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Wayne Besen

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Dumbstruck That Michele Bachmann Is Star-Struck Over Glee

Posted: 05/06/11 08:27 PM ET

Last week, I pointed out the absurdity of conservative evangelical minister Franklin Graham's words of support for Donald Trump, whose only form of worship has been for casinos, trophy wives, and his own reflection in the mirror. I also highlighted the peculiar phenomenon of so-called values voters supporting thrice-married serial adulterer Newt Gingrich.

This week's example of conservative hypocrisy, however, is priceless. Obsessively anti-gay congresswoman and presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) reportedly embraced the stars of television hit Glee at a Time magazine gala that took place in New York City's Lincoln Center.

At this ritzy event, Bachmann and her husband excitedly posed with Glee star Darren Criss and e-mailed the pictures to their children. "We looked for Chris Colfer," Bachmann said of the gay Glee star, but they didn't find him. "We don't watch TV, generally speaking. But the kids were thrilled. What kids don't watch Glee?"

I am absolutely dumbstruck that Michele Bachmann was star-struck over meeting actors who perform in arguably the gayest show in television history. Glee is so gay that Fox 26 in Houston (KRIV) hosted an idiotic and bigoted show titled, Is TV Too Gay?, which focused on an episode where the cast performed a campy show tune remake of Lady Gaga's song "Born This Way."

Bachmann's desire to pose and preen with Darren Criss and Chris Colfer is incomprehensible and clearly incompatible with her homophobic career. It is the equivalent of me scouting out Pat Robertson at a cocktail party because my family loves the 700 Club. What next? Are we going to find that the Bachmann family's favorite singer is Lance Bass and preferred movie is Brokeback Mountain?

This revelation raises serious questions about Bachmann's sincerity and makes one wonder if her talk of conservative values is just a marketing gimmick to get votes. Is she truly a fundamentalist or a "fake-a-mentalist" whose anti-gay public persona is simply a hick shtick to appeal to rural Republican voters?

Maybe Bachmann is confused and thinks there are different kinds of gays -- the bad ones who sodomize and the goody-goody Glee type that harmonize. Or maybe she just doesn't own the required Focus on the Family handbook which encourages parents to actually know what their children watch on TV.

Whatever her excuse, it is clear that her family's love for Glee has not led to Bachmann backing off her gay bashing. In April, the congresswoman gave a speech in Iowa to The Family Leader, an anti-gay organization. Here is what she had to say:

In 5,000 years of recorded human history... neither in the east or in the west... has any society ever defined marriage as anything other than between men and women. Not one in 5,000 years of recorded human history. That's an astounding fact and it isn't until the last 12 years or so that we have seen for the first time in recorded human history marriage defined as anything other than between men and between women.


The Bachmanns acting giddy over Glee would be rather amusing if it weren't for her ugly anti-gay rhetoric and the insidious legacy she has left in Minnesota. On Monday, a Minnesota State House committee voted 10-7 to advance a constitutional amendment that would prohibit same-sex couples from marrying. Last week, a Minnesota State Senate Committee approved a similar version of the amendment.

Instead of placing her mug in a photo frame with imaginary TV gays from Hollywood, why doesn't Bachmann stop the rhetorical and legislative mugging of real LGBT people? Perhaps she can take a moment off of the presidential and cocktail circuit to listen to the wisdom of State Rep. Steve Simon (D) who testified against the discriminatory amendment: "How many more gay people does God have to create before we accept that God actually wants them around?"

In her quest to hobnob with Glee's stars, Bachmann apparently missed the show's central message -- which is love and unconditional acceptance for all, including LGBT people. It is also ironic that Bachmann would cozy up to actors starring in a television series where the homophobes, like her, are the villains.

Much like the stars of Glee, Bachmann lives in front of television cameras in a make-believe fantasy world (She actually thinks she can be president). The difference is, once the lights go down, the set is dismantled, and the actors go home -- Bachmann has equal rights and people just like the characters she gleefully poses with are second-class citizens.

 

Follow Wayne Besen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Truthwinsout

Last week, I pointed out the absurdity of conservative evangelical minister Franklin Graham's words of support for Donald Trump, whose only form of worship has been for casinos, trophy wives, and his ...
Last week, I pointed out the absurdity of conservative evangelical minister Franklin Graham's words of support for Donald Trump, whose only form of worship has been for casinos, trophy wives, and his ...
 
 
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ThePeoriaKid
We're All Bozos On This Bus..
05:43 PM on 05/08/2011
IMHO Reasoning is not one of MB's daily activities.

It's hard to make bacon and eggs without bacon.

Rationalization comes very natural to her.

Bet she didn't even give it a second "thought".

At any rate, Michele Bachmann stopped "learning" years ago..
05:06 AM on 05/08/2011
I'm not sure which is a worse reflection of our country--that Michelle Bachmann is in congress, or that Glee is popular.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
cdouglas
ignorance is nothing to be proud of
01:56 PM on 05/07/2011
At every turn the Cons criticize hollywood, but they are truly just desperate to be famous themselves. (As are plenty of politicians.) Bachman, Palin, etc. wish they were good-looking enough to be in hollywood.
01:37 PM on 05/07/2011
I think she's oblivious that it's a gay show that her kids just love. Too funny!
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LMPE
I connect the most dissimilar things
01:25 PM on 05/07/2011
"Dumbstruck That Michele Bachmann Is Star-Struck Over Glee"

Just remove "struck that" and everything after the woman's name and you'll have a sufficient sentence.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
George Broadway
Independents realize we're all on the same team
12:25 PM on 05/07/2011
Hey crazy woman, you want to know what else just recently appeared in our culture which hasn't been previously recorded in 5000 years of human history? Equal rights for woman... and you're to poster child for those looking to go back to a patriarchal society.

