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| "Here's Shelly!" |
It's bad enough that Bachmann and Associates, after denying for years they practiced ex-gay therapy, clearly encourages patients to pray the gay away. Our taxpayer dollars shouldn't be funding it.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees Medicaid, and the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS), which distributes the funds within the state, should immediately pull public funds from Bachmann's clinic.
Going to the Bachmann family for counseling is like attending a peace rally hosted by Dick Cheney.
Their views are extreme, hateful and crazy. Michele Bachmann has called homosexuality "a part of Satan," and "a real issue of sexual dysfunction" while her husband Marcus has called gays "barbarians."
And even as Michele Bachmann's family was collecting over $160,000 in Medicaid and other public funds, she was leading Tea Party calls for drastic cuts to the social safety net - especially to Medicaid which she has said swell the "welfare rolls" - and even voted to shut down the government rather than continue funding Planned Parenthood and the Health Care Reform Act.3 Tell Secretary Sebelius and DHS Commissioner Lucinda Jesson: Stop funding Bachmann's anti-gay clinic.
If you click the link provided at the top it will immediately take you to the Credo Action website where you can add your name to a petition demanding the following:
"Public money shouldn't fund a discriminatory, hateful religious agenda and medically-unsound ex-gay therapy. In light of recent investigations, please take action to immediately stop funding Bachmann and Associates."
I did it yesterday and, I have to say, it kind of gave me a good feeling.
The link at the top takes you to the YouTube video.
ReplyDeleteHi Gryph! The link for Credo action took me to YouTube video where Hannity & CBN folks ask if crowd wants SP to be President. I'm going to google it & can't wait to sign the petition.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all you do!
They are complete hemorrhoids and should receive no public money. Marcus isn't even a licensed therapist. That being said, when I listened to the "barbarian" remark, it sounded to me like he was referring to children as barbarians. However, I'm sure he feels the same way or worse about gays.
ReplyDeleteThe Credo Action link takes you to the Hannity video. But that is ok. :)
ReplyDeleteFound it, signed it, here's the link:
ReplyDeletehttp://act.credoaction.com/campaign/bachmann_clinic/
Sorry if this is a repeat, I thought I was publishing before & it took me to Blogger.com. Hmmmmm. :)
Speaking of the "other funds," I have worked in three non profit counseling agencies in Minnesota. Unlike Marcus, I have a license in psychology. I have never heard of $37,000 allocated from the government for staff "training." That is a ton of tuition for just Continuing Medical Units. Wonder if Marcus pays himself to teach his staff to pray away the gay. It makes me sick.
ReplyDeleteGlad you posted this...I see the clinic eing referred to as a "pray away the gay" program all over the media and blogs, but this just isn't really the whole picture. They are practicing behavior modification via several methods, including hypnotherapy and other questionable psychological practices which could just as easily be called "brainwashing" as they could be "prayer". Reparative therapy includes a host of measures, and prayer just isn't one of them. Thanks, from a teen aged victim of these measures. Synanon anyone? CEDU? This is the type of stuff they are into...but using it on gay people, not heroin addicts or teenagers disobeying their parents.
ReplyDeleteGryphen, you posted the wrong link. It's a video of Hannity's shame.
ReplyDeletePlease post correct link and I'll be more than happy to sign!
Credo is great. They are on top of a lot of the crap out there, and they make it really easy to get involved. I had done this already, along with several other action pages.
ReplyDeleteGryph:
ReplyDeleteThe Credo Action link takes you to the Sean Hannity video asking if the crowd wants Paylin for Prez. Wrong link, great video!
Your link took me to YOU TUBE to a post Do you want Sarah Palin to run for president? WTF?
ReplyDeletewiscogal
The link in your post takes you to the YouTube video of Iowans shouting ¨No¨ to a POTUS run.
ReplyDeleteDisgusting people. There is also a little problem with Marcus NOT being a licensed therapist. These phonies will insert themselves anywhere that allows them access to taxpayer money, won't they? God help us all if she makes it into the WH. Marcus will decided we all need therapy, and "pray away" our problems, while charging the govt. for his services. He already believes (or so he says)that women should be subservient to men.
ReplyDeleteGryph - Your Credo link took me to a video of Shawn Hannity hearing "NO!" to the idea of Sarah running for prez. Can you fix it please? Thanks.
ReplyDeletethe link as it is (at 9:08 am EDT) is a link to a YouTube clip.
ReplyDeleteLink is to MoxnewsPalin report you tube
ReplyDeleteOkay I fixed the Credo Action link.
