Mother of gay suicide teenager pressures Michele Bachmann
The mother of a gay teenager who killed himself is pressuring Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann to speak about the issue.
Justin Aaberg, 15, who went to school in Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin School District, hanged himself in 2010 after suffering anti-gay bullying.
The school district was recently served with two lawsuits from a total of five LGBT and straight students who say officials failed to protect them from homophobic harassment, abuse and violence.
Ms Bachmann, who has a long record of anti-gay comments, represents much of the area covered by the school district.
Justin’s mother Tammy is to deliver a 130,000-signature petition to Ms Bachmann on Thursday to ask her to condemn anti-gay bullying.
Ms Bachmann has previously said that homosexuality is “sexual dysfunction”, “bondage” and “slavery”.
She was asked in June to speak up for gay bullied teens but has refused.
House minority leader Nancy Pelosi told the Advocate: “I would think that if she wanted to be the president of the United States, she would understand that this is a larger issue than whether someone is gay or not, but as to whether someone is harassed and bullied to the point of seeing no way out.”
