Bachmann clinic continues ‘pray the gay away’ treatment
Despite repeated denials from Marcus Bachmann that his clinic does not practise religious ‘conversion therapy’ for homosexuals, another gay rights activist has caught one of the clinic’s counsellors attempting to “pray the gay away.”
Kristina Lapinski, a documentary film-maker who is contributing to “Gay U.S.A. the Movie,” a documentary project, went undercover, and attended a session with Bachmann & Associates, the counselling clinic in Minnesota owned by Michele and Marcus Bachmann. Mrs Bachmann was a contender for the Republican Presidential Nomination, though she pulled out of the race at the beginning of the year.
Ms Lapinski said that she had captured a counsellor using what she called “reparative therapy,” and said she found the experience “nauseating.”
The filmmaker said she pretended to be “a confused 24 year old lesbian who had just moved from California to Minnesota to marry her long time male friend, Jake, all to please her Christian parents.” The counsellor in question was Sheila J. Marker, who, during the session, pulled out a Bible, saying God intended only men and women to come together.
Ms Lapinski said she has captured the whole experience on a hidden pen camera.
She wrote in a blog on the film project’s website: “She told me to follow God’s road. ‘The Bible says one man one woman…two great halves come together….’ and then spoke to some extent about a woman’s duty to keep the man company…I found that oddly sexist… We ended the session with a prayer and Sheila J. Marker asked the Lord to take away my ‘desire’ and allow me to pursue a relationship with my fiancé.”
