Conservative Pro-Life Hypocrisy
If the fetus you save is gay, will you still protect it?
In the mid-1990's, conservatives in Anoka County, Minnesota, began targeting the sex-ed curriculum in local schools, specifically what they called “gay influence.” To these right-wing Christians, gay influence meant acknowledging that LGBTQ people exist and teaching about HIV and AIDS. One of the champions of this battle was former congresswoman Michele Bachmann.
Numerous “pro-family” groups became involved, and in time, a policy was forced into every school in the Anoka school district. Nicknamed “No Homo Promo,” it forbade teachers, guidance counselors, and other school employees, from discussing, addressing, or mentioning LGBTQ issues. This meant that LGBTQ kids or kids perceived as LGBTQ, who were bullied had no one they could turn to at school, and the bullying was never addressed.
Teenagers began dying by suicide in the Anoka school district. Teens like Samantha Johnson, Justin Aaberg, Aaron Jurek, July Barrick. The supporters of “No Homo Promo” blamed homosexuality. Minnesota Family Council president Tom Pritchard blamed Justin Aaberg’s suicide on his sexuality, writing “Youth who embrace homosexuality are at greater risk [of suicide], because they’ve embraced an unhealthy sexual identity and lifestyle.”
Rolling Stone covered the evils of “No Homo Promo” in 2012. It’s a heart-wrenching article, expertly written, and it includes a description of the moment Tammy Aaberg broke down her 15-year-old son’s door to find him dead.
“Justin?” She could hear her own voice rising as she pounded harder, suddenly overtaken by a wild terror she couldn’t name. “Justin!” she yelled. Tammy grabbed a screwdriver and loosened the doorknob. She pushed open the door. He was wearing his Anoka High School sweatpants and an old soccer shirt. His feet were dangling off the ground. Justin was hanging from the frame of his futon, which he’d taken out from under his mattress and stood upright in the corner of his room. Screaming, Tammy ran to hold him and recoiled at his cold skin. His limp body was grotesquely bloated — her baby — eyes closed, head lolling to the right, a dried smear of saliva trailing from the corner of his mouth. His cheeks were strafed with scratch marks, as though in his final moments he’d tried to claw his noose loose. He’d cinched the woven belt so tight that the mortician would have a hard time masking the imprint it left in the flesh above Justin’s collar.
The conservatives who drove at least eight children to suicide in the Anoka school district call themselves pro-life. Michele Bachmann loved to trumpet her love of family values and her opposition to a woman’s right to choose. When Tammy Aaberg tried to speak with Bachmann about Justin, Bachmann refused to meet with her or accept the petition Tammy had created, a petition that garnered over 100,000 signatures. Michele Bachmann just wrote a generic letter to constituents, a letter Tammy Aaberg never received.
It is now 2022, and over the past months, schools have banned books that focus on, or even mention, LGBTQ issues. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill that makes it a crime to discuss anything related to gender or sexual identity in lower-level grades, and many conservatives want to enact similar laws all over the country, even in high schools.
What happened in the Anoka school district will happen in other districts if conservatives are allowed to continue their war against LGBTQ children. Targeting vulnerable kids is not pro-life, it’s hateful and cruel, and morally repugnant. As we watch the right-wing rejoice over the possibility of Roe v Wade being overturned, remember Justin Aaberg. Remember Samantha Johnson. Remember the “Christian” conservatives who throw their LGBTQ children out onto the street. Remember that Marcus Bachmann was (and may still be) part of the “ex-gay” movement, and ran a clinic that performed so-called reparative therapy.
Conservatives are not pro-life. Someone calling themselves pro-life would not champion policies and laws that will inevitably lead to children dying by suicide. Someone calling themselves pro-life would support creating safe spaces for LGBTQ kids and would fight against laws that will cause harm to those children.
That would truly be pro-life.
