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Hidden-Camera Investigation: Bachmann Clinic Practices Ex-Gay Therapy

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Marcus Bachmann, husband of Republican 2012 presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, has been accused — although he has publicly denied it – of practicing an unethical and scientifically-unsubstiantied treatment often called “ex-gay” or “reparative” therapy, designed to “cure” someone of homosexuality. But an undercover hidden-camera investigation finds proof that Marcus Bachmann’s “Christian counseling” center, Bachmann and Associates, indeed practices “ex-gay” therapy.

READ: 10 Questions Bachmann’s Husband Must Answer About “Christian Counseling”

In, “I Received ‘Ex-Gay’ Therapy at Marcus Bachmann’s Clinic,” John M. Becker, Director of Communications & Development for Truth Wins Out (TWO), writes, “there can no longer be any doubt that Marcus Bachmann’s state- and federally-funded clinic endorses and practices reparative therapy aimed at changing a gay person’s sexual orientation, despite the fact that such ‘therapy’ is widely discredited by the scientific and medical communities.”

Becker details his experiences, saying he had five hidden-camera sessions at Bachmann’s Lake Elmo, MN clinic, beginning June 23, with Timothy Wiertzema, who “introduced himself as a licensed marriage and family therapist who enjoys working with men, adolescents, kids, and married couples.”

In an email exchange, Becker told The New Civil Rights Movement that during his visits to Bachmann and Associates, “[i]t was clear … that homosexuality was viewed as a correctable condition (and a lamentable “choice”) as opposed to an intrinsic part of a person’s humanity.” Becker also added that Wiertzema, “is not a doctor, but has his master’s degree from a place called Argosy University.”

Argosy University is very popular with Bachmann and Associates. Four of their counselors have degrees from the University.

An examination of Argosy University online reveals it as a for-profit university with branches in thirteen states, as well as with an online program. The school has been the subject of much controversy, and reportedly is under investigation in Florida for “[a]lleged misrepresentations regarding financial aid; alleged unfair/deceptive practices regarding recruitment, enrollment, accreditation, placement, graduation rates, etc.” and reportedly was sued in 2009 for fraud in Dallas. The university was profiled in a Frontline exposé also.

At TWO, Becker writes he told Wiertzema he “had been struggling with homosexuality for a long time and tried a lot of things, up to and including suicide, to make it go away.”

“What I wanted, though, was to get rid of my homosexuality and eventually marry a woman,” Becker says he told Wiertzema.

Wiertzema’s bio at Bachmann and Associates says, “I believe my calling is to facilitate an environment of hope and healing through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Second Corinthians 1:4 says: The Lord comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”

As The New Civil Rights Movement reported earlier, Marcus Bachmann claims all his counselors “identify as Christians.” But the work they are doing is not very Christian at all.

 

Becker’s therapist (another of Marcus Bachmann’s employees) repeatedly assured him that homosexuality could be overcome. “At the core value…in terms of how God created us, we’re all heterosexual,” he explained, according to the footage. “God has created you for heterosexuality.”

 

“I was never told that every professional medical and mental health association rejects ‘ex-gay’ therapy including the American Medical Association, American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, and the American Counseling Association, or that the treatment I was seeking was totally unsupported by research,” Becker explains.

“I was never informed about possible alternative treatment options such as gay-affirmative therapy. Nobody ever told me about the potential for harmful side effects like depression and suicidal thoughts. And although I was asked to sign a treatment plan outlining my problem, desired outcome, and treatment strategy, I was never given nor asked to sign any kind of informed consent document that disclosed the above information about ‘ex-gay’ therapy. As such, I believe Bachmann & Associates to be practicing unethically, even by the standards of the American Association of Christian Counselors. This is particularly disconcerting given the fact that Marcus Bachmann’s clinic has received significant funding from the State of Minnesota and the federal government.”

Disconcerting as well, since Bachmann has denied his clinics practice ex-gay therapy.

“The results of our investigation should end all doubt whether Marcus Bachmann’s clinic endorses and practices reparative therapy aimed at changing a gay person’s sexual orientation,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “The facts plainly show that Bachmann’s clinic does try to cure gay people and he is being evasive when he claims otherwise.”

