The Fabulous Marcus Bachmann, courtesy Ken Avidor

Most Minnesotans who follow politics in the state figured that Bachmann and Associates, the counseling clinic run by Michele Bachmann’s husband Marcus, did professionally-discouraged “ungaying” therapy even though Marcus has denied it for years. Now, thanks to the efforts of The Nation and of Truth Wins Out (h/t to Dump Bachmann), we have proof that they do indeed.

First, The Nation documents the harrowing 2004 experience of Andrew Ramirez:

In the summer of 2004, Andrew Ramirez, who was just about to enter his senior year of high school, worked up the nerve to tell his family he was gay. His mother took the news in stride, but his stepfather, a conservative Christian, was outraged. “He said it was wrong, an abomination, that it was something he would not tolerate in his house,” Ramirez recalls. A few weeks later, his parents marched him into the office of Bachmann & Associates, a Christian counseling center in Lake Elmo, Minnesota, which is owned by Michele Bachmann’s husband, Marcus. From the outset, Ramirez says, his therapist—one of roughly twenty employed at the Lake Elmo clinic—made it clear that renouncing his sexual orientation was the only moral choice. “He basically said being gay was not an acceptable lifestyle in God’s eyes,” Ramirez recalls. According to Ramirez, his therapist then set about trying to “cure” him. Among other things, he urged Ramirez to pray and read the Bible, particularly verses that cast homosexuality as an abomination, and referred him to a local church for people who had given up the “gay lifestyle.” He even offered to set Ramirez up with an ex-lesbian mentor.

Ramirez was not impressed. After his second appointment, he resolved not to go back, despite the turmoil it might cause in his family. “I didn’t feel it was something that I wanted to change, and I didn’t think it could be changed,” he says. “I was OK with who I was.”

That “ex-lesbian mentor”? As Dump Bachmann’s lloydletta points out, there is a longtime Bachmann associate named Janet Boynes who is billed as an “ex-lesbian” — which leads us to the second bit of evidence, that gathered by Truth Wins Out’s John M. Becker:

JohnThe date was Thursday, June 30, 2011. I turned on the television and listened half-heartedly to the commercials as I busied about doing other things. All of a sudden I heard a voice saying, “Over the past few days, NBC News has learned how Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann and her family have benefited from the very government programs she denounces.”

At the mention of Bachmann’s name I stopped what I was doing and looked up. The speaker was the Rev. Al Sharpton, who was guest hosting The Ed Show. Rev. Sharpton continued talking about the counseling clinic run by Bachmann’s husband: “As the Minnesota Independent reports, the clinic has been previously accused of engaging in reparative therapy, or treatment aimed at changing one’s sexual orientation. Dr. Marcus Bachmann denies this…”

I chuckled when Rev. Sharpton said this. He won’t be able to deny it for much longer, I thought. After all, I was watching this broadcast from a basement in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, having spent the previous eight days undercover in the Twin Cities receiving reparative therapy sessions at Marcus Bachmann’s clinic.

In addition to documenting that “ungaying” was indeed practiced by Bachmann and Associates, Becker spotted this book for sale at the clinic:

Bachmann & Associates sells a book written by Twin Cities minister and self-proclaimed “ex-lesbian” Janet Boynes. This book chronicles her supposed journey “out of the lesbian lifestyle.” Next to the stack of books was a prominently-displayed, typewritten note that read, “Janet is a friend. I recommend this book as she speaks to the heart of the matter and gives practical insights of truth to set people free. – Marcus Bachmann, PhD.”

If you so strongly believe that the truth sets us free, Marcus, don’t you feel freed from having to carry around that lie of yours that you don’t do ‘ungaying’ therapy? By the way, are there any other things you might be fibbing to us about, Marcus?