips of the comedians’ faux “comedy repression” session promptly popped up on the websites of such stodgy outlets as The Washington Post and The Atlantic.

The wringing of hands about whether it’s fair for the respectable media to promote this sort of salacious chatter is as inevitable as the chatter itself. But this particular assault on Marcus is about more than critics lobbing generic bombs at a fiercely conservative presidential combatant. Michele Bachmann has long been one of the most aggressive anti-gay-marriage crusaders in politics, while Marcus runs a Christian-based therapy clinic accused of dabbling in “reparative therapy,” a controversial counseling technique premised on the notion that you can pray away the gay. (One clip making the rounds from an undercover video shows a potential clinic patient being assured that, among other things, God had made men’s eyes to appreciate the form of a woman.)

The Minnesota congresswoman has lamented that involvement in “the gay and lesbian lifestyle” is a life of “personal bondage, personal despair, and personal enslavement,” while her husband has charmingly likened bi-curious youth to “barbarians” who must be “educated” and “disciplined”—parenting advice that manages at once to sound both draconian and pervy.

more...
http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/72-72/6642-bachmann-rumor-grows-louder

[kestrel91316]

1. IMHO outing rabidly anti-gay closeted gays is an honorable endeavor.

[truth2power]

32. I agree. And I guess it needs to be said for about the thousandth time...

It's about the HYPOCRISY!!!

[Fearless]

42. +1

[mod mom]

46. especially when they are doing harm by actively attempting to "cure" gays.

:mad:

[Moostache]

55. I immediately thought "beard" the second I saw him...

THEN I heard him speak.
THEN I heard what he does.

The combination of factors with him is a preponderance of evidence in my eyes and that is WITHOUT taking into account that his "wife's" views are so ugly that make a relatively physically attractive woman and make her appear to be a shriveled hag with hairy warts that simply cannot be overlooked.

There is absolutely ZERO to like about that couple, UNLESS they are exposed as the disgusting bigoted hypocrites that they are and are used to bring scorn and rebuke to their "religion" (ie. institutionalized hate mongering).

[dkf]

2. Hmm so now it's okay to tease and harass someone about possibly being gay?

Funny that.

[hayrow]

3. In this case the answer is not "yes"......

It is "hell yes".

[dkf]

4. Yet it creates an atmosphere of making fun of people perceived to be gay.

I can't see how that helps. How does this make the kid being bullied in high school feel when he/she sees adults doing it?

Does it make it acceptable under certain circumstances?

[Voice for Peace]

5. perhaps the gay community can take a different approach, reach out to Marcus

with compassion, inviting him to come out.

[tularetom]

7. I don't think anyone is "harassing" him about being gay

I think they're commenting on the hypocrisy and cynicism of both Bachmanns in running a "pray away the gay" clinic when Marcus couldn't even pray it away from himself.

If being gay was a choice, being married to Bachmann would be enough to turn almost any man gay.

[October]

10. Agree. /nt

[dkf]

13. So let's say you take a tape of someone dancing and make comments on their movements

And say it looks...you know...kinda gay, and put it on the Internet. Or in this case splash it all over TV.

What would you call it?

[tularetom]

15. If the person in the tape has made a career out of demeaning and degrading gays

I'd call it karma.

[truth2power]

34. Why is it that some people seem to be deliberately obtuse about this???....

It's been said over and over and over....

It's. about. the. hypocrisy. If Marcus Bachmann wasn't publicly calling people who are gay "barbarians" and saying they need to be "disciplined" (a strange choice of words), or practicing a form of "therapy" that's been repudiated by the PROFESSION of psychology, it wouldn't be an issue.

Do you really not get it? <sigh> :eyes:

[dkf]

39. I get that people jump to conclusions about those who are not "manly" enough.

And they make fun of them. Just like people here are.

[progressoid]

51. I'll repeat what Truth2Power said, "It's. about. the. hypocrisy."

She didn't say anything about "jumping to conclusions about being manly".

[truth2power]

53. Thanks. I just posted a clarification, below. n/t

[truth2power]

52. Did you not read what I wrote? I tried to point out, in detail, why

this is an issue, specifically, for Marcus Bachmann.

IT'S NOT ABOUT whether he is manly enough. No one, as far as I can tell, has even implied that he deserves ridicule because he's not manly enough. Some here, and I would include myself in that group, have said that he sets off what is described as their "gaydar". That is not a value-laden term, as far as I'm concerned. It just is. I can't explain it, but it has NOTHING to do with "not being manly enough".

If MB were an ordinary individual who had no public persona, it wouldn't be an issue that he appears to be closeted, EXCEPT insofar that it's emotionally unhealthy for someone to have to deny their essential identity.

