Bachmann Called Cops When “Terrorized” By Lesbians Trying To Talk To Her

In 2005, Republican Michele Bachmann — an extremely anti-gay politician who made her name in state politics by opposing same-sex marriage and trying to pass a constitutional amendment in Minnesota banning marriage equality — called the cops on two lesbians who tried to talk to her in a women’s restroom as she was washing her hands. Then-State Senator Bachmann told police she was “absolutely terrified and has never been that terrorized before as she had no idea what those two women were going to do to her.” According to one report, Bachmann technically accused the two lesbians of kidnapping, and, again, according to another report, Bachmann technically may have falsely reported a crime.

“In April, 2005, a few dozen people showed up at the town hall for the April 9 event, and Bachmann greeted them warmly,” a profile by Michelle Goldberg at The Daily Beast states. “But when, during the question and answer session, the topic turned to same-sex marriage, Bachmann ended the meeting 20 minutes early and rushed to the bathroom. Hoping to speak to her, [Pamela] Arnold and another middle-aged woman, a former nun, followed her. As Bachmann washed her hands and Arnold looked on, the ex-nun tried to talk to her about theology. Suddenly, after less than a minute, Bachmann let out a shriek. “Help!” she screamed. “Help! I’m being held against my will!”

“Arnold, who is just over 5 feet tall, was stunned, and hurried to open the door. Bachmann bolted out and fled, crying, to an SUV outside. Then she called the police, saying, according to the police report, that she was “absolutely terrified and has never been that terrorized before as she had no idea what those two women were going to do to her.” The Washington County attorney, however, declined to press charges, writing in a memo, “It seems clear from the statements given by both women that they simply wanted to discuss certain issues further with Ms. Bachmann.”

“Lots of politicians talk about a sinister homosexual agenda. Bachmann, who has made opposition to gay rights a cornerstone of her career, seems genuinely to believe in one. Her conviction trumps even her once close relationship with her lesbian stepsister. “What an amazing imagination,” marvels Arnold. “Her ideology is so powerful that she can construct a reality just on a moment’s notice.”

The Daily Beast article delves into Bachmann’s past, and finds that she studied at “Coburn Law School at Oral Roberts University, an ‘interdenominational, Bible-based, and Holy Spirit-led’ school in Oklahoma.”

“At Coburn, Bachmann studied with John Eidsmoe, who she recently described as ‘one of the professors who had a great influence on me.’ Bachmann served as his research assistant on the 1987 bookChristianity and the Constitution, which argued that the United States was founded as a Christian theocracy, and that it should become one again. ‘The church and the state have separate spheres of authority, but both derive authority from God,’ Eidsmoe wrote. ‘In that sense America, like [Old Testament] Israel, is a theocracy’.”

Anyone surprised?

“Bachmann often says she has “raised” 23 foster children. That may be a bit of a stretch. According to the Minnesota Department of Human Services, Bachmann’s license, which she had for 7 1/2 years, allowed her to care for up to three children at a time. According to Kris Harvieux, a former senior social worker in the foster-care system in Bachmann’s county, some placements were almost certainly short term. “Some of them you have for a week. Some of them you have for three years, some you have for six months,” says Harvieux, who also served as a foster parent herself. “She makes it sound like she got them at birth and raised them to adulthood, but that’s not true.”

The Daily Beast Bachmann profile adds, “Michele Bachmann says certain things that sound crazy to the general public,” says Frank Schaeffer. “But to anybody raised in the environment of the evangelical right wing, what she says makes perfect sense.”

Regular readers of The New Civil Rights Movement know what Bachmann says very well. Here’s a sampling from Michele Bachmann’s Top Ten Anti-Gay Quotes:

• “It’s part of Satan I think to say that this is “gay.” It’s anything but gay.”
• “If you’re involved in the gay and lesbian lifestyle, it’s bondage. It is personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement.”
• “Don’t misunderstand. I am not here bashing people who are homosexuals, who are lesbians, who are bisexual, who are transgender. We need to have profound compassion for people who are dealing with the very real issue of sexual dysfunction in their life and sexual identity disorders.”