READ: Michele Bachmann’s Top Ten Anti-Gay Quotes

In a companion article published Friday at The Nation, writer Mariah Blake details a 2004 reparative therapy attempt made on Andrew Ramirez, a high school senior whose “parents marched him into the office of Bachmann & Associates, a Christian counseling center in Lake Elmo, Minnesota, which is owned by Michele Bachmann’s husband, Marcus. From the outset, Ramirez says, his therapist—one of roughly twenty employed at the Lake Elmo clinic—made it clear that renouncing his sexual orientation was the only moral choice. “He basically said being gay was not an acceptable lifestyle in God’s eyes,” Ramirez recalls. According to Ramirez, his therapist then set about trying to “cure” him. Among other things, he urged Ramirez to pray and read the Bible, particularly verses that cast homosexuality as an abomination, and referred him to a local church for people who had given up the “gay lifestyle.”

Blake also discusses Becker’s experiences. “In late June, a Truth Wins Out activist named John Becker donned two hidden cameras—one embedded in a wristwatch—and attended five treatment sessions at Bachmann’s Lake Elmo clinic. Becker, who is openly gay, presented himself as a committed Christian who was struggling with homosexuality. The video he collected seems to confirm Ramirez’s allegations that staff members at Bachmann & Associates try to change sexual orientation. Becker’s therapist (another of Marcus Bachmann’s employees) repeatedly assured him that homosexuality could be overcome.

“At the core value…in terms of how God created us, we’re all heterosexual,” he explained, according to the footage. “God has created you for heterosexuality.” The therapist also mined Becker’s personal history for traumatic experiences that might have turned him gay. To curb Becker’s gay impulses, the therapist urged him to pray and read Scripture and suggested Becker “develop” his masculinity. He also encouraged him to find a “heterosexual guy” to act as act as an AA-type sponsor. Later, he referred Becker to Outpost Ministries, a church that helps “the sexually and relationally broken”—in other words, homosexuals—“find healing and restoration through relationship with Jesus Christ.”

In the Nation article, Blake adds, “Less well known is the Bachmanns’ fondness for ex-gay ideology. One sign of this is the close bond they have cultivated with Janet Boynes, an African-American woman who claims that she was driven to drugs and lesbianism by the abuse she suffered as a child—among other things, she was raped by an altar boy. She says she broke free of the “lesbian lifestyle” after an encounter with a Christian woman in a grocery store parking lot set her on the path to salvation. Boynes has since come out strongly against gay rights. For instance, she was featured in a national ad campaign against hate-crimes protection for gays and has argued that “it is a mockery to everything blacks suffered and the rights we won to claim that homosexuality is a civil rights issue.”

Marcus and Michele Bachmann have a great deal of explaining to do. As Truth Wins Out’s John Becker says, “They owe it to all Americans to provide a full and honest explanation for their embrace of these dangerous and fraudulent practices.”

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‘What Fascism Looks Like’: Bondi’s War on Judiciary Is ‘Red Line’ for Democrats

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April 25, 2025

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House and Senate Democrats are drawing a red line after agents from President Donald Trump’s FBI arrested a sitting judge—whom Attorney General Pam Bondi suggested is “deranged” and implied believes she is “above the law.”

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan is “accused of escorting the man and his lawyer out of her courtroom through the jury door last week after learning that immigration authorities were seeking his arrest,” according to the Associated Press. “FBI Director Kash Patel said Dugan ‘increased danger to the public’ by letting Mexico native Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer leave her courtroom through a jury door April 18 to help avert his arrest, according to an FBI affidavit.”

Shaking her head, Attorney General Bondi, a frequent Fox News guest, hours after the arrest on Friday said (video below): “What’s happened to our judiciary is beyond me.”

Asked what motivates these “once upstanding people in their communities and their professions” to “put it all on the line for this,” Bondi responded, “They’re deranged.”

“I cannot believe—I think some of these judges think they are beyond and above the law, and they are not,” she continued. “And we’re sending a very strong message today, if you are harboring a fugitive, we don’t care who you are , if you are helping hide one, if you are giving a TdA member guns, anyone who is illegally in this country, we will come after you, and we will prosecute you. We will find you.”

READ MORE: ‘Pure, Unadulterated, Evil’: Trump Envoy’s Putin Meeting Triggers Outrage

“Crucially,” The New Republic noted, Judge Dugan “is not accused of supplying a member of Tren de Aragua with guns. She is charged with two federal counts of obstruction, one for concealing a person from discovery and arrest, and another for obstruction of federal government proceedings.”

