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

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.”