But in MB's case, and here's the crux of it, he is a hypocrite in that he is almost certainly denying his essential self, while at the same time inflicting real harm on others by practicing(sic) a repudiated form of therapy for which he isn't even licensed. For that, he deserves our opprobrium.

That he is the spouse of someone who aspires to be POTUS makes it our business.


* * * *


edit> Moved some sentences around and added "That he is..." for clarity.

[oldhippydude]

45. why

is it, when i hear "barbarians"... i flip it to "silly savage".. must be an age thing

[emcguffie]

54. There is a difference.

Yes, it is hypocrisy when a male person is denouncing gay men in public while paying for male prostitutes in private. But what about when a gay man is living as a heterosexual man, as Marcus Bachmann appears to be doing with Michelle, and "treating" gays to make them straight? By that I mean if he is truly living as a heterosexual in spite of his homosexuality. In this case, that would mean assuming Marcus Bachmann is gay, which is something we don't really know for sure.

Question: If someone is closeted, does that mean they never engage in homosexual activity? Or does it mean that they engage in such activity but keep it hidden? Because that, to me, is where the hypocrisy comes in.

So, while I disagree utterly with Marcus Bachmann's point of view, if he is indeed gay but is living as a heterosexual, successfully repressing his homosexuality, that wouldn't really constitute hypocrisy. That would be something twisted, sick and unfortunate, yes, but it would not be hypocrisy. Would it?

Of course, by extending his twisted view of sexuality to other people, and attempting to change them to suit his false morality, he is crossing the line. If he wants to screw up his own life and repress his sexuality, that is his choice. But it is wrong for him to attempt to force his choices upon other people, and that activity should be prevented. His victims are just that -- victims, and they should be protected from all such lunatics.

[immoderate]

35. I agree with this point. I am uneasy with the banter.

People's special sensitivities (and my own suspicions) aside, there is nothing factual indicating Marcus is gay, and the kind of innuendos being cast are denigrating to gays.

Shit, just the stuff Marcus is on record for should be enough to disqualify them from taking over this country.

(Besides, my money's on Sarah. She can still win. She said so, herself!)

--imm

[Mojorabbit]

43. I agree. I think it is wrong too. nt

[DCKit]

24. No, it's about the hypocrisy.

Funny how that works, though. My dear sister (family issues) outed me to an entire county back in May, and I'm now everyone's pet homo. Go figure. More invitations to lunch, dinner and all the rest than I care to deal with. They're fascinated by the concept of "teh gay". I'm just like them.

But neither am I married to Michelle Bachman. My beard has a beard, and he's wonderful, in every way.

[valerief]

28. As a rule, most gay men are not effete, but all effete men are gay.

Unless you're living in Bizarro America.

[dkf]

40. Like this man? Straight man who "appeared gay" rejected for blood donation

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1511132

[valerief]

44. I have no idea if he would have set off my gaydar at all. The blood center worker

could have the brains of a teabagger.

[Doctor_J]

48. No, it's okay to shred a gay person for making money being anti-gay

And I think you knew that was the point, but decided to stir some shit here.

[WhiteTara]

6. Where's the outrage that he isn't even licensed?

He got his "degree" on line and WI doesn't require a psychologist to be licensed as such.

And now I find out that Michelle got her "education" at Oral Roberts in Tulsa OK; but transferred to William and Mary to finish so it sounded as though she had an education. These people really know how to game the system, that is for sure. I'd offer up links, but my computer is running soooo slow today, I just can't. But, it's all here on DU

[CTyankee]

9. I can't figure out how she even got INTO William and Mary!

It's a tough school...

[COLGATE4]

22. It's not that tough to get into a Master's degree program in law.

[valerief]

29. ??? She didn't. She went to some unacredited Xtian school.

Michele Bachmann's Campaign Biography page makes the claim:

"After earning her law degree, she went on to the College of William and Mary to get an LLM in Tax Law"

Um ... there are TWO huge problems with that lie.

William and Mary does NOT now and never has offered an LL.M Degree in Tax Law.

The ONLY LL.M Program that William and Mary offer is for "Foreign Students" ... Non U.S. Lawyers ... William & Mary's ONLY LL.M program is titled: "LL.M in American Law." not Tax Law.

William & Mary only offers a FEW tax law classes and they do not offer a Degree in Tax Law.

So, either Michele Bachmann is NOT an American Citizen and went to William & Mary and got an LL.M because she was Foreign Student.

