In 2006, a story about Michele Bachmann in the Minneapolis City Pages delved into husband Marcus’s involvement in the ex-gay movement. The piece quoted Curt Prins, an attendee at a conservative conference where Marcus, a therapist who runs a Christian counseling practice, gave a presentation, “The Truth About the Homosexual Agenda,” arguing that homosexuality is both a choice and a threat. As a finale, he brought up three people, including a prominent ex-gay activist named Janet Boynes, who testified about leaving homosexuality behind. “One of them said, 'If I was born gay, then I'll have to be born again,'" Prins recalled. "The crowd went crazy."
Yet when the City Pages reporter asked Marcus if his clinic performs so-called reparative therapy—a widely discredited technique meant to turn gay people straight—Marcus denied it. And over the years he has kept denying it, despite plenty of evidence that both he and Michele are deeply committed to the idea that homosexuality can be cured.
If there was any doubt that he was lying, it disappeared on Friday, when The Nation broke news of an investigation by Truth Wins Out, a group devoted to combating the ex-gay movement. “Undeniably, 100 percent, the Bachmann clinic practices reparative therapy, which tries to cure gay people of their homosexuality,” says Wayne Besen, Truth Wins Out’s founder.
