Back in July, Truth Wins Out’s John Becker went undercover to one of Marcus Bachmann’s religious counseling clinics and confirmed that therapists there offer harmful, repudiated ex-gay therapy. Afterward, Becker canceled his follow-up appointments, telling the clinic he had to return to Wisconsin to care for a sick family member. Two months later, he started receiving bills for the no-show fees, because the clinic did not cancel all of his follow-up appointments. After Becker played some phone tag to resolve the situation, Marcus Bachmann himself called this week to demand the payment:

Hello John Becker, this is Doctor Marcus Bachmann [emphasis his]; I received a message from our billing department asking if we would write off the two no-show fees for 7/7/11 and 7/12/11. We will not [emphasis his] be writing those off, so you do owe those no-show fees, and we would expect payment as soon as possible, otherwise we will have to turn it over to collections. If you have any questions you can call (651) 379-0444. Thank you.

Listen to it:

Bachmann has tried to obfuscate whether his clinics offer ex-gay therapy, confirming in July that they do, then backtracking in August that they never would. Whatever he might try to claim, there’s no refuting the video evidence of one of his therapists offering Becker ex-gay therapy, though it’s unclear if Bachmann realized who exactly he was calling. Either way, it seems he is intent on cashing in.

A new study from the Family Acceptance Project published in the current issue of Applied Developmental Science details many important benefits for middle and high school students who have access to a gay-straight alliance (GSA) in their school. Of note are the ways LGBT students benefit from the mere presence of a GSA at their school, even if they do not actively participate. Though the study has a limited sample size, it demonstrates the significant impact GSAs can make:

• Students at a school with a GSA were less likely to experience depression and more likely to have higher self-esteem.
• Students at a school with a GSA were less likely to drop out and more likely to succeed in higher education.
• Participation in a GSA was associated with fewer problems with substance abuse, depression, and lifetime suicide attempts.
• Having a perception that a GSA effectively promoted school safety was associated with less depression, fewer problems with substance abuse, and greater college attainment.

The study also finds that GSAs have limitations. In school environments with high levels of LGBT victimization — including violence, verbal and physical harassment, and other forms of bullying — many of the GSAs’ benefits were effectively canceled out:

So, while GSAs make a very big difference for LGBT youth, they do not solve all problems. The study suggests that in addition to supporting the formation of GSAs, “school administrators and personnel should consider additional policies and programs that are associated with safer schools for LGBT students,” such as anti-harassment and anti-bullying policies.

Nevertheless, creating visibility and support for LGBT youth in schools clearly contributes to many positive outcomes. GLSEN found similar GSA benefits in its 2009 National School Climate Survey with adolescents. This new study from the Family Acceptance Project shows how the benefits of GSAs during adolescence affect LGBT young adults as well.

FACT President David Fowler

In May, the Tennessee legislature overturned a Nashville non-discrimination ordinance that prohibited businesses that contract with the state from discriminating against sexual orientation and gender identity. The so-called “Special Access to Discriminate” (SAD) Act prevents any municipality from extending non-discrimination protections to LGBT people because state law does not currently cover sexual orientation or gender identity as a protected class. Equality advocates are suing to overturn the law, arguing it was designed to illegally discriminate against the LGBT community rather than protect businesses from “burdensome” regulation, as lawmakers argued.

Documents obtained as part of the law suit now show that so-called “traditional family” activists like the Family Action Council of Tennessee (FACT) and Southern Baptist Convention not only scripted the legislative debate over SAD, but also attempted to cloak their anti-gay bias in economic language, fearing that “moral thoughts on the measure would become public and distract from the economic argument he used to sell the bill.” From emails written by David Fowler, president of FACT and a former state senator:

“Please do NOT pass this on to anyone who you think might in the slightest pass it to anyone else,” Fowler continued later in the email. “We’ve learned that some folks we thought were friends cannot be trusted and we don’t need the Chamber backing off because it starts to appear to be too much of a Christian, right wing, homosexual issue rather than a business/economic issue.”

Fowler wrote the group again on Jan. 29 after meeting with chamber officials.

“I felt it was pretty clear that they did not like the ordinance but didn’t want to come across as homophobes or send the country a signal that Nashville was not a great city for all people — was inclusive,” Fowler wrote. “In my opinion the Chamber is clearly trying to document ‘good reasons’ to oppose the bill that anyone with any common sense, regardless of where they stand on the ethic of homosexual conduct, could see are valid concerns.”

Though many businesses already protected LGBT employees from discrimination, the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce bought into the economic argument and joined with religious-right groups to push the SAD Act into law. “Our position is now, and has historically been, that employment standards from the government should be consistent across the state and not create an additional burden on companies that are endeavoring to be competitive and provide jobs to all Tennesseans based on their individual qualifications and merit,” the Chamber said in May. After the legislation passed, however, the business lobby swiftly reversed its position, stating that because the bill “has turned into a debate on diversity and inclusiveness principles, which we support, we are now officially opposing this legislation.”

FACT, meanwhile, has a long history of using religious conviction to discriminate against LGBT people. The group initially opposed Nashville’s non-discrimination protections by alleging that transgender people were child predators who could seize on the employment protections to molest children in public bathrooms. Fowler also protested BlueCross BlueShield’s inclusive policies by complaining that the company was promoting “cultural acceptance of homosexual conduct.”