“Bondi, who has been a fierce defender of the president’s immigration agenda—including its wrongful deportation of immigrants—has now taken up the mantle of antagonizing state and federal judges on behalf of the increasingly hostile executive branch,” TNR added.

The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser, commenting on Bondi’s remarks, wrote simply: “AG Declares War on ‘Deranged’ Judiciary. #2025”

“The fact that she’s connecting this to the broader judiciary is the most striking thing here,” observed Washington Post senior political reporter Aaron Blake, who called it “a significant escalation of the administration’s efforts.”

Democrats are calling it something else: fascism.

“This is not normal,” wrote U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). “The Administration’s arrest of a sitting judge in Wisconsin is a drastic move that threatens the rule of law. While we don’t have all the details, this is a grave step and undermines our system of checks and balances.”

“Pam Bondi is not the President’s personal lawyer and DOJ is not a cudgel to target whoever the President doesn’t like,” wrote U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA). “This is a democracy and We The People will not let this President trample over our constitution. I’m not afraid of Donald Trump and you shouldn’t be either.”

“There are no kings in America,” Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer declared. “Trump and Bondi can’t just decide to arrest sitting judges at will and threaten judges into submission. This is a dangerous escalation, an attack on the separation of powers, and we will fight this with everything we have.”

“First, Trump ignored the Supreme Court,” said U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). “Now, his FBI arrested a judge. This administration is threatening our country’s judicial system. This rings serious alarm bells.”

“Understand what this is: If Kash Patel and Donald Trump don’t like a judge, they think they can arrest them,” wrote U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN). “This is stunning — we must stand up to this blatant power grab. Republicans: How is this not a red line for you?”

“They arrested a judge?! They can no longer claim to be a party of law and order,” wrote U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH). “This will have to be a red line for congressional Republicans. Unbelievable.”

“In the United States, we have a system of checks and balances and separations of power for damn good reasons,” U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, said in a statement. “The president’s administration arresting a sitting judge is a gravely serious and drastic move, and it threatens to breach those very separations of power. Make no mistake, we do not have kings in this country, and we are a democracy governed by laws that everyone must abide by. By relentlessly attacking the judicial system, flouting court orders, and arresting a sitting judge, this president is putting those basic Democratic values that Wisconsinites hold dear on the line.”

READ MORE: ‘Reeks of Eugenics’: RFK Jr.’s Autism ‘Registry’ Draws Nazi Germany Comparisons

“This is what fascism looks like,” wrote U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD). “Attorney General Bondi threatening judges she claims are not cooperating with Trump immigration policies and saying ‘we will come after you and we will prosecute you. We will find you.’”

U.S. Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) wrote: “Kash Patel has long bragged about using acts of intimidation as FBI Director to appease Donald Trump. This extreme use of federal law enforcement is another example of this intimidation being used to stoke fear in immigrant communities and create chaos in our legal system.”

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a former constitutional law professor, issued this statement:

“Americans are watching with outrage the stunning news that Trump’s FBI has arrested a sitting judge in Milwaukee for alleged obstruction of an immigration arrest. While all the facts are not yet in, the implications of this arrest are chilling. This is a drastic escalation and dangerous new front in Trump’s authoritarian campaign of trying to bully, intimidate, and impeach judges who won’t follow his dictates. We must do whatever we can to defend the independent judiciary in America.

“As Judge Wilkinson, a conservative Reagan appointee to the Fourth Circuit reminded us last week, this Administration has shown brazen contempt for the judiciary. They are flouting court orders on a daily basis and trying to impeach judges who have entered injunctions against their lawlessness. This contempt for the judicial function is now being weaponized, with the Administration literally arresting a judge over alleged defiance.

“Every American should be deeply troubled by this massive escalation, and Judiciary Democrats are standing strong for judicial independence. This is an unmistakable descent further into authoritarian chaos.”

Watch the video of Attorney General Bondi below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Incompetent. Irresponsible. Negligent’: Calls Mount for Hegseth’s Ouster or Prosecution

 

Image via Reuters

 

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‘Pure, Unadulterated, Evil’: Trump Envoy’s Putin Meeting Triggers Outrage

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April 25, 2025

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Political, foreign policy, and national security experts are expressing shock and outrage after President Donald Trump’s special envoy, real estate billionaire Steve Witkoff, met with Vladimir Putin on Friday at the Kremlin for the fourth time—entirely unaccompanied by any senior State Department officials, administration representatives, or policy experts—reportedly to discuss ending Russia’s unlawful war against the sovereign nation of Ukraine.

