Anti-Gay Bigotry: Michele Bachmann's Ticket to Power

I truly cannot get my mind around the mindset of those who seem to always need someone else to look down upon and denigrate so that they can feel better about themselves. To me, it reflects a true sickness of the soul. And yet it's typically those who wrap themselves in the banner of conservative Christianity that most often exhibit this insidious mindset. They hate non-Christians. They hate immigrants. The hate non-whites. And of course, they hate LGBT individuals. Combined with this psychologically damaged group are the opportunists who prey upon the former for self-enrichment - e.g., the Maggie Gallagher's and Bill Donohue's of the world - and those who seek political power. In the case of Michele Bachmann, she seems to be a combination of both the psychologically damaged group as well as an opportunist who has elected to ride anti-LGBT hate to political power. One can only hope she ultimately crashes and burns in the endeavor. The New York Times has a piece that looks at Bachmann's utilization of anti-gay bigotry to fuel her political rise. For Bachmann, gays have been the equivalent to Hitler's use of the Jews for personal political advancement. In my view, the woman is both dangerous and evil. Here are some story highlights:
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In March 2004, with Massachusetts soon to allow gay couples to wed, Michele Bachmann delivered a dire warning to her fellow Minnesotans: The children of their state were at risk.
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“We will have immediate loss of civil liberties for five million Minnesotans,” Mrs. Bachmann, then a state senator, told a Christian television network as thousands gathered on the steps of the Capitol to rally for a same-sex marriage ban she proposed. “In our public schools, whether they want to or not, they’ll be forced to start teaching that same-sex marriage is equal, that it is normal and that children should try it.”
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[H]er political rise has its roots in her dogged pursuit of an amendment to the State Constitution prohibiting same-sex marriage — “her banner issue,” said Scott Dibble, a Democratic state senator who is gay — and her mixing of politics with her evangelical faith.
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“That’s her recipe: find the issue, then use it politically to mobilize previously marginalized or disconnected groups,” said Lawrence Jacobs, a political scientist at the University of Minnesota. “For those of us who followed her from the beginning, it’s like reading a romance novel with a formula.”
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Mrs. Bachmann’s strong stance on homosexuality — she once likened it to “personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement” — and her anti-abortion views have appeal for some Republican primary voters.
. . . . Yet her position has also become a distraction for her campaign, drawing critics and subjecting her family to the kind of scrutiny once reserved for the relatives of nominees. It has exposed a longstanding rift between the congresswoman and her stepsister, who is a lesbian. It has also raised questions about whether her husband, Marcus, who runs two Christian counseling centers, practices “reparative therapy,” or gay-to-straight counseling, derided by critics as an effort to “pray away the gay.”
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[I]n November 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Court declared that state’s law banning same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Mrs. Bachmann sprang into action. “She was holding press conferences and saying, ‘We can’t have that in Minnesota,’ ” said Don Betzold, a Democrat and a former chairman of the State Senate Judiciary Committee. She vowed to introduce a constitutional amendment and, seemingly overnight, emerged as Public Enemy No. 1 to Minnesota’s gay rights advocates.
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“The threat she represented was very real,” said Mr. Dibble, who remembers Mrs. Bachmann “trotting out junk science and debunked claims that being gay is a choice.” . . . . But Christian conservatives embraced it — and Mrs. Bachmann.
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Her passion proved too much for her stepsister, Helen LaFave, who is openly gay and turned up for a hearing on the bill. “She saw us — you could see the shock on her face,” said Linda Cielinski, another stepsister who was there. “I don’t think she has any idea how badly she’s hurt our side of the family, and I don’t think she cares.”
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Her tenacity earned her a shot at a job in Congress. In 2006, Bachmann loyalists turned out in droves to help her leap over more senior Republicans to grab the party’s nomination for the seat she now holds.
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Mrs. Bachmann has not been a leader in Washington on same-sex marriage, but has co-sponsored four resolutions opposing it. Here in St. Paul, though, her advocacy seems to have had a lingering effect. A constitutional amendment barring gays from marrying will be on the Minnesota ballot in 2012.
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Can we ship her hate filled, conniving ass to Iran? Or perhaps Saudi Arabia. We definitely do not need her religious fueled poison in this country.