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MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts To GOProud Director: Rep. Michele Bachmann ‘Would Extinguish You’

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The gay conservative group GOProud caused a bit of a stir last week by inviting Rep. Michele Bachmann to meet with them, as her campaign struggled with allegations that her husband’s clinic practiced gay reparative therapy. The group’s Executive Director Jimmy LaSalvia explained the invite to MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts, who incredulously argued that, in hypothetically voting for Rep. Bachmann, LaSalvia would vote to replace President Obama “with a person that would extinguish you.”

Roberts began his interview asking LaSalvia about a recent incident in which he warded off would-be hate criminals by pretending to have a gun. Approached and called gay slurs by some unidentified persons, LaSalvia dipped into his bag as if to reveal a weapon and escaped safely. “My outcome could have been completely different had they not thought I had a gun,” he explained, noting that “Second Amendment rights are gay rights” and that legislators should “focus on policies that actually help prevent hate crimes.”

Roberts then shifted gears to the Rep. Bachmann invitation, inquiring as to the progress of the potential meeting and why the group had called her in. “Gay Americans are living in the Obama economy, too,” LaSalvia replied, adding that replacing him was a priority for the group. To this, Roberts protested: “but you would replace him with a person that would extinguish you,” he said of Rep. Bachmann, “that doesn’t believe you have a right in this country to get married… that believes you don’t even have a right in this country to be gay because she owns a clinic that would convert you.”

“I think all the presidential candidates should hear our perspective as gay Americans,” LaSalvia responded, noting that, regardless of initial opinion on the LGBT community, “it’s important for anyone running for that office to hear that experience.”

The segment via MSNBC below:




[h/t]

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  • Anonymous

    Obama is fed up with political posturing .

    Obama and Biden are against gay marriage ( until after election day Nov. 2012 ).

  • Anonymous

    Dude must have already gotten extinguished with that super dark tan.

  • Anonymous

    Dude must have already gotten extinguished with that super dark tan.

  • Anonymous

    Dude must have already gotten extinguished with that super dark tan.

  • Anonymous

    Roberts has missed a crucial component in the Bachmann bashing. The Christian conversion methods they sometimes use are done volentarily; that is the patients come and submit themselves to converted. I’m not suggesting they are successful, but there are not roving bands of fundamentailsts dragging gays into vans and submitting them to their process to “extinguish” gays.

  • Rio

    What a rediculous thing to say.   Roberts assumes this man is ignorant and needs to be “scared’ back into reality.   Wouldn’t one think the group has already researched the Bachmann clinic before they decided to meet with Michelle Bachmann?  That clinic advertises Christian counseling and I have no doubt there are gays that seek that type of counseling, that would be their choice. 

    Why do people assume that gays are zeroxed copies of one another?  that they all think alike, or should?  They don’t, that comment was insulting and Roberts should apologize for being an idiot!

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  • John

    When expenditures exceed revenues by 40 percent, I believe as well she should extinguish a lot of this bloated government. Mrs. Bachman a staunch conservative is what this country desperately needs. We are losing a battle that threatens the very existence of a free democratic society. Welfare and those on the public dole better wake up. The fox is in the hen house,and her name is Michelle.

  • Zamna_avila

    So, solution to hate crimes: carry a gun or pretend have a gun?

  • The Real Royal Emperor

    What a decidedly un-Christian form of conversion experience.

    BTW: It’s voluntary. 

  • The Real Royal Emperor

    The couple of times England has had a lunatic on the throne, it didn’t work out too well, to which witness the American Revolution.

  • Anonymous

    La Salvia would, of course be “extnguished” (regardless of what is meant by that) by the likes of Bachmann,  Which is ironic, since conservatives (like GoProud) think only of themselves anyway, and have no interest in the welfare of anyone else.  As for not “not dragging gays into vans”, that is a restriction imposed on Bachmann by a secular government, not one voluntarily or spontaneously adopted.  The historical, traditional response of “christians” to difference was torture and mass murder.

  • Anonymous

    sounds like thomas was using code words for “get back in line fagg*t”…

  • Anonymous

    So if a person comes in and asks them to use their techniques that is un-Christian? Fabulous interpretation of the Bible. (And make sure I spelled pompous ass correctly) 

  • Rio

    We all know what opinions are like. 

    Today, we have Christians being massacred for their faith and other Christians risking and losing their lives in missionaries all over the world as they attempt to feed, clothe, provide medical care and teach the most needy how to better care for the people in those far away lands.  Do you doubt any of them are conservatives?  or is it just gay conservatives that only think of themselves?  Nonsense!

    For heavens sake, are you also still nagging your family members over incidents that occured when you were six?  “The historical, traditional response…” relates to today?  why bring that nonsense into this discussion?  You might want to see someone for all that bitterness you are toting around.

  • Anonymous

    I’m betting you do not harbor a similar resentment towards the modern communist regimes in Russia and China, which have led to the extermination of people in greater numbers than your archaic Christian examples. Those powers rose to be by proclaiming to be working to benefit the greater good, and they promptly served the greater good by killing tens of millions of people.

  • Anonymous

    No, you are correct;  it is characteristic of all concervatives, including (perhaps especially) heterosexuals, that they are obsessed with benefiting themselves over everyone else.  As for homicidal “christian” traditions, they live on, true to form, where not prevented by secular governments, as in Africa.