ReplyDeleteSorry about that, I must have been watching that Hannity video right before I wrote the post and it was the last thing I highlighted.
BTW, I will post that Hannity video a little later on for all to watch.
I just signed the petition and demanded a fraud investigation .
ReplyDeleteYou are correct it felt great !
thanks for the link .
Anon @2:32, that's great info about fed $ for Marcus' continuing ed operation, and a potential opportunity if we can find any actual journalists to do a substantive investigation and report.
ReplyDeleteLet's keep planting that seed, folks. These things could take root and grow!
Credo is a fantastic organization, I've always supported a lot of their causes, it showed me the amazing amount of companies directly connected and fronted by the radical right and Republican war at all costs agenda.
ReplyDeleteThis "therapy" he is offering is one of the most dangerous things I've read in a long, long time. We've known since the kinsey report that "Baby, we were born this way" and "Gay" cannot be changed, wished, denied, nor prayed away.
Taking advantage of people at a fragile point in their lives, causeing them to feel there's something wrong with them and a failure is beyond unethical, it's criminal.
Please sign and throw a few bucks their way, a little goes a long way. It'll make you feel warm and fuzzy, like your part of something bigger than your world.
Thank you for posting this and linking to the petition.
ReplyDeleteWe can all do our part with an investment of less than 2 minutes.
I would love to see a video clip of Marcus saying the word "barbarian".
ReplyDeleteBetterHalf and i BOTH signed it!
ReplyDeleteYou know, this issue probably wouldn't have come to light if Shelley wasn't running for president.
So, what the hell else is going on out there that needs us to call SHENANIGANS!
I think it should be widely posted and disseminated that the clinic uses tax money to practice hypnotherapy (on gays, no less), and by someone who is not even a licensed counselor. But this should be WIDELY BROADCAST TO CHRISTIAN GROUPS, since christians tend to believe that hypnotherapy is demonic, of the devil. So, in the eyes of other right-wing christians, the Bachmanns are using satan to cast out satan – with their/our tax money. What grifters, what hypocrites, what a crock.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see an audit of the $37,000 for 'staff training', since I will wager that only Marcus took advantage of the 'training'. What other therapists in Minnesota charge the federal government for their own required continuing professional education? Also, too, is Marcus charging his patients – and the feds – for his 'prayer therapy'? Has Marcus hypnotized himself and Todd (out of gaydom) yet? Can the rest of us who are also not licensed therapists just sign up, get on the gray train, and receive this government moolah, too?
Here is a comment I posted on Ryan Lizza's blog at the New Yorker: Regarding your claim in this weeks profile of Michele Bachman that her husband is a psychologist: your job is to do more than be Mr. Bachman's stenographer. To wit: The MN Board of Psychology will confirm that he has NO license to practice psychology in MN(612-617-2230). Further it is illegal to represent yourself as such in this state without that license. According to the NYT, his PHD is in philosophy, with an emphasis in Psych.(http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/18/the-education-of-marcus-bachmann/?scp=1&sq=Marcus%20Bachmann&st=cse). That degree from a bogus on-line now defunct "university" also does not make one a psychologist. A licensed psychologist would NEVER state that they are going to analyze everyone around them(the press on the plane) and then ask personal questions in public. This would be unethical according to our Rules of Conduct. A state license requires a degree from a school accredited by the state board, then two years of full time work supervised and monitored by one or more licensees of the board. Next one must pass the national Examination for the Practice of Professional Psychology (EPPP). This is required in every state to become a psychologist and is not passed by the majority of people who take it. Since getting licensed, we must turn in 20 hours of certified continuing medical education units every year and reapply every two years for renewal. In addition one must pass a State of Minnesota licensing exam. Just like saying your are M.D. does not make it so. You are great but do more homework on these charlatans.
ReplyDeleteThank you Gryph. I just went over and signed it. It's time we all started fighting back against these phony politicians like Bachmann. They've been milking the government for everything they can get for far too long! I hope Credo's petition will be extremely successful!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link, signed it and pass on the link to my family and friends.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry for the Annonymous poster who was a teenaged victim of these practices. I have heard stories from others that seems unbelievable that anyone would be doing these things in our time.
We need to shine the light to expose the abuses that are occurring. I am tired of hearing people who claim that they don't have a problem with homosexuals as long as they don't "flaunt it" - which basically means to not have a normal life.
If only those who claim to love Jesus would actually practice his teachings, we would be a kinder, gentler nation.