The Financial Times on Friday reported that critics describe Witkoff “as an innocent abroad, unskilled and unlettered in diplomacy. His fans say experience is overrated.”

“Being relatively uninformed about the issues, [Witkoff] took on board everything that a very charming Vladimir Putin told him,” former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer told FT. Witkoff has “fallen into a trap,” Pifer also said, describing the Trump administration’s proposal to end Putin’s war against Ukraine as “blatantly pro-Russian.”

FT also notes that Ukraine has “long suspected Witkoff of pro-Russian sympathies.”

On Friday, FT’s Moscow bureau chief Max Seddon posted video of a smiling President Putin warmly greeting Witkoff, “in English, in the Kremlin.”

READ MORE: Marjorie Taylor Greene Tops List of Ultra MAGA Hardliners Pursuing Promotions — and Power

“Putin,” Seddon noted, “is flanked by his top foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund.”

Witkoff, as numerous experts pointed out, was accompanied by no one except an interpreter.

“Their side is helmed by a former KGB officer who’s negotiated with every U.S. President since Bill Clinton, along with his most trusted, experienced foreign policy and economic aides,” noted diplomat, political advisor, and former intelligence officer Ned Price. “Our side consists of a Manhattan real estate developer and his interpreter. What could go wrong?”

CNN Chief National Security Correspondent Alex Marquardt appeared to echo Price’s concerns.

“Yet again, Witkoff meets with Putin with no other senior US officials. While Putin has two of his closest aides. This is the 4th Witkoff-Putin meeting this year and Witkoff doesn’t appear to have taken a senior diplomat/intel/expert with him to any of them.”

Former Obama National Security Council official Tommy Vietor concurred, adding, “seems like quite a bad idea that someone as inexperienced as Witkoff takes these meetings with no staff present.”

But it was Fox News’ Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin who blasted the Trump administration:

“Where are the subject matter experts with Witkoff? Putin, the KGB officer, is laughing,” Griffin noted. “Meanwhile the instability at the Pentagon is not helping project strength during these delicate negotiations. There is still no confirmed NSA [National Security Agency] (Cyber Command) director after Defense Secretary Hegseth fired Gen Hauck and his deputy for no reason, not even a nominee yet for the person overseeing the crown jewel of US intelligence and SIGINT, which might come into handy when you are negotiating with Putin and Xi.”

Meanwhile, historian Mike Coté, responding to the video, lamented, “By the end of this, we’re going to have ceded Alaska back to Russia.”

Christopher Steele, the British former intelligence officer and Russia expert, on Thursday had warned: “It’s hard to imagine a more dangerous approach to Moscow than that being pursued by Trump/Witkoff. Putin’s a murderous thug with imperial ambitions and totally untrustworthy. By selling out Ukraine, Trump will simply encourage further Russian aggression rather than secure peace.”

Paula Chertok, who writes about Russia and Ukraine at East/West Blog, responded to video of Witkoff walking on the streets of Moscow with his Russian friends.

“Witkoff is shopping in Moscow with Putin’s pals… while Ukraine is observing a Day of Mourning for Ukrainians massacred in Kyiv by Russia,” Chertok noted.

READ MORE: ‘Reeks of Eugenics’: RFK Jr.’s Autism ‘Registry’ Draws Nazi Germany Comparisons

Foreign policy expert and journalist Laura Rozen, added: “Looks like Witkoff with his girlfriend, and Dmitriev with his wife, strolling around Moscow with bodyguards.”

Veteran journalist and author Craig Unger, who has alleged President Trump is a Russian asset, accused him on Thursday of “throwing Ukraine under the bus so he can build Trump Tower Moscow. Witkoff has no experience in diplomacy but plenty when it comes to real estate.”

John Hardie, the Deputy Director of the Russia Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a non-partisan institution focusing on national security and foreign policy, also posted those videos.

Republican former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger responded, writing: “I absolutely am ashamed of my government today. This is pure, unadulterated, evil.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Incompetent. Irresponsible. Negligent’: Calls Mount for Hegseth’s Ouster or Prosecution

 

Image via Reuters

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Marjorie Taylor Greene Tops List of Ultra MAGA Hardliners Pursuing Promotions — and Power

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10 hours ago

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April 25, 2025

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President Donald Trump’s top loyalists are angling to climb the political ladder to help secure the future for his ultra-MAGA movement—and position themselves for greater influence. House members like far-right U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) are looking at the U.S. Senate, and far-right U.S. senators like Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) reportedly see hope in governors’ mansions.

