Minn. School District Takes It On All Sides | News | The Advocate

Minnesota, the home state of (R) Michelle Bachmann, is coming under heavy fire from all sides finally in the Anoka-Hennepin school district. This area, and particularly this school district, has the highest rate of teen suicide in the state. Bachmann, thus far, has not commented or faced the issue in an open forum, deciding instead to wait until the presidential debates where I'm sure she will hopefully be blasted for encouraging and defending legislation and policies that promote hate crimes and gender based violence.

Since mid-2009, six Anoka-Hennepin students have killed themselves. Some have said a lax policy toward antigay bullying is partly to blame. It was in 2009 that the district revised its longstanding policy that stated "homosexuality will not be discussed as a normal or valid lifestyle." The policy was revised to state that "staff in the course of their professional duties shall remain neutral on matters regarding sexual orientation."

It's time she and others of the Republican party who have recently signed onto the Defense of the DOMA Act realized that they are not going to get very far running against the wishes of a majority of the population regarding LGBTQ rights and fair and equal rights for  everyone.

The coalition of Republican candidates signing on with the National Organization for Marriage has just grown by one with the addition of Tim Pawlenty.

The former Minnesota governor had originally appeared to skip the anti–gay marriage pledge, with TheWall Street Journal  reporting that he preferred to use his own words rather than sign pledges. But if Pawlenty suddenly changed his mind after NOM singled him out for criticism, he's not copping to the flip-flop.

"They had a deadline that we couldn't meet because of the governor's travel schedule, so we told them that," a spokesman for Pawlenty told  Politico. "When the governor reviewed it, he wanted to sign it and we told the group that, even though their deadline had passed."

Pawlenty now joins Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, and Mitt Romney in signing the pledge. The only gay candidate for the nomination, Fred Karger, said they've opted to associate the presidency with a shady group.