'Ex-Gay' Services From Hell

Anderson Cooper Takes Michele Bachmann To Task Over 'Ex-Gay' Services At Clinic (VIDEO)

First Posted: 7/13/11 -- 10:55 AM ET Updated: 7/13/11 -- 11:22 AM ET

Anderson Cooper took Michele Bachmann and her husband to task after evidence surfaced that a clinic they run offers a service called "reparative therapy," which claims to be able to "cure" gay people of their homosexuality.

During his nightly "Keeping Them Honest" segment on Tuesday, Cooper said that such therapy was "hurtful and harmful," and that Bachmann's husband, Marcus, was being dishonest when he said that his clinic did not offer the service. (Video obtained by ABC News appeared to contradict that claim.)

After running through some of Bachmann's anti-gay statements, and airing a report on the dueling claims, Cooper brought on CNN stablemate Drew Pinsky to discuss the issue. During their chat, Cooper lambasted both the therapy and the thinking behind it.

"I have interviewed people over the years who have gone through this treatment," he said. "And even the ones who claim that they are no longer gay, when you really push them, they will admit that every day they still have the fantasies, they still have the thoughts. They just are forcing themselves not to act on what appears to be their natural inclination ... it's also based on this notion that this is somehow a choice, which there's no evidence of."


Bachmann is a frequent target of Cooper's. Among other occasions, he gave her an "F" in American history in January.