Or ... she is just a big fat liar.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/01/25/938752/-Michele-BachmannLying-about-Her-Law-Degree

[yellerpup]

49. She lies, she lies, she lies...more proof.

Michele Bachmann recently told the Hometown Source, an online extension of ABC Newspapers in the northern suburbs, that Barack Obama “isn’t well-schooled and prepared to be President of the United States.”
That’s an interesting observation, coming from a graduate of a law school that once lost its American Bar Association accreditation.
Bachmann got her undergraduate degree from Winona State University in 1978. She graduated from O.W. Coburn School of Law at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla., in 1986.
The ABA yanked Coburn’s accreditation in 1981 over its Christian litmus tests for students and faculty but later reinstated it. However, the law school closed in 1986 and donated its library to Pat Robertson’s Regent University in Virginia. Regent then started its own law school but didn’t receive ABA accreditation until 1996.

[former9thward]

30. You are not really correct..

She finished her normal law school education at Oral Roberts which was an ABA accredited law school. It closed the year she graduated. She then got a post graduate degree in tax law at William and Mary. This is a very standard route for attorneys who want to specialize in tax matters.

[monmouth]

8. What does FReeperland think of this or are they ignoring it? I just

can't go there, I already have a headache from David Gregory and his obtuseness.

[PoliticAverse]

14. They think Obama is gay. n/t

[FourScore]

18. Actually, they think he is a gay, African, Muslim, communist, socialist, terrorist anti-Christ! n/t

[customerserviceguy]

26. Don 't want to go there myself

but I'd rather see only the small-minded freeper fanatics using this, if they would rather have another candidate besides Bachmann, than to see us use it.

[Snarkoleptic]

11. Second City has a fun take on the hypocrisy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-w7QAEWudQ

[Ruby the Liberal]

23. Ok, that was hilarious.

:rofl:

[awoke_in_2003]

31. "gonna go cure...

some guy people now"- that video was hilarious.

[Enthusiast]

36. Funny shit! nt

[kath]

37. OMG- Sooooo funny!

[Angry Dragon]

12. Here is a thought

We need to keep this kind of information under the radar
Let the republicans eat themselves and then let's see whom
they come up with and then blast that person with the facts
we have collected
Let them spend all the money they wish because the democrats need only defeat one of them

Keep bachmann in the race as long as possible and then
she will not have time to run for the house again
she will be out of Minnesota politics then

[Myrina]

16. ... it doesn't matter if he's gay or not, it's his hypocrisy ...

... his profiteering, and his wife's utterly ridiculous policy stance toward gays, that makes it an issue worth discussing.

[FourScore]

17. Oh this is hilarious!!! I thought the same thing!!! k/r n/t

[elocs]

19. If someone is anti-gay, believes it is wrong & sinful to be gay,

then they would rid themselves of any personal mannerisms, way of speaking, gestures, or (for a guy) appearing effeminate in any way, all and any of the cliched gay traits (although not always) if they do not want to be taken for a closeted gay in any way, shape or form.

That this guy has not leads me to believe that not only does he protest too much, but that people are taking him to be gay for a reason. Just because one is gay does not mean there is not self loathing and self hatred for being gay or denying it altogether.

[Monique1]

20. I told my friend

he is Bachman's husband is gay but a closeted gay. Yes, it is about the hypocrisy. I have no problems with gays but don't knock them if you are the same.

[less lee]

21. Can you imagine their bed room antics?

I don't think the religious right can grasp the concept of Bi-Sexuality. They are conditioned to see things in absolutes. Either you are gay or not! His voice is a dead give away.

[Gman]

25. I've never gotten the notion that someone uncomfortable with gays is gay him/herself

The uncomfortableness is borne out of ignorance. It doesn't mean someone is closeted.

[kath]

38. Actually, studies have shown that homophobes are more aroused by gay porn than by straight porn, and

the same is not true of men who are not homophobic. The studies have been posted here several times - they used a "peter meter" to measure male arousal.

[valerief]

27. If that guy isn't gay, my gaydar is totally broken. Too bad he's not comfortable enough in his skin

to come out.

[hayrow]

33. Has the usually outspoken Arianna Huffington checked in on this?

After all, she would have up close and personal experience with the issue from her marriage to Michael.

[Kablooie]

41. She'll probably be proud of how he overcame his innate tendencies.

The fact that he's living an unnatural lifestyle wouldn't be considered.

[Doctor_J]

47. I don't think any straight man could be attracted to her

[hootinholler]

50. Cher???

So when does Bette Middler check in on this?

-Hoot

[Islandlife]

56. Is it still a rumor?

Let's make it a fact already by just calling it a fact.

[mwb970]

57. This pair is much worse than Sarah & Tawd.

Sarah & Tawd are just redneck grifters who take money from rubes. These Bachmanns actually damage people's lives with this "pray the gay away" BS. And yes, you do have to wonder about hubbie, especially after you see him dance and hear him talk.