Some critical U.S. senators on both sides of the aisle are retiring, like Republican former Majority and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and the second-highest-ranking Democrat senator, Dick Durbin of Illinois.

“Democrats anxious to deny Donald Trump and his Republican Party a governing trifecta as soon as possible are feeling pretty good about their prospects for flipping the House in 2026, given the GOP’s fragile margin of control and the historical pattern of sizable midterm losses for the president’s party,” New York magazine’s “Intelligencer” reported last month.

“But the Senate, which has the power to confirm Trump’s executive branch and judicial nominations, is really going to be a reach. Democrats would need to flip four Senate seats to win control of the chamber. And an already difficult landscape is being made even tougher by the retirements of Democratic incumbents Gary Peters of Michigan, Tina Smith of Minnesota, and now Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. All three of these open seats could potentially trigger competitive races in 2026.”

READ MORE: ‘Reeks of Eugenics’: RFK Jr.’s Autism ‘Registry’ Draws Nazi Germany Comparisons

Enter Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who went from a freshman stripped of all of her committee assignments over incendiary language, to becoming chair of the Delivering on Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.) subcommittee. She also sits on the House Committee on Homeland Security.

Congresswoman Greene is now thinking about becoming Senator Greene. If successful, her controversial tactics could have a dramatic impact on what is supposed to be the “world’s greatest deliberative body.”

Rep. Greene is reportedly eyeing a run to unseat Democratic U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff, and believes she would “crush” any GOP primary opponent—except Governor Brian Kemp, should he choose to enter the race—according to the right-wing website Daily Caller.

“Republicans are laser-focused on defeating Ossoff, whose narrow victory over former Republican Georgia Sen. David Perdue in a January 2021 runoff election was partly responsible for costing Senate Republicans their majority during the 2020 cycle,” Daily Caller notes, adding, “Ossoff is the only Senate Democrat running for reelection in a state that Trump won last November.”

Could Greene beat Ossoff?

READ MORE: Trump’s SignalGate Sit-Down Mocked as a ‘Him in a Nutshell’ Moment

“This would be a dream for Dems in Georgia,” should Greene run, observed veteran journalist Lydia Polgreen.

“Somewhere at the DSCC [Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee] some operative is frantically wondering if there is anything they can do to ensure this happens,” wrote University of Pennsylvania political and media historian Brian Rosenwald.

A Daily Caller source also suggested Ossoff would retain his Senate seat, especially should the election move into a runoff. And Ossoff “has been taunting Greene to jump into the race.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville is reportedly mapping out a run for the Alabama Governor’s mansion.

“Tuberville told a group of donors at a private event on Wednesday night that his mind is officially made up,” the conservative website Yellowhammer News reported. “Rather than seeking re-election to the U.S. Senate, he is ready to run his next race in Alabama, and serve the people of the state in Montgomery instead of Washington.
An official campaign announcement is imminent in the coming weeks, but latest reports offer insight into a finalized decision by Tuberville, who has been privately discussing jumping into the 2026 gubernatorial race for quite some time.”

Senator Tuberville reportedly is “furious” at the leak, according to an opinion column at Alabama Political Reporter.

“Tuberville melted down like a plastic lawn chair in July. By Thursday morning, the whispers had turned into headlines. Then Tuberville took to Facebook — and things got weird.”

“While I appreciate all the interest,” Tuberville wrote, “Suzanne and I are still praying about how to best serve the people of Alabama. When I have an official announcement about my future, you’ll hear it directly from me.”

U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn, a top “Trump loyalist,” is “strongly looking” at a run for the Tennessee governor’s mansion.

The Tennessean reports that “early polling suggests she would likely be the Republican frontrunner. Some politicos across the state consider her success a foregone conclusion: at a Tennessee Chamber of Commerce event in January, attendees called her ‘Gov. Blackburn.'”

And U.S. Rep. Jim Comer (R-KY), the chair of the powerful House Oversight Committee, has also said he would be interested in running for governor.

READ MORE: ‘Incompetent. Irresponsible. Negligent’: Calls Mount for Hegseth’s Ouster or Prosecution

 

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