by Steve Timmer

Jul 29, 2014, 9:00 AM

Waiting for Dario, question 11

It is a lonely vigil waiting for Dario “The Silent” Anselmo to cough up any information about what he thinks about things. I asked candidate Anselmo (the Republican endorsed candidate to run against incumbent DFLer Ron Erhardt) about a dozen questions about his views on a variety of subjects — weeks ago — and he and his campaign have ignored multiple follow-up requests. As a result, I’ve already had to speculate about what he thinks about freeloaders.

Now, my friends, we’re on our own to figure out what he thinks about reparative therapy. Here’s question 11 that I put to candidate Anselmo:

A law banning “reparative therapy” withstood court challenge in California recently. Reparative therapy is, of course, the specialty of the counseling clinic owned by Marcus Bachmann, husband to Rep. Michele Bachmann. [link not in the email but provided here for reference] Does Mr. Anselmo support the passage of a bill to ban reparative therapy in Minnesota?

“Reparative therapy” is the idea that you can turn gays straight through a combination of voodoo and pseudo-religious psychological techniques. It is a step below, in my opinion, just turning your gay kid out of the house. It’s the difference between simple neglect and active abuse. A fine line, I know.

A bill to ban reparative therapy did not get through the necessary committees in the Minnesota Legislature last session. But it will be back next year. When the new Legislature is seated.

Guess which party has the hardliners against a bill to ban reparative therapy? It’s Dario’s peeps, of course. Good ‘ol “I’m a moderate” Dario Anselmo. This is the same bunch that brought you the gay marriage ban amendment in 2012.

Some of you may remember the League of Women Voters legislative candidate debate in 2012 and the memorable dancing that Keith Downey, Bill Glahn, and the entirely unmemorable Republican candidate in HD49B (truly, I cannot even remember who it was; congratulations Uncle Billy!) did around the issue when asked about it. In contrast to the direct responses that Ron Erhardt, Paul Rosenthal, and Melisa Franzen gave. The amendment lost two to one in District 49A, and in the senate district by a margin nearly as large.

If you think that reparative therapy, and flogging the self esteem of gay kids is a bad idea, you ought to doubt whether candidate Anselmo would stand up to his caucus and vote for a ban.

I sure doubt it, especially when he can’t summon the courage to send me an email, even to acknowledge I sent him one.

Update: The electric ink is barely dry on this story and Anselmo publishes this. Twitter is obviously his medium.

Thanks very much to everyone for your strong support in the first fundraising period! With your help, I’m offering Edina better leadership.

— Dario Anselmo (@Anselmo4House) July 29, 2014