One of the Christofascists' biggest lies - there are so many that it is difficult to select the biggest one - is the myth that gays change "change" and become "ex-gay." True, some tortured individuals who have been subjected to religious brainwashing and suffer from other psychological ills will try to convince themselves that they are no longer gay, but as the continued parade of former "ex-gay" leaders demonstrates, no change ever really occurs. Thus, it was delicious to see Marcus "Ladybird" Bachmann - one of the gayest sounding men I've ever heard - exposed as a charlatan peddling the "ex-gay" myth and sucking up tax payer funds in the process. My friend John Becker has a piece in The Bilerico Project that recounts his undercover effort to expose Bachmann's fraudulent "Christian counseling" business. Here are highlights:
Almost three and a half years ago, I went undercover with hidden cameras at Marcus Bachmann's "Christian counseling" clinic and filmed fraudulent "ex-gay" therapy sessions there. The story made headlines, catapulting the dangerous quackery of "ex-gay" therapy back into the national conversation and presenting Michele Bachmann with the first major obstacle in her spectacularly unsuccessful bid for the presidency.
It also turned Marcus Bachmann into something of a punchline -- and as it turns out, several years later he's still ever so pissed about it. Right Wing Watch reports that in an interview this weekend, Bachmann took the time to defend his use of the dangerous and abusive "therapy":
Speaking with Jan Markell and Jill Martin Rische on "Understanding the Times" this weekend, Bachmann said that he was angry that his clinic faced criticism after several reports surfaced about ex-gay therapy taking place there.
Bachmann insisted that "we are people of ethics" who were only attacked for trying to "speak truth," adding that "people will choose, they will ultimately choose what they are going to do with their life."
RWW [Right Wing Watch] has this partial transcript:
Once the far-left understood that we were actually creating a safe place, a place where people who said I have this issue with same-sex attraction, this desire. I'm a believer, I'm a person of faith and it's conflicting with my values systems. Anyone who would walk alongside and then encourage that person's values systems and their beliefs and bring that in alignment, that is like blasphemous to the other side. How dare you even consider being involved in someone who has decided or is desiring that to influence in any way shape or form another side in the book on this one?No, seriously, he said that.
"Ex-gay" therapy and "creating a safe place for LGBT people" are mutually exclusive phenomenons. If Ladybird were honest, he's admit that it's all about the money - and convincing himself that he's not gay as a goose.
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