I think Hilary Clinton would make a great president, and to ensure she has the right to liberty to achieve that goal I have to give coo-coo for coco puffs like you the same right. You see, I don't get to pick and choose. All for one and one for all.

You can't like the Glee cast gays, but then not the ones who want equal rights. If this was really about marriage then the answer is simply civil unions handled by governments and not churches offering same legal rights. Then again, this isn't "really" about marriage now is it. It's about oppressing someone who does something which doesn't appeal with your moral sensibilities.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Ioan Lightoller
Proud Married Gay Pagan Man
05:31 PM on 05/07/2011
Fanned and faved. That is exactly what this whole "pro-family", "pro-marriage" crap is all about: oppressing someone who does something which isn't in lockstep with her moral sensibilities.
12:07 PM on 05/07/2011
Since the 1970s conservative big money has been buying up all forms of media with culimination in the 1980s where Reagan got rid of the 'fairness doctrine.' Since then conservatives have shaped what we hear, see, read in the media. There are no checks on what they say or write, no balance. The so called 'liberal media' is the biggest lie they have propagated in order to shape people's opinion. Their plan is to wipe out of FDR/LBJ new deal and great society programs by constantly lying, distorting events.
So no surprise with Ms Bachmann for she is in a long line of conservative hypocrisy. We need to call them out whenever and wherever their hypocrisy exist.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
George Broadway
Independents realize we're all on the same team
11:47 AM on 05/07/2011
Yeah... she probably thinks glee is happy gay; or at least that's one of the lies she writes in lipstick on her bathroom mirror to remind herself of the insane comments she has to repeatedly deny any responsibility for. This woman's mirror must be huge...
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PatA
Pink is a 4 letter word
04:59 PM on 05/07/2011
George Broadway, fanned and faved. You gave me a good laugh!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Ioan Lightoller
Proud Married Gay Pagan Man
05:35 PM on 05/07/2011
Faved since I can fan but once. Thank you for a good laugh.
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Jamf
Friends Don't Let Friends Watch Fox News
10:24 AM on 05/07/2011
Bachmann's celebrity-worship in this context really does not surprise me, given her utter cluelessness about virtually everything one can imagine. What is (arguably) most fun about the whole thing, however, is the fact that photos and/or video now exist. This sort of factoid invariably has a way of coming back around at the most inopportune times. Comedy at its finest.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
picaman
Conservatism is an Un-Christian lack of Empathy
10:08 AM on 05/07/2011
Inability to recognize the hypocrisy of their actions has become a hallmark of conservative leaders.
I guess this is what happens when you belong to a party that claims to want government to stay out of the lives of Americans but is inordinately concerned with the lives of homosexuals and what women do with their own bodies.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
TheoRealist
Intended to be a factual statement.
09:26 AM on 05/07/2011
To use Bachmann's structure--in 5,000 years of recorded human history...neither in the east or in the west...has any society existed without the presence of human slavery. Not one in 5,000 years of recorded human history. That's an astounding fact and it isn't until the last 150 years or so that we have seen for the first time in human history a society that existed without human slavery.

There goes her argument...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
George Broadway
Independents realize we're all on the same team
12:26 PM on 05/07/2011
or 30 years with equal rights for woman...

oh well, hindsights 20/20
05:23 PM on 05/07/2011
Not only 5000 years of recorded history, but 5,000 years total of history--for M. Bachmann, recording history started with Eden, Adam and Eve. So she not only have 5,000 years, but the sum total of all of history, so she believes.
09:06 AM on 05/07/2011
Conservatives have always been fine with gay people. So long as they stay in the theatre where they belong!
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LMPE
I connect the most dissimilar things
01:20 PM on 05/07/2011
or as long as they hide their gayness
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Ioan Lightoller
Proud Married Gay Pagan Man
05:37 PM on 05/07/2011
Yep. It must infuriate them that LGBT people will know longer hide in a closet and people are learning that what the conservatives say about us are lies.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Contact1972
Honey Badger Don't Care
01:27 PM on 05/07/2011
Yup!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
offred
A biocitizen is 3/5 of a corporate citizen
07:55 AM on 05/07/2011
No doubt Bachmann thinks her Christian therapist husband can convert Chris Colfer to straight.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Contact1972
Honey Badger Don't Care
01:23 PM on 05/07/2011
Probably so.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
DON McDONALD
Politics is NOT a spectator sport, get involved
01:15 AM on 05/07/2011
Ummm, just thinking that as with many who insist on being bigoted and ignorant, she is one of those who likes gays as individuals BECAUSE she refuses to know that they are gay...to realize that fact would shatter her world.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Contact1972
Honey Badger Don't Care
01:23 PM on 05/07/2011
She's fine with us until we ask to be treated equally under the law-then she has a problem.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Ioan Lightoller
Proud Married Gay Pagan Man
05:40 PM on 05/07/2011
Fanned and faved. She is indeed fine as long as she doesn't have to acknowledge that they are GLBTs. I went through the same thing with my mother til she got over her homophobia.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Stoopid American
Trooth, justice, and the American way ...
12:32 AM on 05/07/2011
Come on, Bachmann just thought "gay" meant "really happy" ...