Stop Taxpayer Funds to Bachmann's Anti-gay Clinic

Stop Taxpayer Funds to Bachmann's Anti-gay Clinic

The Issue

So-called gay conversion therapy has been denounced by the scientific and medical communities as ineffective, and potentially dangerous.

But an investigation earlier this month by Truth Wins Out exposed that this hateful practice is used by the "quality Christian counseling clinic" owned by Michele Bachmann and her husband -- a clinic which was recently discovered to have received over $137,000 in federal Medicaid funds, in addition to $24,000 in other state and federal funds.

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.

Tell Secretary Sebelius and DHS Commissioner Lucinda Jesson: Stop funding Bachmann's anti-gay 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.

Yet when reports broke of the Medicaid payments to her family, Bachmann suddenly became sensitive to discrimination, declaring "it would be discriminatory not to accept Medicaid as a form of payment."

It would be stunning to keep funding with public money a clinic that promotes an anti-gay, religious agenda and medically-unsound services that are more damaging than anything else. HHS and Minnesota DHS must take a stand now.

Tell Secretary Sebelius and DHS Commissioner Lucinda Jesson: Stop funding Bachmann's anti-gay clinic.

avatar of the starter
CREDO ActionPetition StarterAt <a href="http://Change.org" rel="nofollow">Change.org</a> I am Senior Director of Client Services. Before joining the team at <a href="http://Change.org" rel="nofollow">Change.org</a>, I worked as Senior Campaigner at Care2 and for two years I worked as Senior Consultant at M+R Strategic Services. My foray into online organizing began in 2004, when I co-founded Equality Ohio, an LGBT rights organization and a member organization of the national Equality Federation. In my spare time I tend a small flock of chickens in my Oakland backyard.
Media inquiries
This petition had 25,764 supporters

The Issue

So-called gay conversion therapy has been denounced by the scientific and medical communities as ineffective, and potentially dangerous.

But an investigation earlier this month by Truth Wins Out exposed that this hateful practice is used by the "quality Christian counseling clinic" owned by Michele Bachmann and her husband -- a clinic which was recently discovered to have received over $137,000 in federal Medicaid funds, in addition to $24,000 in other state and federal funds.

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.

Tell Secretary Sebelius and DHS Commissioner Lucinda Jesson: Stop funding Bachmann's anti-gay 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.

Yet when reports broke of the Medicaid payments to her family, Bachmann suddenly became sensitive to discrimination, declaring "it would be discriminatory not to accept Medicaid as a form of payment."

It would be stunning to keep funding with public money a clinic that promotes an anti-gay, religious agenda and medically-unsound services that are more damaging than anything else. HHS and Minnesota DHS must take a stand now.

Tell Secretary Sebelius and DHS Commissioner Lucinda Jesson: Stop funding Bachmann's anti-gay clinic.

avatar of the starter
CREDO ActionPetition StarterAt <a href="http://Change.org" rel="nofollow">Change.org</a> I am Senior Director of Client Services. Before joining the team at <a href="http://Change.org" rel="nofollow">Change.org</a>, I worked as Senior Campaigner at Care2 and for two years I worked as Senior Consultant at M+R Strategic Services. My foray into online organizing began in 2004, when I co-founded Equality Ohio, an LGBT rights organization and a member organization of the national Equality Federation. In my spare time I tend a small flock of chickens in my Oakland backyard.
Media inquiries

The Decision Makers

Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Edward Ehlinger
Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Edward Ehlinger

Petition Updates

Share this petition

Petition created on July 21, 2011