Michele Bachmann and Anti-Gay Bullying

I have written a number of times about the wave of suicides in the Anoka-Hennepin school district in Minnesota. What often goes unaddressed in this crisis is the role that GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann and her supporters have had in that particular school district. Between them, they have created what some describe as a "vitriolic climate" where any substantive correction of the problem has been blocked by Bible beating theocrats. Yes, the problem of anti-gay bullying is pervasive and can be found all around the country. But Ms. Bachmann's home district school division is case study in how to make a problem much worse by affording special privileges to some while trampling on the rights of others. Salon has an article that looks at the situation and Bachmann's role in creating the clusterf*ck that now exists in the Anoka-Hennepin school district. Here are highlights:
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Mother Jones published a story Monday detailing the disturbing recent history of anti-gay bullying in a school system in the heart of Michele Bachmann's Minnesota congressional district. In just the past two years, there have been nine suicides in the Anoka-Hennepin school district, and a number of the victims were gay or had been subjected to homophobic bullying.
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According to local teachers, counselors and LGBT activists, conservative groups like the Minnesota Family Council -- closely allied with Bachmann -- have created a "vitriolic climate" in the wake of these tragedies, arguing that anti-bullying initiatives are a cover for "advancing the homosexual agenda" in schools. Although recently quiet on the issue, in 2006 Bachmann herself opposed anti-bullying legislation. Speaking to state lawmakers, she suggested anti-bullying efforts could lead to "expecting boys to be girls.” (Andrew Sullivan dug up an audio recording of this remark.)

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[T]he Justice Department and the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights recently launched a federal investigation into allegations of harassment and bullying in the specific school district -- where it is official policy to be "neutral" regarding "sexual orientation." The Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Center for Lesbian Rights have called the policy a dangerous "gag rule" and have filed a federal suit against the district.

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[T]here's been at least 10 years of criticism of anti-bullying measures as subterfuge for gay indoctrination." . . . The teen suicide epidemic in Anoka-Hennepin and its links to anti-gay bullying (and policies which foster it) deserves media attention. And it is important to shine a light on Bachmann's local allies and her work as a state legislator.

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The Mother Jones piece deserves a read as well. This highlight is telling as to the way in which Bachmann has made gay bashing and opposing any protections for LGBT students a pillar of her political career:

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Bachmann, who began her political career as an education activist, has described gay rights as an "earthquake issue," and she and her allies have made public schools the front lines of their fight against the "homosexual agenda." They have opposed efforts in the state to promote tolerance for gays and lesbians in the classroom, seeing such initiatives as a way of allowing gays to recruit impressionable youths into an unhealthy and un-Christian lifestyle.

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Anoka-Hennepin has a policy on the books known colloquially as "no homo promo," which dates in back to the mid-1990s. Back then, after several emotional school board meetings, the district essentially wiped gay people out of the school health curriculum. There could be no discussion of homosexuality, even with regard to HIV and AIDS, and the school board adopted a formal policy that stated school employees could not teach that homosexuality was a "normal, valid lifestyle."

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Both policies were put into place at the behest of conservative religious activists who have been among Bachmann's biggest supporters in the district. They include the Minnesota Family Council (MFC), and its local affiliate, the Parents Action League, which has lobbied to put discredited "reparative therapy" materials in schools.

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Bachmann is both mentally ill in my opinion and extremely dangerous. Is it a coincidence that reparative therapy materials were being promoted in a school district near "Marcia" Bachmann's "Christian counseling" centers? The woman literally has blood on her hands. The sooner Bachmann is driven from national politics, the better of the country will be.