  • Anonymous

    Communisim (and Nazism) were just as bad, and for the same reasons; like “christians”, they had a Book and a Prophet, and a Pope, and the same mindless determination to adhere to these beyond all charity and common sense.  Not being deist doesn’t mean these are not religions.  All are mindlessly determined to destroy whoever disagrees.  The solution is to pay some attention to reality, a novel and painful experience for the religious, of whatever kind.

  • Anonymous

    Communisim (and Nazism) were just as bad, and for the same reasons; like “christians”, they had a Book and a Prophet, and a Pope, and the same mindless determination to adhere to these beyond all charity and common sense.  Not being deist doesn’t mean these are not religions.  All are mindlessly determined to destroy whoever disagrees.  The solution is to pay some attention to reality, a novel and painful experience for the religious, of whatever kind.

  • Anonymous

    Roberts is wrong. The only politicol group that will “Extinguish” people are “liberals”. For example, look at what the left did in the form of Gaia cultism in Africa. 30 years ago they pushed to ban DDT because it was bad for the environment. As a result, the ban of DDT caused a surge in malaria cases that led to the deaths of aprox 30-50 million people, mostly children. In America, people rightly link nazism and communism to murder. However, we fail to acknowledge that “liberalism” should also be added to that list.
    How many more people have to die before we learn that “liberalism”should be dismissed as an ideology of murder?

  • guest

    Just like in Norway?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Brian-A-Kirkland/1082430232 Brian A. Kirkland

    The problem is that this “therapy” isn’t therapy and goes against guidelines of the peer organizations for psychiatrists. The “therapy” is unethical. People who think they are violating “Gods” laws and risking there souls are being coerced, no matter how you look at it. Psychiartic ethics require that judgements be made, but, in the Bachmann “clinic”, they are.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_V72AH6WWKZ4YC7DF5ZKKOMMMUQ Keith

    This is a good reason why the GOP should have kicked this subversive bunch of perverts OUT. Let the DemoNcrats be the party of the queers and baby killers.

  • Rusty Shackleford

    Boo. That made zero sense.

  • http://www.facebook.com/bruce.kennedy3 Bruce Kennedy

    Gee Keith, you sound like one of those edumacated Conservatives. Where did you receive your degree, at the police station? You do understand that the “third degree” is not like an actual accredited degree, from an actual college, don’t you?

  • Hagen619dj

    Ooh, my, such talk about Americans. Why do we have to be left/right/liberal/conservative/repub.,or democrats? Does being anyone of them make us different from the other?  NO…we all want our “rights” as people, our religions we were raised with or converted too.  Is that so wrong? Be an Amerian and be proud of it. It doesn’t matter if we are red, white, black or yellow….we are Americans. The only true country that welcomes all breeds and “kinds” of people. How you live your sexual lives has nothing to do with the rest of the world. Just don’t push it onto anyone else. We all have our rights. Bachmann is asking those that “choose” to change. Why should that be such a threat to anyone else. If they are helping why buck it.  If they are not….it’s none of our business. Don’t get mixed up into this “they don’t think like I do; so we sure don’t want them for a president”. The president is government not your sex life. All these media announcers love to express their opinions; the hell with what anyone else thinks. We need to avoid listening to that garbage. Think with your own brain and be American….not some other party. The new president hopefully will not be Obama. He is distroying this country along with his congress “mates”. It’s so sad. We all fight over who is who or what party….forget that junk and be an American. We enjoy freedoms of speech, religion and gender. Vote with what YOU know is true and not who some rich guy has paid to vote him in for returned favors. Politics is fickle and full of lies. We all need to wake up and stop the bickering over things that really don’t matter. Save this country and it’s freedoms…..be an American.

  • http://games-survival.com Justplaythegame

    I must say I was politically blind and did not follow or know of the GOProud..
    I say live and let live..just don’t push it on me..I wont push my smoking on you..
    although out of the two groups, us smokers are more restricted and heavier taxed.
    http://www.smokingaloud.com/

    Anyways…
    Got to respect his point on hate crime laws..useless we already have laws. His stand for the 2nd admendment on more gun rights is excellent. thank you sir..

    http://opencarry.org/

    http://oathkeepers.org/oath/

    As for meeting with Marcus..I don’t know who will convert who… good luck with that..

  • Anonymous

    You touch on a valid point here. The people the Bachmans are accused of trying to “extinguish” bring themselves to the linics, and the Bachmans try to help.  Ironically the very people who are commanding their personal rights be respected and their private wishes be honored by the collective are then actively attacking the wishes of individuals who are trying to address a personal issue, and all because those acts are deemed a threat to their collective.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_CQWUTBF2KSSVOXCR4PSN66L2PM James

    I like Thomas Roberts… The last good thing MSNBC did right was putting him on the payrole.

  • D.L.

    The issue isn’t removing “choice” for those who want to “change.”  The issue is the pressure from society (like the Bachman’s Evangelical Christians) telling us we’re “abnormal” and “an abomination” that “should be, must be” changed to normal.  That mindset and pressure enables bigotry, hate crimes, demonizing, alienation and despair, which precipitates a last-resort choice to change to “normal.”

  • D.L.

    I totally agree!  Thomas Roberts is a remarkable role model for our community.  He’s knowledgeable, intelligent, poised, well prepared, personable and confident.  I dvr his 11am show daily and any others where he’s standing in for another anchor.  Keep up the great work, Thomas!  

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