Candidate Michelle Bachmann

by Mary

Michelle Goldman writes about Michele Bachmann in The Daily Beast. Although raised with a stepsister that is gay, Bachmann believes that homosexuality is wrong and can be cured.

In 2004, Bachmann gave a speech warning that same-sex marriage would lead to schoolchildren being indoctrinated into homosexuality. She wanted everyone to know, though, that she doesn't hate gay people. "Any of you who have members of your family in the lifestyle, we have a member of our family that is," she said. "This is not funny. It's a very sad life. It's part of Satan, I think, to say that this is gay."

She was clearly talking about her 51-year-old stepsister, Helen LaFave, who had lived with her partner, Nia Wronski, for more than 15 years. As Bachmann became the public face of opposition to same-sex marriage, her relationship with her stepsiblings grew strained. "Helen always liked Michele, always," says Linda Cielinski, one of Bachmann's other stepsisters. "They lived together as teenage girls. They were very close at that time." Bachmann's anti-gay activism, Cielinski says, "was a hit to the gut."

Already, she is the front-runner for the Christian right.

“Michele Bachmann says certain things that sound crazy to the general public,” says Frank Schaeffer. “But to anybody raised in the environment of the evangelical right wing, what she says makes perfect sense.”

As Rachel Tabachnick wrote, in the debate the other night, Bachmann's use of the phrase "we are the head and not the tail" when describing how Obama should have handled Libya was designed to express Bachmann's support for the Dominionist movement which aspires to take over seven spheres of society, including the government.

She's going to be a very strong candidate for the Republican primary.